RAILWAY CONNECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 127, 29 May 1918, Page 4

RAILWAY CONNECTION.

MAUr I'KUHK. AKB ROTOBTTA. BEPOBT BY ENGDCEEE. (From Onr Own Correspondent.) TE AWAMDTU, this day. Negotiations for the constitution of t railways district to connect the exirting Main Trunk and Kotorua lines hare been advanced a further stage by the announcement of the engineering report This report and scheme plan ie dram up by Mr. J. B. Fulton, ex-manager of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company, who was appointed early in the year to make a reconnaisance of the district. The jun cti oning points are at T« Awamutu on the Main Trunk, and Put*ruru on the Rotonia section. The route passes- AwamHtu 'borough, along the Mangapiko an 4 Mangahoe Valleys to Kihikihi, striking from there to the Punui River, which it crosses near the Tokanui Mental Hospital. It then follows an easterly direction along the Punui and Owairaka Valleys, across the watershed of the country at the lowest available point, follows*for some distance the Waitete Road, ami thence curvee and crosees the gorge of the Waikato River at the Arapuni dam site. It then continues along easy conntry to Putaruru. This route offeni w> engineering difficulties, and, with tt» exception of the halfway saddle, there are no grades. The length, of construci tion is 35 miles, and the estimated cost is £170,000. The whole line will traverse open country, which is of good quality and on which settlement hM I made fair headway. It will touch on to the Tokanui Mental Hospital and Wiikuia Prison Reformatory, upsides which it will -be a necessary forerunner of tta Arapuni hydro-electrical project. It will tap an area of valuable timber eonstry, and make available large metal deposits. It will assist in the development of half a million acres of fertile agricultural country. j Mr. Fulton's report has been adopted 'by the committee representing all tht districts directly concerned, and step* are now being taken for the constitution of the district under the provisions ot the Local Railways Act. The intention is to have all organisation completed and the finances arranged, so as to ff 1 ' mit the work being pushed forward in* , mediately after the war.