MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 8787, 8 May 1889, Page 5

MIDLAND RAILWAY.

THE WAIMAKAEIEI GOEGE. 'Perhaps the most interesting, as well as the least known, portion of the whole route of the Midland Eailway is that where it passes through the Upper Gorge of the Waimabariri River. It is unknown be* cause it is difficult of access, and, unlike Arthur's Pass and the Otira Gorge, there is no coach road traversing it from which the traveller may leisurely observe its grandeur, and appreciate the difficulties of railway construction. When journeying to the West Coast from Christchurch along the main road, one loses sight of' the Waimabariri River bed soon after crossing the Kowai Eiver, and does - not meet it again till beyond the Cass Eiver crossing, when one drops down on to. it from Goldney’s Saddle. All this way the tlver is running deep down at the back ;d£ intervening hills, of which the principal ones are the Mount Torlesse range add Mount St Bernard.

For the benefit of those who have' never travelled along this famous road, who havb never revelled in its lovely scenery dr shared in its oft recurring dangers of fldodi and landslips, it may be stated that there are two summits to be overcome between Canterbury and Westland ; the first one i 9 crossed at Porter’s Pass, and the second at Arthur’s Pass. They are both something over three thousand feet high, the first one. Porter’s Pass, being generally supposed to be slightly the higher of the two. After crossing this summit, the road descends, winding among many hills and spurs till it reaches the open country of the Cragieburn and Grasemere rims, probably at a remote time the site of an enormous lake until it was filled in with the detritus of the surrounding mountains, and 'its water level was raised so high that it forced itself by the channels known as Winding Creek and Sloven’s Creek into the Broken Eiver and Waimabariri. This / Waimabariri river tbep, draining an it does the whole of the country lying between the two ranges, gives' the natural means of approach to it .from theT Canterbury Plains. The Gorge is the bey of the position; it enables a uniformly rising gradient to be secured on the whole, up to the foot of Arthur’s Pass; it saves a user less rise and fall of some fifteen hundred feet over Porter's Pass; moreover. Porter’s Pass is one which could not well be iin* proved by tunnelling, it is suitable for a road, but so round and easy that a summit tunnel would be altogether too long and too costly; its approach on the-West side from Lake Lyndon is by no means steep; its suitability for a road renders it thl reverse of easy for a railway, unless indeed a system like the Abt cue were adopted,’ as is proposed for Arthur’s Pass. The question may be asked " How was it, .considering that there exists such a good ready-made cut into the back-country, that the coach road was not originally taken through this gorge ?” The answer is that, although the general gradient of the gorge, is everything that, could be desired, the gorge itself is of so broken and precipitous a character as to render any engineering work in it an extremely difficult undertaking. Let us followup the gorge and examine its features. The Lower Waimakariri Gorge, where the river is crossed by the fine iron girder bridge on cylinders on the Sheffield and Oxford railway, is less than a mile long, and must not be confounded with the main gorge; between the two there is an intervening space of some eight miles of open river-bed to near the old Woodstock station, where the shingle terraces again approach together and rise in increased height, towering gloomily on either side in gigantic tiers ; and intersecting them are deep gashes of ravines where here and there is laid bare the hack*; bone of the country, the solid frame of sandstone and clay-state through which the resistless force of torrents of water and the sweepings of mountains have for ages, been tearing their way. ' v

Perched on one of these terraces as in mid-air, with higher terraces frowning down upon it, and commanding a magnificent view up the Gorge, Woodstock has one of the most romantic situations it is possible to imagine. Little clumps of natural bush and orchard trees nestling on tiny terrace hats give grace and homeliness to the other* wise awe inspiring scene; below, the river boils and rushes furiously past, dividing into two chanels, where an island covered with birch bush stems the stream, and the thick mass of foliage in the. Kowai Bush on the opposite bank clothes the ruggedness of spur and terrace and smooths their outlines, while right above them the snow-topped and jagged summits of the Mount Torlesse range rise sharply against the slyr. Apropos of Mount Torlesse (named after a gentleman well known to most early Canterbury settlers), a settler who had lived the greater part of his life within eight of the Mount Torlesse Range, but who was evidently not in the habit of inquiring much, into the origin, of things, once assured the writer that the name, of the highest peak was Mount Tallest, because it was “ the tallest one of the lot,” a derivation which seemed to him so obvious and satisfactory as not to. admit of any question. Woodstock is on the North side of the river, and climbing the terraces we emerge on a flat above which are some low roundtopped hills over which the track leads up , the gorge. The side of the gorge becomes so precipitous at about a mile above Woodstock that there is no room for any track just there, and the range must therefore be surmounted. We notice some three or four picturesque patches of mountain birch bush, one of which has acquired a sort of melancholy interest from the fact that a young settler disappeared there; he was seen to go into it with an axe to cut firewood, and as he never came home in the evening, the bush was searched for Him, and although it is not many acres in extent, and the whole country-side were engaged in the search for days, no trace of him was ever found afterwards.

