RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 184, 6 August 1898, Page 5

RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS

Our Mercer correspondent writes:— A commeincement was made yesterday (Wednesday) with the work of effecting some improvements to the railway line just to the south of Mercer sta» tion. There is a sharp and awkward curve in the line near to the bridge over the Whangamarino creek, and to dp away with, this a portion of the cliff has to be removed. A large number of men are at work on the job, in. order that it may be carried out as expeditiously es possible. A good few residents of the district have been taken on at the work, but the local labour being insufficient, reinforcements have been obtained frons elsewhere. I understand that several cuttings to the south of this point are also to be widened. Now that these improvements and alterations are in hand it is a pity that the authorities do not see their way to carry out another and much-needed one,

namely, the fencing in of. the" line where" it runs close alongside the main South Eoad near Mercer„• The necessity for this is obvious. Persons riding, driving, or driving stock over this portion of the road have a very uncomfortable time of it when they metet a passing train, the only thoroughfare being a very narrow Stretch between the rails' and ; the river. It is easy enoiigh, certainly, for a man to dismount from his horse or alight from his vehicle, as the case may be, and take the animal by the head, if it be restive or alarmed at the train, but only those who have been in the predicament know what it is to hold a frightened, plunging horse while a train rushes by within a few yards, on the one hand, and there is a drop down a steep bank into the Waikato Eiver, but a few feet away, on the other. Sheep, cattle, and horses without number have been killed on the line through straying from the roadway, along- which they were being- driven, and it is only a few weeks ago that a cow was cut in two and the engine partly derailed thereby at* a spot where the "whole train might have been precipitated down the bank on to the road.