ROTORUA=TAUPO LINE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 31 July 1928, Page 7

ROTORUA=TAUPO LINE

MAKING NEW INDUSTRIES. HIDDEN THERMAL REGIONS. -\oi alone' wiil the Rotorua-Taupo railway serve tl;e purpose of most New -vaiaii.i Inies as Keys to the opening up oj unoccupied land and tne unlocking oi timber wealth, says the "Mew Zealand Herald.” Jt is a master key in rai.way construction in that it u ill promot: other and more varied enterpr.oes. Among them are the working

l tiie exteiisi.e sulpliur and alum tle-po-.its along the route. it will make pussi ole the establishment or a wood pulping industry, facilitate the development- of hydro-electric power at Hinai .rails and Arateatea Rapids; and induce tiic exploitation of a number oi surprising! v lit tic-known thermal regions along tiie route. k i.told ages of thermal activity have stored up in these parts, cliie.ly at Waiotapu and RotoKavva, great deposits <jf sulphur .which are being constantly added to by the agency of active thermal-iorces at dozens of wide-l,v-scattered points throughout the remarkable belt of country between Rotorua and Taupo.

SULPHUR PITS AND ALUM CHEFS

At Waiotapu, about the fuming sulphur craters, sulphur of remarkable purity crops up everywhere, ancl must be readily available in huge* quantities since, several of the “live” pits are about 2<>ft. in depth. Here, too, following the course of a stream close by the accommodation house, are the alum cl ills—great grey walls of a soft formation, any fragment of which lias the keen alum reaction when tested by the tongue.

The most essential of fertilisers in the Dominion is phosphate, but to treat it for conversion into the more valuable form of superphosphate—the only element required to bring the whole of the pumice lands into production—sulphur is necessary_ That it is available in the very centre of the region in large quantities is a happy instance of Nature's laws of compensation, l Nothing but a railway could make possible the working of' the deposits and the transport of sulphur to a superphosphate works, while at Huka Kails and Arateatea Rapids is energy estimated at upwards of 100,009 horsepower for the harnessing. Both are at the terminus of the line, the decision to proceed with the construction of which brings in sight the use of the Waikato headwaters, since it will be possible to convey to the sites building materials and piant at a lower rate, probably, than they have ever been carried to any hydro-electric scheme in the country. It provides a case, probably unique in New Zealand, where a standard railroad will lead almost right to the scenes of development. There, too, investigators believe, could bo economically established a plant for ilie production of nitrogenous manures, the lime essential to which would pro- j vide additional freight for the iine. j

TOURIST AND INDIRECT BENEFITS.

The tourist traffic which will use the railway is too speculative an element in this era of the motor-car to estimate with any degree of conviction. Certainly it will be very considerable and the relatively low railway passenger rates will induce many people, especially inmilios, who do not now go past Rotorua, to make the through trip. But it is bound to encourage the development by, the State of the remarkable thermal 'regions at Waiotapu, and at many other points within comfortable loading distance of the line. Unite apart from railway tourist traiiio there is to he gained a very material indirect revenue from the activities of e Tourist Department in these directions. At the end of the rail journey is the finest trout fishing in the world at Lake Taupo, with a climate which has been described as “the Mecca* of the sick man.” The grand spectacle of the Irinka Falls and Arateatea Hapjds comes within this region of concentrated tourist attractions. Mention of indirect benefits resulting from the building of the line prompts consideration of the enormous increase which will take place in the value of great areas of unoccupied Crown land along the route and the multiplication of the taxable value of hundreds of thousands of acres of privately owned land.

The proposed line traverses, for the most part, unusually long stretches of quite level country with a naturally good drainage and making for relatively low maintenance costs. /

The possibilities of establishing a wood pulping industry, and they will only become real possibilities'when the line lias been built, deserve fuller consideration. It is onh'vnecessary to mention here that in the opinion of qualified experts the industry is essential to profitable afforestation as a means to using the lumber from periodical thinnings and putting to use the ‘‘small wood” which would otherwise lie wasted. The railway- will enable the concentration at the site of a pulping mill somewhere along or near its route or termini, of more than sufficient pulping lumber for the permanent establishment of a great new Dominion industry.