EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1844, 19 June 1920, Page 9

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

PROGRESS OP THE WORK. LINK NEARING WHAKATANE, Detail:' of (ho progress made with railway construction in tho Bay of Plenty wore Adhered by an Auckland Herald repre;eiita*.ive in Opoliki last week. Under favourable conditions, as far as labour mil material arc concerned, it is anticipated that tin' railway will be extended practically .0 Whakatano about the end of tho year. Iho lino has been finished to, Matata for iome time, and the formation of tho embankment is now being extended across the Rangitaiki swamp. A Fleam shovel is mod .’or excavating, and the rails have now been pushed on a further seven miles to Rnngitaiki. li is understood that a (jnanlitv of ip-to-dale construction plant has been ordered to facilitate tho work. Maori labour is being employed (apart from Europeans', md is proving satisfactory, there being ibout seventy natives engaged on the work, while, it is understood that others are being ,aken on shortly. The Maoris are working jn tin? co-opoialive principle, ami are stated to be doing good work. The first; obstacle of any magnitude will be the construction of a tunnel about threequarters of a. mile in length in the Wuiman a Gorge, between Tcnoatua and Opotiki. Mr Jtulley Holmes, son of the mginoer-in-chief, is in charge. '1 ho Public Works Department’s passenger service from the Mount, at Tanraiiga, is being c;irricd on.jfndpr the manigoment of Air 11. J. Day, formerly stalionmastcr .at Gisborne. With the anticipated extension of the. Irani service towards, Whakalano about'-Christmas • next rrangemonbs, will then permit of a twenty'our hours’ overland service, via Tauranga being, inaugurated from Gisborne to Auckland. FURTHER SECTIONS PROJECTED. DEFINITION OP THE ROUTE. Proclamations published in the Gazette define the middle lino of further sections pi the. East Coast Main Trunk railway, which ho Government has “determined (o condruct.” One of these is, tho Katikati secdon, a length of about eight miles from \the.nreo to the W.airoa, river. The other is on Iho Napicr-.Gisborne portion ol the. line, tho proclamation referring to the I’ntira section of 5 miles 62 chains, reaching the eonlluenco of the Okatowi and Esk rivers.