CULVERDEN-WAIAU RAILWAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15717, 9 September 1911, Page 8

CULVERDEN-WAIAU RAILWAY.

Thf. large deputation that will proceed to Wellington to-night to impress upon the Government the importance of making provision for tho immediate construction of tho Culverdon-Waiau railway lias a good ease to place before Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues, and it is assured in advance of a sympathetic hearing. Tho Ministers who have visited the distriot the line would traverse and inspected the surrounding country all agree that it is a work that could bo taken in hand without any fear for the financial results. Even the leader of tho Opposition, who will not be suspected of any local bias, lias declared that it is one of tho few branch railways that should bo pushed on without a moment’s unnecessary delay. It would lie difficult, indeed, for any observant man, acquainted with all the facts of the case, to doubt that the money invested in tho line would give a handsome return from the first. To begin with the rails would be laid along fourteen or fifteen miles of practically flat country, presenting no more engineering difficulties than would be found on the easiest part of tho Canterbury Plains, and tho whole cost would amount to no more than £56,000. Then the expense of’ working the line, as we have so often been reminded by our correspondents, would hardly have to bo taken into account until the growth of the traffic demanded a more frequent service than the one now maintained between Waipara au4 Culverden. The trains instead of waiting at Oulvorden for three hours or so would go on to Waiau and bring back the passengers and goods and stock that would be picked up there. In time, of courso, the impetus that would bo given to settlement and production in the district would necessitate running more trains and employing moro rolling stock, but this would be a development which neither the Minister of Finance nor the Minister of Railways would have cause to regret. The country to bo directly served by tho railway amounts to close upon 200,000 acres, and of this hugo area a largo portion is occupied by Crown tenants. Some of the land is of tho very highest quality and would readily respond to the intense cultivation which the railway would make possible and profitable. There are thousands of acres along the i foothills surrounding the Amuri Plain

that are as well adapted for dairying and fruit-growing as are the most favoured districts of the North Island, and it is as much in tho interest of the State as it is of the settlers that they should be plaoed in effective communication with the markets of the world. The case for the Culverden-Waiau railway is so complete in. every particular that there ought to be no hesitation on the part of tho Government in undertaking tho construction of the line at the earliest possible moment. It is a work in which it very well might demonstrate the soundness of the Prime Minister’s theory that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing quickly.