RAILWAY MATTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2696, 29 December 1909, Page 7

RAILWAY MATTERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The question, of railway connection with North or South is one that unfortunately does not agitate the minds of Gisborne people to any extent yet it is one of vital importance to tie district. What little enthusiasm can be raised is reserved exclusively for the Gisborne-Rotorua railway, or as the local people call it, the railway to Motu.. Some of our sheepfarmers have supported the northern line with the idea of being able to rail their surplus store sheep to the Waikato in the future. Now we find the Government has apparently decided, on the connection with Wailii, via Tauranga, as a vote of £IO,OOO has been passed for a railway from Tauranga to Te Puke. So it will be good-bye to any chance of a connection with Rotorua,: and even if the present rate of progress is kept up it will take 20 years to get connection with? ■A.uokla'nH,/via Wfeihi. Ip iany cefee it would be rather a xoljfidhaye to go why do not our people, wake up tp what the connection* :• ;>tem>.wbuld;mfian sto ISP )/Jt;is, t^aiddihat they q <f K©n Napier:, Why should tliuyjL—Are they not >n as jgopd a pbsitipn, to dp business as Napcir J 'fmris ?. It 'sbsaks-VeiT kittle f fot^their. * ifiainM; bilities ttf stit‘ forSvard'- subh v - 6n ' htgumeht.f^Thefel'is>lon©TpoiiatHn;' ,^onncc-

line built to Napier with the improved harbor, or rather, river facilities that we shall have with the deepening of the channel by the new dredge, we would be able to postpone the building of an outer harbor for at least ten years; when with the growth of population the district would be able to undertake the work without fear of unduly increasing the burdens of the ratepayers. Whenever the outer harbor is built it will have to be paid for in some form or other, by the people of the district, whereas the railway is a national work, to be paid for by the people of the whole Dominion, of which our share would be only a small part. We have helped to build railways for the other parts of the Dominion, and we are certainly entitled to consideration when any new railway work is contemplated. Of the inconvenience which had to be put up with by travellers to and from Gisborne little need be said. I guess the crowd of people who missod the mail train at Napier last Thursday morning will all be advocates of railway connection with Napier after this. Then there is always the risk of discomfort connected with sea travel, and which certainly is one of Gisborne’s greatest drawbacks to outsiders. Now that we are committed to some big scheme for the improvement of the town we ougnt to take up this question of railway connection in earnest. If the Government is not in a position to undertake the work, what objection could it have to the construction of the railway by a private company a s long as the interests of the people are safeguarded/and the Government is allowed to buy out at. a fair valuation. Already some of the owners of Native land have expressed their willingness to make grants of land in return for the opening up of their country by the railway. Poverty Bay will never be able to take its place as one of the chief fruit growing districts of the Dominion (which by its-climate it should be) until we get into touch with the markets of the Dominion. Our climate will enable us to market our fruit ten days to a fortnight ahead of Hawke’s Bay, which is a big advantage and one that can never be taken from us. From its geographical position Gisborne can never be side-tracked, as it were, whenever Napier is connected with Auckland, as our district is'capable of carrying a much larger population than it has at present, and from a considerable distance north and south trade will alwavs drain into Gisborne. —I am, etc. “ADVANCE GISBORNE.”