NARROW GAUGE.

Press, Volume XVII, Issue 2318, 28 September 1870, Page 3

NARROW GAUGE.

TO THE EDITOE OF THE PBESS

Sib, —As a staunch believer in the narrow gauge system, and of its especial suitability to the wants of a colony neither having excessive traffic nor, unfortunately, an excessive amount of money to expend upon railway making, I was sorry to observe an article in the " Lyttelton Times " of the 23rd inst., which, although recognising the advantages of the narrow gauge system, endorsed the apparent determination of Government to commence the Northern line on the old principle, notwithstanding that the narrow gauge will have to be adopted before that railway has reached more than a few miles iuto the North; in fact before it will actually be of any material service to that district. The article referred to alluded to tho fact that the Narrow Gauge Bill would have forced Canterbury to alter the present thirty odd miles of railway in the province. It appears to mc, sir, very unfortunate that it should never have occurred to any member of the House, that there was a middle course between altering the present lines, and making further additions to them on the old broad gauge principle, viz., to leave the present lines in their present state, and use the present rolling stock on that portion of the railway, and to make the new railways on the new principle. The article says that the Narrow Gauge Bill would have forced Canterbury to alter the present lines, and then goes en to say that this unfortunate result was escaped by a Bill which enabled additions to be made to existing railways on the broad gauge principle. I really cannot see that the alteeation of the present lines could not be avoided without making additions on the same principle. The writer again does not seem to perceive that laying down a third rail is virtually converting the broad into a narrow gauge line, and that to make a railway first on the broad gauge principle and then to convert it into a narrow gauge line is to incur the extra expense of the one, and the cost of converting it into the other, in addition.

To this must be added the limited use of the broad gauge rolling stock, which of course will run no further than the same gauge ot rail extends, and which will doubtless be to all intents and purposes driven off the line as soon as the narrow gauge rolling stock begins to come into use. As to the " adjustible gauge car," the purchase of that kind of rolling stock would of course be at least equivalent to the purchase of narrow gauge rolling etock ; the probability is that it would be tho more costly *f the two, and for reasons which will be apparent to engineers, less likely to bo durable. It would besides have to be used on the whole length of line from the Bluff to Nelson, merely for the sake of being able to adjust itself to a few miles of railway in Canterbury. I have felt a misgiving, sir, which was gradually formed into a conviction, while j criticising this article in your contemporary, that it is a joke from beginning to end ; or perhaps was composed in that hazy state that follows post-prandial convivalities. The series of Non seqititurs which it contains (for instance, the id«a that uniformity results from & narrow gauge more than from any other gauge which might be uniformly adopted) luust surely have been intentional, and I fear I hare fallen into a trap in taking it to be eerioua. I will therefore say no more. Your obedient servant, Naeeow Gauge and Length of Line.