THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3216, 12 May 1911, Page 4

THE EAST COAST RAILWAY.

DISSATISFACTION IN AUCKLAND* MR. W. D. S. MACDONALD, M.P., SPEAKS OUT. “GOVERNMENT PURSUING AN ACTIVE POLICY.” iSPECIi.L 5 0 TIMEB] AUCKLAND, May X l. The proposal has been made by Mr. J. H. Gunson, chairman of the Railways Committee of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, that a public meeting should be held to protest against what he has termed the evident intention of the Government to neglect Auckland railways, and particularly against the action of the Government in ignoring the claims of Auckland with regard to the East Coast railway, by establishing a branch of the Public Works Office at Napier, and vigorously prosecuting the line from that end, thus ultimately linking up Gisborne with Wellington before communication with Auckland is established. With this proposal and statement the member for the Bay of Plenty (Mr. W. D. S. MacDonald), who is at present in Auckland, certainly does not agree, and few people have a more intimate knowledge of the East Coast route and the country it penetrates than the junior Government Whip. Speaking to a reporter this morning, Mr. MacDonald said that personally he was most interested in the early establishment of communication between Auckland and Gisborne, hut he thought the Auckland Chamber of Commerce would lay itself open to ridicule by taking up such an attitude as that suggested by one of its members. The Government was this year spending more money on the East ■c.oast railway than in any previous year, and was pushing the construction of the line on as rapidly as ever it could. To say that no attempt to link up Gisborne with Napier should he made until communication with Auckland was fi”st °stablished was simply ridiculous., The Government did not build railways for any one particular town, but ror the Dominion as a whole, and Auckland would only make itself a laugh-ing-stock if it suggested that the Government should pursue such a shortsighted policy as the construction of the East Coast railway only between Gisborne and Auckland. Construction work was being pushed on with commendable rapidity at the Gisborne and Tauranga ends, and the Government was pursuing a really active policy. The settlers between Gisborne and Napier had been crying out for a railway for 20 years, yet Auckland declared they should wait at least another 10 years before any attempt was maae to give them what they wanted at present.

The line extended north from Gisborne for 42 miles to Matawai, and from Tauranga to Paengaroa, gis miles of formation work had been completed. That left 110 miles to link up. via Opotiki, to the latter place, and construction would be easy. The 43 miles between Opotiki and Motu would be the most difficult of all.

From Gisborne to Naoier the distance to link up would be about 120 miles, and. in his opinion, communication would be established simultaneously between Napier and Gisborne and Gisborne and Auckland in 10 wears’ time. Auckland liad nothing to be afraid of. by the commencement of tke Xapier-Gisborne connection. On this he believed a start would be made this winter at the Gisborne end. In the meantime the East Coast line to Opotiki could be pushed oil from r le Puke over easy country, twice as fast and twice as inexpensive to work, as that between Gisborne and Napier. So that Auckland would be in touch with the whole of the Bay of Plenty loner before the steel rails had been Laid b<2 tween Napier and Gisborne. So loner ;1 s the Government actively nroceeded with the work north of Gisborne, Mr. MacDonald said he quite failed to see the grounds for any objection to a start being made south of that mace.