RAILWAY TO THE INTERIOR. ("Mount Ida Chrenicle' April 5.)

North Otago Times, Volume 155, Issue XXVI, 12 April 1877, Page 2

RAILWAY TO THE INTERIOR. (" Mount Ida Chrenicle' April 5.)

That the great agricultural plains of Strathtaieri, Maniototo, Ida Valley and Mannherikia mint be opened by rail communication within the next ten yean it one of those proposition* that to our mind hat long neon axiomatic. Those plain* comprise the bulk of the valuable country now remaining unalienated south of Christchurch. Smaller patched of good land in tht Mackonxie Country, on the Waitaki, and between Clyde and Queenstown do remain, but not to any very great extent. The Tuapeka railway will do these agricultural plains some little harm, in so far as it will tend to hide them, as the bulk of the travelling public will go to the Lakes by Lawrence and Clyde, thus not seeing the immense resource* for population on their right hand. There is then a natural tendency in the traveller's mind to favor an assertion of knowledge of the Interior, when in reality its grandest but most barren portion has only taen seen. The real value of the Plains cannot much longer be concealed. We ride through the Maniototo for twenty or thirty miles expecting to find shingle everywhere, as on the Canterbury plains, but wesee little or no shingle, but a sleepy, bank-oonfin«d, sluggish river, as beautiful to look at as the Thames, the Avon, or other rivers flowing through th«> choicest counties of England. Following the river down farther past the Lake and ronnd Hyde— although it hits lout its beauty because of the mining carried on —all through Strathtaiori we have the same clay-bank confined river, which, so far from having formed shingle on its course, used, even prior to the days of sluicing, to afford a soft ford of mud at Ootram. The bulk of th» Lowtr Plain itself has been carved out of the despised Maniototo. The thirty-mile Ida Valley has no shingly river or creek, except the Ida Burn, in iU upper reaches. The Manuhtrikia, coining from the Hawkdun

Mountains, bring* down shindy tiutdoe* not plolt it ut> on it* course, ft* numerous feeders — with tlie •zoepiion of th* DnnsUn Oreek, which U more truly ft main branch of itself— being notoriously dangerous beds of bog and spongy clay. Perhaps no sounder guess could be made •t the nature of an unknown country than one founded on a description of mi »iver». To make roads into this oounty fit to oarry truffle would be a great wasU of money— the distance to the seaports i* too great for it« profitable development by means of the best roads. At the same tune the oost of railroad* in average country is now very little more than the cost of well-pitched waggon roads. There are three alternative routes by which a railway can he brought. First, and moat naturally, from PaUnerston, by Kyeburn, Ida Valley and Mack* ; secondly, from Outram, by Sttathtalerl, Hyde, Kyobnrn, «cc. ; thirdly, from the Waiareka tenninui in Cave Valley, by Livingstone, the Paw, and Kyeburn Diggings. The first of these line* has beta surveyed in detail to Waihemo, and the levels have been takon and an estimate prepared for its continuation from the Kyeburn Hotel as far up as Clyde. The cost of construction of thia line ia very light per mile on the whole distanco, the special expense onding at the Lower Kyeburn, from whenoe there is no difficult** Keeping in view the expense of tlio 26^" miles from Waihemo, and the determina- < tion of the Palmeratonian* to resist the , construction of auoh a line— as Palmel- , aton is to remain a terminus for over — the , route in the meantime must be abandoned. With regard to tfce middle alternative, the expense of the line from Outram to Strathtaieri is not known, while the distance of rough country is from twenty to thirty miles. If the expense of getting through this rough country should prove to bo light, and ways and means could be found to coiwitruot it, this line, as tapping Btrathtaieti, would have Baoh great advantages as not to be laid aside without serious consideration. At the same time the distance by such a route that produoe would have to be carried would, at a mileage rate, entail heavy transport oharges. The Pass route would join the Waiareka railway, now open, about seven miles from Livingstone, better known as the Maerewhemta Diggings township. The distance from the Kyeburn Diggings to Livingstone is eighteon miles, and from Kyeburn to the Waiareka terminus twentyfive miles, and from Kyoburn Diggings to Oamaru forty-three. By adopting this route, twenty-five miles of railway would connect the Maniototo Plain with a soaport town, with an excellent and snfe harbor. If this line is practicable, and we believe it is, the short length of the carriage plaoes it far boforo the Shag Valley or the Strathtaiori lines, ns rogards Maniototo, Ida Valley, and the Maiinherikis. The Pass country does not appear more difficult than cither of the others. Already a pirty of miners, with littlo oapital, have tnken a uater race from the very heart of the pass on to th* Otokaike downs. From where this party of miners lift their water supply to the Kyeburn there is no more serious obstaol* than a rough jagged bluff of schist rook here and there to be tabled. The difficulty in this respect is not nearly so great as was dealt with through n much greater stretch of country on tho road from Clyde to Guoenstown by tho Provinoe of Otago. The Kyeburn saddlo ia of a more serious nature, but it is believed that a survey, at tho gradients successfully in use on the main Jine, would shew that a sufficiently high point on it could be readied to surmount the difficulty, with the aid of * short and inexpensive tunnel. Such a lino would have many additional advantages. Foremost among these would bo the fine Port of Oamaru, and tho advantages of connecting tho interior with the most promising town, outside Dunodin and Christohurch, in the Bnuth Island. We believe, also, that landowners and others interested in the prosperity of the Oamarv district would be prepared to give the land free, and eyon undertake tho construction of tho line, receiving in return a concession of land in the Interior. So far its appearances co at presont, the most favorable route is that by the Pass. It in to be hoped that tho Government will allow an Engineer of ability to survey this route beforo tho next session of Parliament, when overtures will, we believe be made for the oon•truotion of the lino.