SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1898, THE RAILWAY MASS MEETING TO-NIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1898, Page 4

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1898,

THE RAILWAY MASS MEETING TO-NIGHT.

We would again remind our readers of the mass meeting which is announced to be held at the junction of Queen and Grey streets to-night in connection with the movement to secure the construction of the Auckland—Taranaki Railway. If the citizens are to succeed in this important movement they must show that they are really in earnest, and we do not hesitate to say that no .project ever suggested for the advancement of Auckland has held out such excellent promise of quick and permanent results as the construction of a railway to connect the rich and well-settled lands of the West Coast of the North Island with this port. We gave publicity yesterday to some facts and figures showing the rapid expansion of settlement along the Stratford route of the railway. _ It may also be mentioned that the line would serve to supply the West Coast districts with coal. Besides the plentiful deposits of coal on the Mokau River there are uiany indications of coal and shale in the vicinity of the Tangarakau Elver, which is a tributary of the Wanganui. and through the valley of which river the survey line runs, for some miles. When the Auckland exploration party, which included the Hon. A. J. Cadman. was travelling along the Stratford route in 1592, the members of the expedition came across an outcrop of coal of considerable size, besides many other indications of the presence of the mineral. While travelling one day down the Paparata Creek, a small stream which runs into the Tangarakau, they passed a little waterfall, which fell, over a solid ledge of coal about six feet through. Some of the coal was broken off and carried to the party's camping-ground, where it was proved to be good fuel The outcrops seen on the trip were brown coal. The members of the expedition all remarked at the time that in the event of a railway ever running over that route the presence of coal would be a factor of great importance. The locality where the coal was seen is south of the Ohura Valley, and about sixty miles this side of Stratford.