ROTOBUA-TAUPO LINE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 248, 18 September 1929, Page 8

ROTOBUA-TAUPO LINE

EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF PETITION. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. The hearing of 'evidence in connection with the petition of Ernest Earle Vaile and others asking that the construction of the llotorua-Taupo railway be resumed was continued toContinuing his evidence, Frederick Carr Rollett, agricultural journalist, said that there was a tremendous area of easily ploughable land, which could be made permanently productive, on each side of the proposed route. Further down, east of the lake, there were further valleys which offered great productive possibilities. The work done by the Prisons Department at Hautu had shown what could be done with pumice lands. Some thousands of acres had been broken in and good work had also been accomplished on hill lands. Good results were also achieved at the prison camp in Tongariro Valley. Other valleys were capable of carrying good, snug little farms. Witness expressed surprise and indignation that the State had allowed so much nice country, which could be cut up into farms, to be locked up in forests for a hundred years or more. Good roads through the district would certainly open up land for settlement, but not so economically as a railway would. He did not see how it would be possible to convey heavy traffic by motor. He believed the railway absolutely essential for the carriage of immense quantities of timber. Witness expressed the opinion that, with the use of fertilisers, the land between Taupo and ltotorua could be made more productive than in the Waihi district. The construction of the railway would practically lead to the establishment of a new South Auckland province. Some good tobacco leaf was grown in the district.