EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3329, 22 September 1911, Page 5

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

AUCKLAND TO GISBORNE. AGITATION IN THE NORTH. “GOVERNMENT’S MYSTERIOUS POLICY.” [SPECIAL 10 TIMES.] AUCKLAND, Sept. 21. At the Railway League’s annual meeting, referring to the request that has been made to the Government for work to be started from both ends of the proposed Napier-Gisborne line, Mr. Peacock©, chairman, said that there could be no objection to a vote for this line, provided that it did not involve any injustice to the >pther important lines with which the League was concerned. There could 'be no objection' to the work being started from the Napier end* as it would be an extension of the existing railway system, but it was unreasonable to ask that work should be started southward from the Gisborne end before Gisborne had been linked Up with Auckland, and especially before a single mile of the East Coast line 'had beeii constructed 1 from the Waihi end to give access to the important, but as yet isolated, districts which looked to Auckland as their natural centre. It had been said that the land between ! Waihi and Tauranga was unfit for settlement, but the visitors who took part in the tour over the route of the line in April last, had agreed that this statement was not correct. (Hear, hear). The Mayor of Waihi (Mr J. Newth) moved: “That in view of the national importance of the early completion of railway conumication between Auckland and Gisborne, via. Waihi and the ’ Bay of Plenty districts, this meeting asks the Government to place on the ’ Estimates this session, the sum of £150,000 for the more rapid .prosecution of this work.”

He said that Waihi comprised a large consuming community, and it was greatly interested in the pushing on of the railway to the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne. He had been over the country, and could speak as to the fertility of the so-called “poor land.”

Air Nicholson (Waihi) seconded the motion. He said he was well acquainted with the land which would be traversed by the East Coast line, and from experience he could say that it compared more than favorably withi the land served by the Wairarapa and other lines."

The motion was carried unanimously. Mr A. W. Thomson (representing Motu) moved: “That whereas the East Coast districts of this province, as far south as Opotiki, remain cut off from railway conection with the city of Auckland, and with the rest of the North Island, until the East Coast railway is connected with Waihi, this meeting urges upon the Government and Parliament the great importance, in the interests of the East Coast settlers—and of the Dominion as a whole —of immediately commencing work on this line from the Waihi end, to connect as soon as possible with Tauranga, and therefore urges the authorisation, this session, of the section from Waihi to Te Puna.”

It was strange, he said, that this work had not been carried out before. For some peculiar .reason the Government, instead of starting work from Waihi, had adopted the policy cf constructing an isolated section in the centre of the route; a policy of which it had previously expressed disapproval. There must be some reason for such a course of action, but this reason was a mystery.

Mr J. - White (C'levedon Railway League), who seconded; the motion, urged the importance of bringing public opinion to bear upon the Government, in order to secure fair treatment to the Auckland district’ in the matter of railway construction. Auckland had been asleep for a long time, but it had lately, by the efforts of the Railway League and the Chamber of Commerce), shown that it was very much' alive. He urged that a public meeting should be called to voice Auckland’s claims. (Hear, hear.) The motion was carried unanimously.