OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 895, 13 June 1879, Page 3

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

TURNING THE FIRST SOD. This ceremony took place on Saturday, on the section of the line now commenced. A very influential body of gentlemen from Dunedin were present. To Mr Vincent Pyke, M.H.R. for the Dunstan, was entrusted the honour of performing the opening ceremony, and after he had in a workmanlike manner carried out his task, he was presented by Mr JDKenzie (contractor) with a watch-chain ornament consisting of a gold shovel, bearing the inscription—- “ Otago Central Railway, first sod turned by Vincent Pyke, Esq., M.H.R., 7th June, 1879.” Mr Pvke in acknowledging the memento, hoped that it would be kept in his family as a heirloom till the third and fourth generation. He then went on to say : 1 scarcely know how to commence my address to you, not because I am unaccustomed to public speaking—l cannot plead that—but because there are times and seasons when the heart is almost too full for utterance, when one’s feelings can hardly find vent in language, because of the profound emotions by which one is moved. And that I am moved ! on this occasion will, I am sure, not be productive of surprise to any man here, seeing

that through the kindness of old Dunodin a friends, and by the courtesy of Ministers, I : t have been permitted to set what I may call a the seal upon a work on behalf of which I v have laboured in season and out of season t from its inception to the present day. Be- hj fore I refer to the importance of the work, f I may say that the last time I assisted at a t similar ceremony was in Victoria in 1860, a when I had the honour of laying the foun- y dation stone of the Taradale Viaduct on the t Castlemaine line, which I think is the most v stupendous work of the kind ever erected A south of the line. 1 do not think we can fi exaggerate the importance of the work this d day inaugurated, because it is a work which r will connect the commercial metropolis of o the Middle Island with a tract of country which has been isolated from tho other r parts of the Province, and which, when 0 joined by railway to Dunedin, will add as I it were another Province to the chief city, b We are now in the interior getting part of d our supplies by w'ay of Invercargill, be- a cause we can get them under present cir- 11 cumstances more readily and more cheaply, 9 and partly by w 7 ay of Oamaru, the carriage 11 from which is very much less than by way b of Dunedin. But when this line is once c made, there can be no doubt that the in- A terests of the people of the interior will be- t come so identiAed with the interests of the 1 people of Dunedin, that the whole of the A traAic must go up by this valley—(pointing q towards where the line will leave the r plains). I daresay very few people in Dun- t edin, except those who have inspected the t country professionally, or those whose busi- r ness affairs have caused them to traverse it, t have the slightest knowledge of the coun- J try through which this railway will pass, t I will hrieAy describe it as a succession of r valleys. The moment you once pass the e hills which you see before you, you emerge I into the Strath-Taieri, thence you pass into f tho Maniototo Plains, thence into the Pool- t burn and Ida Valleys, thence into the I Manuhenkia Valley, thence through the I Dunstan into Cromwell, and into the Upper t Clutha Valley, and thence to Lakes Ilawea i and Wanaka. The elevation is very slight, 1 and I am sure the Engineer, Mr Blair, will ] tell you that the impediments are even f slighter. There is really more level land to t be traversed by this line than can be found I in any other part of Otago except South- t land. The benefit to the interior and to 1 Dunedin by railway communication with t you will be very great. We are cut off r from communication with the seabord, and I 5 are oven in a worse state than we were be- t fore the Public Works Policy was iuaugu- 1 rated. It takes two or three times as long ( now to get goods up as it did formerly, I and the trouble of getting them up is much i greater than when we depended altogether I upon drays. Formerly goods came direct i from Dunedin, being conveyed by 7 wagons 1 the whole of tho journey. The reason of ( tho delay under the present system is f obvious. Now they are forwarded to a ! railway station, where they lie, and the > carriers take them away whenever they find ' it convenient to do so. I believe I am cor- I rect in saying that tho area of the land ’ through which the line will pass —in fact L 1 have the authority of Mr MTverrow, Deputy I Surveyor-General, for the statement—is two and a half millions of available land I unsold. Let us endeavour to realise the 1 importance of throwing open so much conn- 1 try ; and whatever interested and selfish 1 persons may think lit to say, you, gentle- I men, believe that this laud is not a desert. 1 It is a wilderness, but it is a wilderness be- 1 cause man has forbidden his fellow man to ' dwell there by withholding the land from sale ; and it was not until tho last twelve months that any effort has been made to open this land for settlement. From the 1 moment that you cross that mountain before you, you enter upon good land and you continue upon good land till you reach the Wanaka and Ilawea Lakes. It contains an area of about two and a half millions of acres—l believe two-thirds of this area consists of good pastoral land, and the remaining one-third is fairly good ■ agricultural land. Tho Maniototo, the Pool burn, the Ida Valley, the Manuherikia Valley, and the Upper Clutha Valley, are all famous for thei* - immense crops and for the quality 1 of their soil. And when 1 speak of the Upper Clutha, I know not how to give you any conception of the value of that valley. You have a valley forty miles long and from six to twelve miles in width, with a river running through its midst. You have streams winding and purling in every direction, keeping green tho pastures, and which will in future days increase manifold the capacity of tho country by their availability for irrigation. You have a country possessing everything to please the eye and ch«rm the heart of man ; you have a climate unsurpassed in pleasantness and in salubrity ; you have soil of a quality not to be surpassed by anything in Otago ; you have some of the most magniAoent scenery with which the Creator has over been pleased to adorn the earth. I want to see this land j thrown open, and this railway line will be the moans of having it so thrown open ; and then, instead of hearing only the melancholy wailing of the wind through the sedges, and beholding only a few scattered sheep on the hill sides, we shall have not | only the cattle on a thousand hills, but also . thousands of snug homesteads, nestling amidst orchards rich with the profusion of , luscious fruits, and surrounded with bound* less meadows ripe with golden grain, and 1 | peopled by a free yeomanry born on the 1 soil. - (Applause.) IE that will not add to 1 the prosperity of your city 1 do not know 5 what will add to it.—(Hear, hear.) Population is the true wealth of the country, and the only way to retain population is to ’ have them located in their own homes on J the soil. —(Hear, hear.) I do not know whether you are aware of the capabilities e of the land in tho interior. At the Dun--1 atan the land in the valleys drops down to 600 feet above sea level. In these sheltered y j sunny vales you can grow all kinds of fruit, 1 from the humble currant to the peach, the g apricot, and the loidly grape, in the open

