A Proposed Railway.

Hastings Standard, Issue 121, 15 September 1896, Page 4

A Proposed Railway.

FROM NAPIER TO WAIROA, GISBORNE, AND OPOTIKI. [To the Editor.] Sir, —Permit me through your valuable* paper to draw the attention of the inhabitants of Napier and district to the above named proposed line of railway. As the originator of the scheme, I have studied it since 18S5, at which time I was in communication with the Government about it. It is admitted by those who know the route that this proposed railway would follow, that both grades and curves are easy, and to those acquainted with railway construction the making of the Hue presents little or no difficulty, as the line from Napier to near Frasertown would be at a distance of twenty miles or so inland, Wairoa being connected by a branch line from near Frasertown, thus avoiding a bridge over the Wairoa river. "From Frasertown it would go along the west side of the "Wairoa river to Te liinga, thence along the Hangaroa valley to Patutahi and on to Opotiki, Gisborne being connected by a branch line from Patutahi.

The line would open up about 3,000,000 acres of land and taiiing it as a block there is 110 better land in New Zealand, many parts of it being well adapted for close settlement, dairy farming and other branches of industry. There are large areas of it covered with useful bush, and metals and minerals are known to exist in many pans of it. The capital is proposed to be risen by forming a company, the Government to guarantee to make up the dividend to 8 per cent, till the line can earn it, but the shareholders to receive no higher dividend till the Government be repaid its outlays ; the Government to have the supervision of the line till then and thereafter to have control of the traffic rates so that the Company could not charge any higher rates than the Government lines would be charging. And, further, the Government to have the right to purchase the line at market value, giving consols for the same bearing 3 per cent interest.

The line would be made in sections of say 20 or 30 miles each, starting the same from Napier, Gisborne, and Opotiki, and the capital would only be called up as required, and as each section would be opened the materials for constructing the next section would be carried on the opened one, the line would therefore be earning money as the work proceeded, and would proportionally reduce the Government's liability for interest. This is truly a matter that should receive the serious attention and approval of every working man and small settler in the colony. It would provide work at the present time for the unemployed and relieve the rates on the people. It would plant flourishing township and happy homesteads where bush and fern at present have possession. The fine timber is ruthlessly destroyed under the wrong name of " improvements " would be wrought up in the arts and manufactures of the colony, giving work to working men who in the near future will not be able to get work as there will soon be no wood for them to work with, the bush at the present time being cut by hundreds and thousands of acres annually to make way for sheep, and this is what is termed by the Land Board "improvement," and Crown tenants according to the terms of the present land laws are compelled to clear the bush to fulfil the improvement clauses of their leases. Further the land is at the present time rapidly passing from the nation into the hands of the runholders at the exclusion of the working men and small settlers who will then be taxed to make a railway that will in no way benefit either them or their children. The present is the time to safeguard the future prosperity of the colony and it is for the working classes to see to it that their birth-right does not slip out of their hands. The country can be opened up (with little or no expense to the colony) while the Government will have the control and the right of purchasing the railway without cash. The Government has been approached by myself and others on the subject and the members for Opotiki, Gisbomes and Napier have also been written to. The knowledge of the proposal cannot be too widely circulated and I think in should be one of the things to engage the attention of the voters at the forthcoming elections.—l am, &c., David White, Abbotsford, Tinirote, Poverty Bay.