On gaining the saddle at the summit of the track crossing the range, the gorge presents a magnificent sight, and one not to be forgotten. Mount White stands out in the distance; on the right are the Packety-Kackety Mountains, as the settlers ' call them, a name which conveys as much meaning to the modern settler unversed in Maori lore as would the most correct pronunciation of the Maori original. On the left can be distinguished the Craigieburn high country, peeping out from beyond the bold spurs of the Torlesse, range, which reach right down on the river terrace, here about 300 ft high; and just below, to the left, at its foot, deep down on the bank of what looks like a aniall silvery stream, is a little green patch which represents some grass and somji’ peach trees—the remains of what was* once known as Patterson’s homestead, hut which has had no existence for the last twenty years—and a more awkward, inconvenient spot fora residence it.would be difficult to choose, with the river and gorge in front, and a rough bush-covered moun-tain-side behind. The most striking . feature in the gorge, looking down upon it from above, is the curious figure of S form which it has assumed, the river running in three lines parallel to each other, two of which are running down the gorge,-and the centre one apparently upstream. Still keeping to the old track on the North side of the river, we descend in a sidling fashion towards a narrow terrace flat which is some 300 ft above the river, and ig"j a marked feature on both sides. On the ; South side, however, this terrace is much narrower, and, after rounding a steep. bluff near Patterson’s, there is no bush on ’ that side of the gorge. The terrace, too, which is in some places not more than a' chain in width, is intersected by slides of slipping shingle, the, whole being bare of anything but tussock and a little scrub, ■ffe soon find, however, that the birch, bush which partly covers the North side of the gorge and renders its appearance bo much more attractive than the South, side as seen from the distant heights, serves also to conceal Or modify; the appearance