air. and grow them in large quantities. So 1 that when our interior lands are rendered accessible by the opening of this lino, you will not have to send to Tasmania or Victoria for stale and half-rotten fruit.—(Hear, : hear.) You will be able to get it fresh and ' fresh every day, and from your own conn- , try.—(Applause and laughter.) Then look at the mineral wealth. Even in that hill yonder, which is so near and yet so far, there are unbounded stores of mineral wealth. 11 is so near because, as the crow flies, it is only six miles from us ; yet is so far, for as the road runs it is thirty miles 1 distant The cost of transport to Dunedin renders the minerals unavailable as a means of industry at the present time. My opinion ; is that we know little yet of the mineral resources of this Province. AVe have not only gold, but also silver, copper, antimony, plumbago, specula, and iron, equal to the best ore from the Ural mountains or Sweden, and yielding 80 per cent. of pure steel as proved by analysis, but i believe there is also argentiferous galena existing in quantity. Yet at this present time those immense resources are lying dormant, because of the cost of carriage to the coast. Furthermore, we have the very finest marble in the world, and any quantity of excellent slate for roofing purposes. Then at the head of the Lakes we have forests practically unbounded in extent and quantity and quality of timber available for railway and building purposes. But the trouble is to get it to the coast. In fact there is no limit to the wealth of the interior if only we could get its products access to the seashore. —(Hear, hear, and applause.) Another point I wish to draw your attention to is the cost of the construction of this railway lam not now speaking from an engineering point of view, even though were I speaking in that respect I believe my friend Mr Blair would bear me out in saying that ic will be the most cheaply constructed line of railway in the country. But what I would chiefly draw your attention to, is the mode in which funds are provided for its construction. Large areas of land have been set apart by Parliament for the express purpose of providing the necessary funds for the building of this Railway. Now, there is no doubt in my mind that the mere fact of making this line will double or even treble the value of the land which it opens up. Ami thus the State, which is synonymous for the people, will reap the “ unearned increment ”of which ray friend Mr Stout is so fond of talking. Contrast this with the making of another railway. When the coastal line was made through Canterbury, persons were permitted to purchase the land, and thus the “ unearned increment ” which should have been reaped by the State went into the pockets of private speculators. AVe do not require to borrow one penny to make this line ; the extra price obtained for the land will pay for it. There Are two and a half million acres reserved, and the additional price realised upon this land will render a loan unnecessary, so far as the construction of this line is concerned. From the spot upon which we now stand to the highest elevation of the line there is only a rise of 1700 feet above sea level, between this and the AVest Coast, for I hope that eventually this line will go to the AVest Coast. From the highest point I have referred to to Alexandra there is a f ill to 500 feet above sea level, then the line again gradually rises to the Ilaast Pass, where it attains an eleva ■ tion on the dividing ridge of the island of only 1000 feet above the sea. Through the Southern Alps in their whole length there is only one natural pass for road or railway, from the East Coast to the AVest Coast. There is a chain of vast mountains, of from 8,000 to 13,000 ft. in height, running from Cook’s Straits to Preservation Inlet, and through the whole of that distance there is only one natural gateway. That is at the Haast Pass. Here a huge moraine has filled up an ancient watercourse, probably in antodeluvian ages, affording a safe passage between the mountains from one side of the island to the other. I was through there in 18 r >5, when I had to cut my way with a tomahawk through the jungle. Now there is a road which has been constructed by 1 the enterprise partly of A’incent and partly of Westland Counties, and upon this road a man might gallop.without drawing rein from head of Lake AVanaka to the seashore of the AA r est Coast. (Hear, hear.) 1 thank you, gentlemen, for having listened to me with so much patience. lam proud and delighted at having been permitted to take the prominent part assigned to mo in this day’s ceremony. And I hope sincerely 1 shall be spared to live until 1 have the pleasure to ride from Pembroke—the prettiest inland watering-place in Otago, situate on the shores of Lake AVanaka—direct . through to Dunedin hy this line which has this day been inaugurated : the Otago;Cen- , tral Lino of Railway.—( Prolonged applause. ) i Three cheers were then heartily given for i 1 Mr Pyke. i The party then adjourned for luncheon, ; and afterwards several happy speeches were i made, toasts were drunk, and the party roi turned to town.