RAILWAYS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 18, 25 February 1863, Page 3

RAILWAYS.

To the Editor or the 'Nelson Examiner.'

Sib — I believe I may say your readers generally have been pleased with your advocacy of " the Railway question," and that your efforts have materially assisted in convincing the public that railways are the one thing needful to open up the country in the most beneficial manner.

For myeelf I suppose I must say " better late than never" because it ia now full ten years since I first broached the subject of railways iv this province, and have repeatedly and continually urged the necessity of railways versus mud-tracks.

Although I have been pleased at the general tenor of your observations, there have been many inaccuracies upon which I might dilate, but which I pass over, accepting the " will for the deed," the errors clearly arising from defective local geography, whereby, Mr. Editor, I guess you are a "fresh hand at the pump," as sailors say. There is, however, one observation, in your paper of Wednesday last, so utterly opposed to facts, I cannot allow it to pass current. You say, " A large part of the road requisite to connect the Buller diggings with Nelson, let it go which way it may, must be on the sides of hills."

In the first place, the "Buller diggings " is an indefinite name ; the whole district, from the mouth of the river to its various sources in the mountain region, contains gold, but such is the nature of the country, that, when you strike the Buller at any particular spot, you are confined to a very limited circle ; it is impossible to pass up and down the Buller river. The place on the Buller river to strike which is of the greatest consequence and calculated to effect the greatest amount of good, is the junction of the Maruia with the Buller. To effect this, you can pa9s through a country which, for three-fourths of the distance, is practically a level, without one yard of side cutting. This I know from experience. What the remaining one-fourth may turn out I cannot aay at present, because that " very fast man," our Superintendent, stuck in the mud, and " did not think it would be worth £1,000 to have the line marked out;" but my belief is that very little if any of the line would be on the sides of hills. Without any desire to claim any particular merit, I may be allowed to say that very few persons in the settlement have taken so much pains as myeelf to ascertain the resources of the country and the facilities for or obstructions to their elucidation. l will sum up a very large account in a very few words. From Nelson to the Takaka is an agricultural country ; thence to Collingwood and Cape Farewell is a gold region, which continues bouUi to tho Buller, eastward up the Buller (a distance of over sixty milei), to its source, returning northwards by the Tadmore, aud comprising a distance of one hundred square miles in length, by fifty square miles in breadth, every yard of which is auriferous ground. That, in the district specified, it it perfectly eaiy to mak« two hundred and fifty mile* of railway on such eatjr gra*

dients as to be practically a level, and without going on the hill sides at nil, at a cost of not exceeding £3,000 per mile, bridges included. That Nelson is tlie only natural harbour, inlet, and outlet of the entire province, and ought to be, and will be, if the people ofNelson will but "rub (heireyes o' the mornin," and not let the natural advantages slip through their fingers. That, besides gold, the back country contains an unlimited amount of coal, timber, iron, lead, copper, titanium, building stone of various sorts, including granite, limestone of eight or nine different kinds, plumbago, petroleum, tin and chromate of iron — each and all of these attainable by the line of railway I suggest, and of which Nelson ought to be the great centre.

I defer, until an early day, remarks on tho paper " On the comparative cost of railways and macadamized roads " by your correspondent, fearing.to make my present paper too lengthy, and will only now add a ward or two more on the cost of my plan, premising that I look upon it as absolutely necessary that extensive harbour improvements must be part and parcel of it. 250 miles of railway, at £3,000 per mile . . ' . . . £750,000 Harbour improvements and reserve fund .... 250,000 In round numbers . . £1,000,000 I contemplate doing this by imported capital, and feel confident it can be done without Government guarantees in any shape.

I am, sir, , Your old correspondent," W. Long Wbey, Mineral Surveyor.