■>f several formidable ravines opening Hjito the main gorge. Bush has a effect in concealing ugly breaks ■n a landscape; like charity which Hbvera a multitude of sins, birch bush ■rides a multitude of gullies, and not Kll -we dre on the very edge of one of them Ewe realisq the formidable obstacles Hvhich they present either for a road or The track winds down the sides Hf the ravines and up again; but it is so Htefepthat-after being washed by heavy it,is scarcely passable for a horse Brithoutaome spadework, and fallen trees, Ktd., frequently obliterate it. The two Boost'’ important of these ravines are Foster’s Gully and Kinnibrook’s HSully, both after settlers who took up Hiiieep country on the ranges, which has, Hiowever, long since been abandoned as ■independent country, and is probably a ■sort of no man’s land at the present time. HEhe ruins of Foster’s hut are still to be Hmoii near the bottom of the first of these Hgulliep,' which runs in a little above the B turn mentioned, and the remains Hof Kinpibrook’a hut are to be seen Bn ..the' far side of the gully Kittled-'after him ;• the cob hut itself was Bnlyafew years ago in good enough repair Ho afford shelter] of a sort, to any chance Imusterer or belated tourist. He, poor ■fellow, perished miserably many years ago ■in the snow on the inhospitable ranges ■farther back, where he was prospecting ■in the vain hope of finding more sheep ■country to add to his scanty portion, and ■no one ham since been venturesome enough ■to follow in his footsteps; and, truly, no ■ohe but a hermit or a Scotch shepherd ■ would hanker to be monarch of all he sur■veyed in such a wild and lonely spot. ■ About a mile higher up, on the South ■side of the gorge, is the famous Staircase ■Gully. ' This was long considered an in■taperable obstacle to any road or railway ■being carried up the gorge. It is a huge ■ shingle slip, formed by the track of a I mountain water-course, high up the mounI.Lain side. It has laid bare and scoured out | th&be d rock in the narrow terrace, which litands vertically over.the river, here only ■about four dr five chains wide, though it I looks much less.; ‘ This’, Staircase Gully, I which can be best examined from the I N orth bank, presents ' an instance of ■Nature in one of her weird and ghastly ■aspects; it is a strange and awe inspirling scene, but it can never be called |attractive ; it gives one an impression of ■the cruel, relentless force of water wearing ■ away; attacking and destroying, furrowI big the mountain sides with unseemly I scars, and of dislike for the cold, grey I shingle ever moving, never still enough I (or. a green blade to grow from it, or even I (dr a spot of lichen to form on its irregullarly shifting masses; and, below, the I chill, grim rocks more steadfast than the ■ rushing waters or the shifting shingle, I but* for all that, crumbling sullenly and ■ silently away. There is no sign of life, I dor beauty ; it is all decay and death. I Further on above Kinnibrook’s Gully, lan the 'North side, the track continues I rising over some high ground, which here I forma a steep bank about 800 ft above the I river; the track then descends again to a I ford which usually exists just above the I junction of the river with the Broken I River, and thence there is a track up a 1 creek and through the Craigieburn country Ito the old ruined homestead at Avoca. lOn the South side above Staircase Gully, I the gorge-continues to be of a very broken I character for about a mile to the Broken I River junction, and thence for about two I miles up the Broken River there is nothing I biit a succession of steep spurs and shingle I slips, where one constantly hears the i rattle of falling shingle. Into the Broken I River, runs Sloven’s Creek, which is the I great drain for the Craigieburn country. I At its lower end, for a mile from Broken I ciyer, it is steep, with high banks, broken Iby numerous slips; but further up it flows I (or some eight miles in a slow stream, I through open and easy country. It was ■ called “Sloven,” after a pack-horse of Mr IE. ; Dobson’s, M.lnst. C.E., which was ■ drowned in it many years ago. I jT’Xn the early days of the ‘West Coast ■.load,' »■ survey was made up the gorge I through the Kowai Bush, rising the great I bluffs, and following on to the Staircase I Gully, and’there it stopped; this was the I raison d’itre for the Porter’s Pass route. I In 1880 Mr G. P. Williams, M. Inst. C.E., I made the first survey for a railway up the I gorge; from the Lower , Gorge railway I, bridge right through Craigieburn country I to Arthur’s Pass. He followed principally l oirthe North side of the gorge, where his I begs are still to be seen. The Government I .were then anxious to obtain reliable I'estimates for a line to the West Coast by Arthur’s Pass, and though the latter was wbll : known there was nothing whatever known as to the works required for a railway in the Waimakariri Gorge, the key to the whole route. The North side was decided upon as avoiding Staircase Gully, and an extra bridge crossing the river near Broken river was proposed in order to follow up that river to Sloven’s Creek. The line as laid out would have had to cross the ravines at a very high level, and in 1883, Mr Napier Bell, M,lnst.C.E„ who .made a further survey up the Gorge for railway purposes, discovered (having Mr Williams’ original trial survey to guide him)’ that the Staircase Gully route on the South aide was not so formidable alter all if a lower level were adopted, which route would do away with the extra crossing of the Waimakariri. • Mr Bell’s line is accordingly laid out crossing the Staircase Gully at an eleva- ' tion of some 200 ft, and the line will be 'tunnelled down to the viaduct on either side for about a quarter of a mile through '"the bed rock. The train will, therefore, descend in tunnel, emerge into daylight on .. 'a viaduct, and then rise up again through tunnel, while any loose shingle &wilVbe discharged overhead! It will then ' asoOnd Broken River by a series of caterings, short tunnels and viaducts, cross C ; ehe?'Broken River, and emerge into the . Craigieburn Country up Sloven’s Creek, v For about ten miles, including two miles ' tit> the Broken River and one mile up -'' Sloven’s Creek, the line up the Waimaka"tifi- Gorge will probably present as interesting a series of engineering works at 'any ten miles on the whole Midland ' Railway, not excepting the Otira Gorge. The slipping shingle overhead, and the ■terrific force of the pent waters in the gorge below, together with the narrow space of terrace or mountain-side in which cuttings or embankments can be made ; -render the exact location of the line a matter for careful and patient investigation, and probably many further detai: sscTcys will have to he made and deviations inline or levels before the best possible line is fixed on. For tourists and those who wish to ■inspect this wonderful gorge for them 'selves the North side is the one from which the moat varied and extensive views can be obtained, but the track is noi : always practicable for horses. Mr Williams ■ survey patty opened it up to the ford at the Bifpfcen River junction and on to Avoca : a yes* or two'afterwards lovers di i.- scenery came through on horseback . i'There is no doubt that, if required, a shori - Jcdt from Oxford and the North Canter'district could be made at smal. fJexpehjse by this route, fit for horsemen oi ',‘ for driyihg' stock. The writer has himsell ‘ walked in the course of a winter’s after’from the Broken River junction tc -A-Mr Gd'rton’a station at View Hill. Any- - one who does not mind a rough scramble - on foot or horseback is sure to come bad r highly delighted and interested by a trip Y %o%he Waimakariri Gorge.

Some prominent Americans have a M'Uterary man attached to their household, rris other people have their grooms and Sutlers.. •".'.''Vaccination is compulsory in England < and optional in France. In the large * cities o£ France the number of deaths from small-pox was 1956, or 0-31 per 1000 of the ■ living population. In the large cities of * England during the same periodthe number : of deaths was 332, or 0-04 per.looo. . Four-fifths of the whole numoer sold of i the " Encyclopaedia Britanniea”—over forty [■j- thousand copies—were dispbaed of in 2; . America. The American price was il a and the sales were effected by agents. The whole circulation $ twaa'fifty thousand, and that was. ten times