THE STRATFORD-ONGARUE LINE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 637, 14 October 1909, Page 8

THE STRATFORD-ONGARUE LINE.

• PROGRESS OF THE RAILWAY. - AV present 6omo 600 men are employed on the Stratford-Ongaruo railway, and it" is stated . that the wages, sheet .'touches .28000 pet month.; The bulk of the~ men are employed between Kiore (four miles north. of Huiroa) and Po hakura (fifteen miles farther north). The line, writes our travelling correspondent,' is . now. : »laid, a few chains through. wio'Kioro- tunnel. . . twenty, miles from Stratford. It is expected. • that a train seirice. will bo instituted vto Te . Wera. (four miles past Kiore) by the end of;' the year. In another two years, states the \ •Minister' for Publio'Works, the whole lino 7 jpu.'be laid to Whangaraomona, about forty-' - three miles from Stratford. The Kiore, tunnel, «about thirteen' chains in length, which has. taken 7 two year's to construct,'was.finished-last wteek.\ • ' and good work .will. have:to.be accomplished .. in order'to bring,the line another." four miles' to,Te Wera by the end'.of the^yeai;. .A largo ,-, amount of. work"'is i being' done at v To''Wera», ' ■which will be tfce teftninus for about , tW, '. - years .after January.«l, 1910. commodious ,> station-yard ifc,:b'eing • prepared ; and : station ■ buildings are being erected. Te Wera, will'thon U V ge temporarx headquarters of the. mail con-, tractors to Whangamomona and other placesVf farther north on the.route. . ; v YV/• • • The Kiore station has just been completed. but other'stations have still to he erected at ' ' Te Wera, Reperua, Pohakura and v monjoqa At presents considerable number « men are employed on the Pohakura-tuhni .» Ihe staff engaged .on ihcludes;!many v, . f .men from, the Main Trunk'line, 'and'the work '" 'done' ;6om6;'of them 1 (notably'-in : ballasting) ;i "

■ The country'between Stratford and Te Wcr*' seems to bp'more fitted for' 6heep, than anything" else, but cheese factories and: creameries may" -be- semjrorking out ;some sort of' destiny' "Oder difficult conditions. The, great difficulty 1 . ; which settler? have to face, between/Douglas v 1 (eleven miles from Stratford)' "and Whanga- '. momona' is the roading." In the winter, time V these roads ,are simply execrable, ' Last week Afi t n 2 lTn ??' ,?-' 10 Saddle " was simply one , stretch of _ mud. three feet deep and' a mils" and a half-long.. It costs' £10 a ton to'cart goods ■ from Douglas to' Whangamomona, 39,' A: five-horse team can ' pull only on# ' ton of goods along the Whangamoraona Road, antl sometimes when a team ia stuck in th« mud, another A/teen horses have to' be' rer. '' quisitioned to give the concern a new start. Ihe rate _of progress for teams .'between Ta Wera and "Whanga." averages a mile an hour. Residents naturally will hail tho completion :of.the railway. . '■