The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1901. THE NORTH ISLAND TRUNK RAILWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 148, 24 June 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1901. THE NORTH ISLAND TRUNK RAILWAYS.

For tho cams that laoks assistance, ¥or the wrung that needs resistance, Tor the More In ths distanco, jad th'j eood that we oan do.

The approaching departure of our Parliamentary representatives during the week, and the usual meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, is a fitting time for some comments upon the all-important subject of railway connection between Auckland and the | rest of the colony. It is well-known to our readers that we have always consistently advocated the Tarsiinki route as being iv the best interests of the colony as a j whole, and we have reiterated agaiu land again the fact that the Taranaki route could be carried out many years before the Central route could be constructed. Political wire-pulling, and the preponderating influence of Wellington over the Public Works Department, decided in favour of the Central route at the lafct session. Any

one reading tli" report of that com

luittee can see the one-sided nature of the whole ciuest ion as it was placed before the committee. Lt is not our

intention to reopen that question, it has been decided thai the Central

route shall be carried out. as the

North Island Main Trunk llaiiway. Our

members were assured at the various deputations lo the Premier and Minister for Public Works that communication between Auckland and Wellington by the Central route would be an established fact within four years, of

'which time nearly one year has gone. We have already made it clear that !at the present rate of progress such communication will not be iuade in ten years from the date of the Ministerial promises, and we would request our readers who doubt this assertion to make a note of our prophetic declaration in their diaries for future reference. In support of this assertion we may state that those who are in "the

know"' in official circles are of opinion

that this part of the colony Ls being ''fooled* by those in power in getting as to believe that four years hence will see riuhuiy communication between Auckland and Wellington by the Central route. Some sixteen years

have elapsed since the first sod wa

turned by Sir R. Stout; and it is a

significant fad that a short time since there appeared in the Wellington papers a record of an application from the oiHcials connected with the Makohine viaduct,which must already have been some eight or ten years in cour.se of construction, that another

twelve months extension of time is requested for its completion. This means in veritable fact some two

I years to complete the COO feet of viajclnct over the Makolu'ne gorge. Now, |if that has boon the experience with j one viaduct, what will happen in connection with the other heavy works on the line?* The report published !in the Blue Books shows thai in the Hautapu Falls section, from Rangiilira northwards, there are eleven tun- | nels of. 3,131 yards long' altogether, I four bridges of 824 feet, two viaducts, 1,420 feet —one 766 feet long, and the other 660 feet long. One of these viaducts will be completed in about two I years. In the Tarangarere to Wai- '■ marino section there is one tunnel 154 yards long, seven bxidges 1810 feet ;long, and five viaducts 2152 feet, from ' 105 feet to 150 feet in height. In the. Waimarino to Kawakawa section, five bridges 1440 feet long, nine viaducts 4312 feet; making altogether a total of twelve tunnels 3285 yards in

length, sixteen bridges 4070 feet in length, and sixteen viaducts 8250 feet in length. Of this latter item, not more than 660 feet is in course, of construction, leaving nearly one mile and a-half of iron viaducts to be constructed; and before any one of those can be made the rails must be laid between each viaduct to carry the material for their construction.1 Any one who believes that this work can

be carried out in four years' time without a heavy item of borrowing and large contracts, which the Government have so far shown no sign of their intention to sanction, must be of a very sanguine and unpractical

temperament.

We have put this matter thus

clearly, not to condemn the Central route as a route, but to

condemn the loss of time in construction and the self - evident

conclusion that expeditious communication between Auckland and Wellington, as the first and most important desideratum, must be, by

railway construction along1 what is known as the Taranaki route. That

route certainly shows VBO yards more tunnels, and IGSO feet more of bridge work, but it has no mile and a half of iron viaducts, which is the cause of the great delay in the construction of the Central line.

It is a matter for congratulation

that the Ktratford-Wlumgainoinona line was placed on the schedule of railways authorised for construction

last session, bill why way this railway authorised for only fifty miles north of Stratford, instead of 100 miles to Knvvakawa, to join the present trunk line system, is this another wrong' done to the Northern Provincial district for the express purpose of giving Wellington fifty miles more of railway to join the Umpire city, and leaving this end of the colony with the balance of fifty miles untouched? Moreover, why in the name of common sense should this particular branch be made a light line of some

2ft Gin gauge, and thus cause a break

of gauge in the main arterial system of railway construction along a line which we have no hesitation in saying will carry a far heavier and more

profitable traflio than will be carried on the Central rout' 1 for many a long year. To secure the rectification of Ihis stupid blundering our members should take early and strenuous

action during the approaching1 ses

sion. and to give them some reason for this effort we have, only to point out that the Taranaki route at about 75 miles north of Stratford, or ~j miles beyond the terminus of the present authorised Hue, passes over an outcrop of c<Vfil at Tangarakau. which forms part of Mokau coal basin.estimated at some four hundred sciuare miles in extent. The coal freights alone along this line would give handsome returns on the cost of

its construction, an/ the eel tuinty of

such traffic arising iv tlir near future

makes it an imperative necessity that

the Stratford - Ivawakawa railway

shall be made on the same gauge as the other railways of the colony.

There are now nearly one hundred

creameries and butter factories in the

Taranaki district, ;md creameries will also be established all along the new line a.s the country becomes opened up for settlement. The price for Westport coal by the truck load at Hawera, delivered via Wanganui, is over £3 per ton, whereas the whole oi' this district and for many miles north and south of Stratford might be supplied with household coal from the district we have named, at twenty

.shillings per ton or less, and steam

at even a cheaper rate