FROM BELGEOVE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 4 March 1909, Page 2

FROM BELGEOVE.

As soon' as Belgrove is departed from the rail runs up Spooner's Range at a grade of one foot in 50. It J-es r.ot sound very much, but it looks a good deal. The engine puffs away for a while at this rise, but after a while t : red and shoots right through the hi.j. Ih3 rails ar; now running towards the easf., and the Motueka Valley ope.is owt to view. The country is worth lookiiK, at, and seems quite able to support handsomely the farms that occupy it. The train "nere has an easy grade, and runs down very comfortably. Kohatusoon is reached, and the whistle soon movs the wheels round and Tapawer-i is pa'fed through and Tadmor reacted. This was the terminus for some timo, but Kiwi, five miles further on, holJs that position now. Soon after Tadmor is disappearing n the distance a fairly large bridge is passed, and the rails bear round to the south again, and a direct course up a p'"tuvesque valley finds Kiwi, a little country township, hardly out of long clothes. Still, the Public Works men seeTn to support it. It is headquarters now. Its glory is beginning to fade though, and Mann, or rather Tin, v; i I be in the proud position of the terminus, and the headquarters of tlie Public Works. Kiwi is Kiwi. Gonfia'lj spc.'.king, all little townships tin tho railway line seems to be the same, but it is not so with Kiwi. Yes, it is pretty. It is long. It is squashed between hills, but not badly. On one side dense bush gladdens the eye of those from town. The farmer does not want it. Good land lies below, and he thinks of that. • To the left the fire has laid everything bare, leaving nothing but the charred remains. But all this is setlement. Bush is beautiful. The heart leaps towards it. and the tongue strikes the man who cuts it. but the mind puts matters even when it says that certain areas should remain, and others should be cut away. Mr Harding, "the Public Works Engineer, kindlv arranged for a visit to the new worki by an "Evening Mail" representative, and accordingly the trip was made. Mr Foster, the general overseer, was at Kiwi when the train arrived, and talked freely of the works. The irrepressible smile of George Westcott, well-known In Nelson, was found lighting up the kitchen of headquarters, even more than his brightly burning fire!