Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1879. THE WELLINGTON FOXTON RAILWAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 29, 2 December 1879, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1879. THE WELLINGTON FOXTON RAILWAY.

Our Palmerston contemporary^ in his issue of Wednesday last, reopened the railway junction question. The principal feature of the article was the assertion of the discovery by the survey party of " splendid country and no engineering difficulties whatever, and that from the investigation now being made the merits of that route will result in its being declared infinitely superior to the Foxton one." As a. beautifully-rounded period the above is superb, but as a statement of facts we accept it cum grano salt's. For, firstly, where is this land? .It must lie between the east bank of the Manawatu Eiver and the Tararua Eanges. Let our contemporary apply his straightedge to the country from; a point due east from Foxton up to Palmerston, and he will find? that excluding theMakurerua swamp theie aWdnly some 15,000 acres of 'land available for settlement, a large por-

tion of which is already sold. We a?ain ask the question, whore is this splendid country free from engineer-,,, ing difficulties, and how much is there of it 1 * In opposition to our e&nterf^prary^we assert upon what we accept as unquestionable authority that the surveys so far are absolutely in favor of the Foxton lino. But we should like our contemporary to state in what respects this new route will prove " infinitely superior to the Foxton one." It cannot be in distance, foi while the line from Horowhenua to Foxtou is 10 miles, that from Horowhenua to Palmerston is 26 miles ; nor can it be in grades, for it is well known that whilst the country for some miles south of Palj.merstou is of a broken description, that from Foxton to the point of junction is exceptionally level, so that not a single gradient of importance will be required. In what, then, does this superiority consist? We presume it is in the quality of the land, and its capacity for carrying a population. Accepting this, we will examine the matter a little closer. Supposing we assume for the sake of argument there are 20,000 acres of land to be opened up by the Fitzherbert route. The average size of the farms would probably be 100 acres, so that the country would cut up into 200 holdings. Suppose, further, that each farm supported seven persons ; that would give us a total population of say 1400 souls. In addition to this estimate, we will throw in a township of GOO people, to make the total increase of population 2000 persons, being about 300 more than the whole Manchester Block at last census. That estimate is as favourable as can be made, even for argument's sake, and is far more favourable than will ever bo realised. But now let us turn to the other sidd of the picture. If the line were taken to Palmerston, we hold that the effect of such a route would be to deprive Foxton, Sandon, and Carnarvon of the advantages of communication with Wellington. The cost, trouble, and inconvenience of reaching Palmerston would be so great, -that for practical purposes the line would be useless to the settlers of the three Ridings mentioned, viz., Awahou, Kawakawa, and Oroua. Yet we find that last census gives the following returns of population, viz.-r—Awa-hou, 805 ; Kawakawa, 658 ; Oroua, 607 ; giving a.total settled population of 2070. Would it politic, would it be acting upon the ordinary rules of business and common sense, for the Colony to throw aside the certain advantages and returns arising from a trade with 2070 people, for the purpose of gaining that which would flow from the prospective and at present imaginary 2000 to be settled upon the inland route ? Why, by the time the country on the east bank of the Manawatu River has 2000 people upon it, South Manawatu will most certainly have trebled its population. Its resources warrant that assertion.

But a fnrther reason why we have aclvocated' the junction at Foxton is because connection with the port would vastly assist the development and settlement of the country between Foxton and Otaki. The progress of a district depends not only on the quality of its land, but on its means of ( communication with the outside world. Sandon is a notable instance of this; and what Palmerston is today is owing very largely to its railway communication with Foxton. On the same grounds, we believe the progress of the country south of Foxton depends largely upon communication with the port. The through line to Wellington (whether from Palmerston or Foxton) will probably not be completed for the next five years, considering the state of the finances of the Colony, and the magnitude of the work. We therefore hold that to make the junction at Palnierston would be to deprive the south country of connection with its natural port, thus closing it up until through communication were achieved. But what extent is there of this country ? Our Palmerston contemporary is very sceptical upon this point. He says : — If our contemporary is inclined to take us to task for our temerity he has only to place a straight edge upon the map between Foxton and Paikakariki, and to his surprise he will find that when the track does not go ulong the heavy lino of sandMIN it cuts across the sea beach below high water mark. When he has recovered from the surprise and disgust aroused by this disoovery, he can place his straight edge between Palmerstoo and Pdikukaviki/and the thousands of acres of ma7nificent land which he had in his mind's eye, will become possessed of existence.

It is perfectly ludicrous to find our contemporary assuming tliat there is no open country between the sandbills on the beach and the Tararua Eange, and as for the straightedge cutting across the sea below high water mark, if he .will place his straightedge from Wanganui to Paikakariki, he will find it goes nearly the whole distance across the Pacific Ocean ! If he will glance again at the map, he will see that the point of divergence at Paiaka (about ten miles south of Foxton) is. between five and six miles inland, the line working southwards between the hills and the beach. The absurdity of putting a straightedge from Foxton to Paikakariki is therefore apparent. But we have testimony upon ihis point which it will be impossibje for our contemporary to.gainsay.\ l£r Morgan Car-keek,-of-Otaki, is known throughout Mauawatu as a surveyor acquainted

with almost every inch of the country, and Iris assertion may be taken upon this matter. We put the matter plainly to him — what extent of country is there available for settlement between the Manawatu River and Otaki ? His reply was — " Upon a rough calculation thero are 100,000 acres of good, level land between the River and Otaki, not including the Wirokino Estate of 15,000 acres. Besides this quantity, there is a very large extent of land on the low hills, suitable for pastoral purposes ; but the estimate I have given is of good, level, land suitable for settlement. Past Otaki the ranges run more towards the sea, and the country liar 1 rows." We think the above information most satisfactory, as it materially strengthens our argument in favour of the juntion at Foxton. Regarding our contemporary's sentence as to the land between Palmerston and Paikakariki, we would point out that his remark begs the the question. The land froni Paiaka southwards is common to both lines The question is this : Is there sufficient good land between Paiaka and Palmerston on the east side of the Manawatu River, to warrant the colony (1) in putting aside the claims of Foxton, Carnarvon, and Sandon to railway communication with Wellington ; (2) the claims of the Horo-whenua-Otaki country to connection with Foxton ; and (3) 'if the Palmerston line were selected would not the population who would use the line be smaller than that now settled in South Manawatu. We can only repeat what we have so often said, that the junction at Foxton deprives only an imaginary populatiou of tho railway , that at Pamiei'ston would deprive three large districts, containing at present over 2,000 people, of the principal advantages of rail communication with the capital.