EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2637, 20 October 1909, Page 4

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

MR BERRIES INTERVIEWED(SpeciaI to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, Oct, 10. Mr. Herries, M.P. for Tauranga, interviewed by me re the Ministerial utterance on the East Coast railway, s;v id:—“Though I regard with satisfaction the statement that the Minister is going to vigorously prosecute the work, I can only view with alarm the proposal to step at Motu, because it seems tome. as a representative of the LastCoast, that this means that the fur' tlier prosecuton of the work to Opotikt will be indefinitely he'd up ; and there is no definite promise that, if the COH--struction of the railway stops at Motu, the construction of the railway from the western end from Waihi would commence. My own opinion is that it would pay the Government to push forward the railway from both ends simultaneously, and that any proposal fer steppage at any time must be viewed with apprehension by all those, wbomre interested in having the linecompleted. I only trust that our Gis--borne friends, who are anxious to see the line completed, will not leave us in the Bay of Plenty in the lurch, when the line goes-to Motu. We have assisted the Gisborne side in every possible way, and the least we expect from our Gisborne friends is that they will back ns up in getting the line connected with the Auckland svstem.” .