A GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1894, 11 May 1869, Page 3

A GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOE OP THE PBBSS. Siß,*—ln your issue of the 11th March, you *_.c good enough to publish a letter from mc referring to an article in the " Evening Mail" of the Bth March, and to certain statistics finished to mc by the Secretary for Public Work-, with regard to the proposed railway of tweoty-six miles from Christchurch to the Booth ban_ of the Kowai (North). I then tried to show reasons, first, why it would be a Ppbho wrong to devote £30,000 of the province s money to guaranteeing the interest of private capital to be laid out in such a work ; w y ' Why ' eTen w * tlr BUcll a g uarantee »»* would probably not pay private capitalists to engage m it. I now wish to state what JPP«»s to mc to be the superior advantages, omn to the public and to private capitalists if «> assisted, of undertaking the construction of t!uf* y £ on « the line for the purP?» f-omitcdlestott to Oxford.

On the North line the "Un. TT»-m» to'beT»miil'it from private owners lu'-ih- first thirteen miles, through a tract of v -ry valuable Kind, including the whole of ih« lown of K«ii"«i*f>i The cost of this has been f-'ima-ed at £21,000; but I cannot help thinking that a yet larger sum would be required. The whole of the West line Is already reserved. Not an inch of land has to be bought. The distance is, from Rolleston to the Waimakariri, 23 miles ; thence to Oxford, 7 ; total, 30 miles. On the North line, both branches of the Waimakariri and the Ashley have to be bridged : all at places where their banks and beds are of the most friable materials, and very liable to shift during floods. Kaiapoi Island, too, is subject at such times to be cut through by new channels at various spots. On the West line only one bridge is required ; at the narrow gorge of the Waimakariri, where a suspension bridge, high above the reach of floods, would rest on abutments of the most solid rock. The first 23 miles, from Rolleston to that gorge, is an almost 1 level plain, without a creek or a swamp of any kind, none of it subject to flood. The last seven miles is of the same character, with nothing to bridge but the Eyre, and that where it is but an insignificant creek. The construction of the first position, along which a light railway could probably be laid for £1000 a mile, would render more available for settlement the Courtenay, Malvern, and Rakaia road districts. The area of these is about 1,013,998 acres ; of which 77,728 have been sold or reserved, and 936,270 remain for sale. ' Of this last amount, the value to the publio may be thus reckoned:— Acres. £ Agricultural, 85,000 at £2 ... 170,000 Timbered; 45,000 at £10 ... 450,000 Other kinds, 806,270.at 5s ... 201,570 Total ... ... £821,570 In this estimate I have allowed nothing for the possible mineral value of much of the mountain land, especially in the Malvern Hills coal field and adjoining districts : but I assume 5s per acre as a low average between land fit only for pasturage and mountain land entirely unavailable. If a suspension bridge were built across the gorge, and the other 7 miles of cheap railway made, three more road districts would become more available for settlement, by improved communication with the city and port, namely —Oxford, Cust, and the proposed western subdivision of the present Kowai road district. The total area of these is 749,116 acres; of which 56,682 have been sold or reserved, leav- j ing 692,434 still for sale. At the same rate as above, this shews a public estate of the following value, also irrespective of probable mineral discoveries: — Agricultural, 35,200 acres at £2... £70,400 Timbered, 110,000 acres at £10 ... 1,110,000 Other kinds, 547,234 acres at 5s ... 136,808 Total £1,317,208 Supposing the first twenty-three miles, so easy of construction, to cost £30,000, a comparatively small sum would suffice to guarantee for some years fair interest on the capital invested. One certain result would be a large accession to the publio revenue from land sales. The mining and manufacturing resources of the Malvern Hills and adjoining districts would be rendered bo much the more easy of access and development. The postal and other communication with Hokitika would be shortened by so much. A considerable feeder to our " white elephant," the present railway, would be established at little if any cost to the public. A large tract of highly available country, now only used for depasturing the wild herbage, would be* come immediately available for improvement by a dense population. A home market would be afforded for the produce of both graziers and tillers of the soil, in feeding the new settlers until they should be able to raise produce for themselves, and also the further population which might be induced to engage in working collieries, or establishing manufactures in consequence of the greater cheapness of fuel and other materials. Thus a large opening would arise for the employment of. fresh capital and labour, before needing any j work expensive in construction, or that inj volves a liability to great, and constantly recurring, expenses for repairs. Whereas, on the North line, costly engineering difficulties, as well as the expense of buying private land, must be at once met before any good results whatever to the public ootfd ensue. A suspension bridge at the gorge would scarcely be more costly than railway bridges over both branches of the Waimakariri, and the cuts through Kaiapoi Island. It would not, like them, involve constant and endless heavy expenses for repairing damages by floods. It would open out another valuable publio estate, especially in the item of timbered land. It would place all the districts north of the Waimakariri in easy communication with the cheap coal of the Malvern Hills. The timber would be economised for less wasteful purposes than fuel, in supplying the other wants of mining and manufacturing, as well as of pastoral, agricultural, and commer- j cial establishments. I venture to invite, for these practical suggestions, the serious consideration of the people of Canterbury, at a time when their represen- j tatives are assembled to legislate for their material requirements, as well as to consider the theoretical projects of administrative reform, so vaguely laid before them by the elected Chief Officer of the province. I have to thank the Provincial Secretary and subordinate Government officers for their courtesy in supplying mc with the statistics on whioh I have founded the above reflections. Tour obedt. servant, E. J. Wakefield. Christchurch, May 10,1869.