THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8122, 19 March 1887, Page 6

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

The following letter has been sent by Mr A vigdor to the General Manager and Board of Advice of the New Zealand Midland Bail way:— Mr Scott and Gentlemen, —No one who has visited many parts of the world, and then, like, myself, had an opportunity of travelling over the Middle Island, and visiting and examining the districts which will be crossed and affected by the Midland Bailway, can fail to be struct by two facts. The first is the extraordinary richness of these districts in a number of vegetable and mineral products, which only require development to become of immense value. The second is the ignorance which prevails even in this Colony, and still more in England, of these marketable resources. Colonial Exhibitions and Jubilee Institutions will no doubt do much to spread a better knowledge of this country and its products in England, and to restore the somewhat impaired credit of New Zealand. But for the purpose of making known in financial and commercial circles of London the value of these particular districts, such Exhibitions and Institutions are too general, and their results too slow. Visitors to them are more or less confused by a great number of exhibits from all British possessions, and even when they confine their attention to New Zealand, they find products and specimens from many parts of both Islands collected together, so that it is impossible to obtain any idea of the special resources of the lands which will gradually become the property of the Midland Bail way Company, or of those which will be improved by its line, without especial study and many laborious enquiries, for which the general public has neither the time nor the inclination.

To enable this knowledge to be acquired by anyone with little trouble, I beg to suggest the formation in the Company’s offices in London, of a small museum of such products of the Middle Island as will be developed, made available, or carried by the railway. This collection should be initiated at once (all perishable specimens, or such as may be affected by coal dust, &c., to be contained in glass oases), and every article exhibited to be accompanied by a brief, clearly written description. Further, . the Secretary, or such other official as the Company may appoint, to keep a book, in which this description be amplified; the position, quantity, and value of the particular product fully described, and all available information about it be kept. This book, like the museum itself, is to be constantly increased by fresh information and additions from the Colony. The Exhibition to be open to the public at stated hours, and to be advertised in some of the chief city and scientific newspapers; all shareholders to be invited by circular to visit it, and the official in charge to be instructed to give every information in his power to those who ask for it.

The formation of such a museum would not present any great difficulty, and several gentlemen have already volunteered to supply specimens of wool, wheat, barley and oats from the Canterbury side. The undersigned will, if his plan be adopted, engage on behalf of the contractors to supply specimens of the West Coast timber, including black birch, rimu, white and red pine, Ac., some of which should be planed and polished in England. It will not be difficult to obtain specimens, with ample information, of the various bituminous and other coals, of gold-bearing quartz, of marble, of copper and iron ores, of antimony, or of such other ores or minerals as are already either worked or found in appreciable quantities, while the Board of Advice at Christchurch would, it the scheme be carried out, constantly increase the collection by new additions and fuller information as to the location whence the various produets are derived, and the cost of producing them and placing them on board ship. Fireclay, gem-bearing quartz, and other at present quite unworked minerals, should not be forgotten, while the artistic taste should be gratified by an exhibition of dried ferns, and science by a botanical collection. Stuffed specimens of the New Zealand birds should, if possible, be added. It appears to me that such a collection, of which a full descriptive catalogue should be printed (with addenda from time to time), would assist largely, in conjunction with Mr Brodie Hoare’s speeches, the geological report now being prepared, and such* other evidence as might be collected, in spreading a knowledge of the great conM mercial resources of the country affected bto the Midland Railway, and therefore k enhancing its values.—l am, &c., k E. H. Avianoß.f | Christchurch, Feb. 14, 1887. %