D.-4.

116

[P. C. EWEN.

18. They have not been taken into your account t —No. 'Those on the Mangakahia are fight between the proposed eastern and western routes, and either the eastern or the western route would benefit them. 19. You could not take them into account as receiving benefit from one particular line?—-No. 20. Do you know if there is any accessible load for the Tutamoe settlers.'—l believe the roads are very bad. 21. You do not know what ranges lie between Tutamoe and the railway route'/ —No. Edwin Mitchelson examined. (No. G.^.j 1. The Chain/inn.] You are a timber-merchant, and reside in Auckland.'—Yes. 2. You have been in business in the Wairoa district for how long? —Forty years. 'A. And has your business taken } - ou much over the country?— Yes, it necessitated my travelling over every inch of the country through which hot]; the eastern and western routes would pass, and along the tributaries of the various streams flowing into the Mangakahia on both sides; in fact, 1 think 1 may say I have a better knowledge of that country than any man whose evidence has yet been taken by the Commission. i. And that applies to the country from McCarroll'e Gap to Kaikohe? Right through beyond Kaikohe to Mangonui. Before going into the questions before (he Commission, 1 want to remove an impression that was sought to be conveyed to the minds of the Commission by one gentleman— Mr. Long, of Hikurangi —who gave evidence at Kawakawa. He made a statement to the Commission, and also quoted from the report of Mr. Binnie, Inspector of Mines, to the effect that the Hikurangi Coal Company had put down a considerable number of bores in a certain locality and had obtained a good seam of coal, and he could not understand why the company should have abandoned the field after rinding good coal. 1 would just like to say, as chairman of the company, that we did put down thirteen limes in this particular locality at a cost of £2,000. We obtained coal in three only of the bores, the- seam being from 9 ft. to lift, in thickness. But the other surrounding bores proved that no extent of coal existed, and the reason of the abandonment was in consequence of the large amount of money necessary to put down a shaft and erect a pumping-plant in order to take out the very small area of coal. Another statement he made was to the effect that the Northern Coal Company put down bores practically alongside our bores and obtained good coal. I want to tell the Commission that the distance from where we put down our bores to the bores recently put down by the Northern Coal Company was a mile and a half to two miles. It is not likely that the Hikurangi Coal Company, after spending £2,000, would abandon a good coalfield. 5. You know the object of the Commission? —Yes. 6. You know we are considering the question of pushing on the Main Trunk line, and if we recommend that it should be done we have to recommend whether it should go to tne east or to the west, of the Tangihuas, and also we have to report on the advisability of connecting-links between Whangarei on the cast coast ami Dargaville on the west?-—First of all, allow me to preface my remarks by saying this: Possibly I am taking a different new from many people regarding what I consider to be the policy of constructing a trunk railway. 1 maintain thai to construct a trunk line to open up a country such as we have in the north of Auckland the question of cost per mile or shortness of route should not be taken into consideration. I hold that opinion very strongly. To my mind, the question of the construction of a railway should be taken upon the fact of the benefit that is to be derived to the Dominion from the largest amount of land to be opened up by such railwayj in other words, that it should be on the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number. Another thing is that the existing population, to my mind, should not be taken into consideration in any shape or form, because it is patent on the face of it that the population, where it exists at the present time, has been forced to take up these places in consequence of the facilities afforded to them. Of course, I know thoroughly both routes, and my strong objection to the western route is that it is crossing two tidal rivers, and that it is not opening up the extent of country which I consider ought to be opened up. Now, you all know that it is impossible for a railway to compete against water. At the present time the railway charge for goods from Auckland to Helcnsville is, I think, about 15s. per ton. The cost of conveyance of goods from Auckland by way of the North Cape to all ports in the Kaipara, with the exception of Otamatea, is 12s. per ton. The vessels conveying goods do not go there, in consequence of there being no timber to carry away. The cost of the carriage of goods from Dunedin, Wellington, or Lyttelton runs from 10s". to lL's. 6d. per ton. Taking it that you construct the railway by the western route it cannot be expected that the railway will carry goods that are to be consumed in the districts surrounding the Northern Wairoa. So practically as far as the Northern Wairoa is concerned it would be a passenger-line. I admit that there is a considerable strip of good country on the western route, and I maintain there is an equally large area of equally good land on the eastern route. By the adoption of the western route you prevent the people who will eventually become settlers in the Moengawahine, Hikurangi, and Pipiwai Valleys from deriving any benefit by the construction of the railway by the western route. Moengawahine is pretty well all settled now, but the other districts are pretty well all Native land. Of course, the upper end of the Hikurangi Valley from Eaikou will tap the railway between Kaikohe and Mangakahia : but it is the lower end I am speaking of. There is land in both of these valleys that is equal to anything on the route passing through Tauraroa and Tauroa. If you take the eastern line up the Mangakahia Valley and from a point where it would junction with the western line supposing the western line were constructed, the distance from that point to the Wairoa River, say, to Kirikopuni, about where the line will cross the Wairoa River, is