OUR RAILWAY.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1650, 8 February 1862, Page 4

OUR RAILWAY.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —l beg now to return to the subject of “ Our Railway,” as its importance to the well-being of this Province cannot be too highly extolled, but before I direct your attention to a few plain facts which will be found to have an affinity with that object, I will attempt a few remarks upon the hyperbolical views of two or three honorable members of the Council upon the subject. The first who meets my eye through the public press is the member for the City West, Mr. J. O'Neill, who has been pleased to give the project his most strenuous opposition, and has declared it to be his opinion that the line from hence to Urury will cost at least £242,000, or it might be three limes that amount ! but qualifying his assertion by a saving clause that “ they might take his opinion lor what it was worth.” Doubtless it will be so taken, and that it will be found to be equal m value to the reasoning of Gratiano who talked more than any man in all Venice, but that the weight of his argument was equal to only one poor grain of wheat. I heard it stated in the Council Chamber a few days ago by one honorable member, that another honorable member whose loquacity is always conspicuous, invariably spoke most on that subject which he understood the least. It is upon this principle doubtless, that Mr. O’Neill acts, and hence his bold assertions on the subject of Railways. Had the honorable member’s pursuit in life been that of an engineer or surveyor, and that he had devoted many long and wearisome years to the toil of that profession, I would give a more pliant ear to his discourse, for I should then know that his conclusions upon this subject would be more in harmony with the truth than they are at present ; but I am told that the only little bit of surveying he ever performed was done on board the ship which lately brought him back to the Colony, when he “ mentally surveyed” three or four 40-acre grants a la maisons d’E'paigne, but which His Honor the Superintendent most cruelly prevented him completing when he came on shore. With this exception, I believe the hon. member is wholly innocent of the mysteries of that profession. Having that impression upon my mind, and feeling perfectly safe that the argurnentuni absurdum I have noticed contains both the bane and the antidote, I will pass on to the second mailre d'offence, the hon. member for the City West, Mr. King. In that gentleman I find conclusions of a more humble character, but yet based upon a foundation of a discarded fallacy. That hon. member has dug from the tumuli of Brunei his expensive errors of the Great Western Railway, and brings them forward as conclusive evidence of the cost of the Drury line. He defied the Council to disprove those facts which are to make it incumbent upon our poor tiny railway to absorb at least £35,000 a mile ! These statements, for arguments they cannot be called, carry upon their surface their own condemnation, and make it unnecessary in any one to refute them. When men seek for almost anti-deluvian ideas and try to instil them into the modern mind, they ought not to feel displeased if the more reflecting part of society ignore their presence. It was my intention to have referred to another honorable opponent, a member whose mind seems to be always gyrating around the fond recollection of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Bay of Islands, but as 1 consider I have split straws enough already, I will now proceed to the main subject.

I will then primarily observe that it is very refreshing to find that the Provincial Council have settled a “socialdatum-line,” as will be perceived by the following resolution which was unanimously agreed to : “ That in the opinion of this Council the formation of a rail or tramway between the City of Auckland and the river Waikato would tend materially to increase the prosperity of this Province and to promote friendly relations between the Natives and Europeans.” I repeat that the above resolution was passed unanimously, and well it might, for its deduction is too palpable to be questioned, and its affirmation cost nothing. We witness too often in many walks of life men becoming patriots when their pockets are safe from invasion, and iu a like spirit I presume the mem bers of the Council were instigated on this occasion to act patriotically, for the subsequent resolu ion which requested the Superintendent “ to place on the estimates a Sum of money sufficient to defray the cost of preparing plans and estimates, &c.,” only escaped a negative vote by a majority of two I find that the opinions of the assenting members of the Council oscillate between a railway and a tramway, and that in order to secure as many votes as possible in favour of an improved mode of locomotion, the latter plan is commended on the ground of economy. It is perfectly true that a tramway, laid at the side of the present South Road would cost less money than a properly constructed railway, but then we ought to take into consideration the requirements of the country, and ascertain if a tramway so constructed would satisfy them now and in prospective. In my' opinion it would fail to do so. By it we might certainly have coals and other merchandize conveyed at a moderate rate of charge, but the speed of the goods’ trucks would not suit a passenger traffic, for it people found that they could get to their journey’s end quicker by the omnibus than by the tramway, the former would of course have the preference. I have also a pecuniary objection to a tramway, for I believe that we shall in such a case have to apply to the Province for the money to construct it, whereas if it be a railway, under a guarantee the capital could be obtained in England. Having staled that it is my opinion that the present and immediately future requirements of this Province call for a railway to Drury, ns a first instalment of a “ Great South Line,” I will now refer to the principle which I think should guide the promoters in its construction. In doing so I will not resuscitate the now obsolete views of our parents, nor try to re produce the costly experiments of either the “broad guage” or “ narrow guage” theory, but content myself in going no further away than one of the Southern Provinces of New Zealand, and no further back in time than October last. It is to this source that I intend to apply for the necessary information, for I shall then be able to procure facts which will be perfectly independent of my opinion and far beyond my power to alter them. In railroad construction the weight of the locomotive engine intended to be used, and the speed proposed to be maintained, govern the strength and cost of the structure The engines in use upon most European railroads weigh from twenty-six to thirty-six tons, exclusive of the weight of the tender; and the running speed ranges from twenty-five to sixty miles an hour, with gross loads of from eighty to three hundred tons. These weights and speeds involve the adoption of a permanent way (rails, sleepers, &c.) of great weight and solidity; the rails weighing from 80 to 100 lbs. per yard, and necessitating the construction of bridges and substructure of a corresponding massive and expensive character. It is found that for the conveyance of a traffic »t a speed not exceeding tw'enty miles an hour, a locomotive engine, weighing not more than eight tons, running upon rails of 30 lbs. per yard is sufficient. Presuming the length of the Drury line with its branch to Onchunga will be 28 miles, the weight of the rails of 80 lbs. per yard, for a single line of that distance will be about 3,500 tons, whereas those of 30 lbs. will be only 1,216 tons, making a difference in favour of the latter of 2,284 tons, wdiich at £lO per ton will effect a saving of £22,860. A locomotive engine weighing eight tons and capable of passing round curves of four or five chains radius, will draw upon a level railroad a gross load of 160 tons at a speed of fifteen to twenty miles an hour ; a gross load of 65 tons up an incline of one foot in one hundred ; and 35 tons up an incline of one foot in forty ; and 20 tons up an incline of one foot in twenty. The Dun Mountain Copper Mining Company (Nelson) have constructed eleven miles of their railroad upon the above principles. It runs through a most difficult country and has a rise in the above distance of about 2800 teet. Five miles of the line have a gradiant of one foot in eighteen, succeeded by four and a-half miles with a gradiant of one foot in twenty. The line is cut out of the mountain sides the entire way. The average inclination to the horizon is about thirty-three degrees. About two-thirds of the excavation have been rock and the remainder clay. The cost of the line, as it is, including permanent way and rolling stock imported from England, has not exceeded £2,000 per tit le. The engineer, Mr. Fitzgibbon, states, “ considering the results which have been attended, under unusual I difficulties, upon the Duu Mountain Railroad, with a

country to pass somewhat similar to the Somering Pass in Austria, the Bore Ghauts near Bombay, or to the Kandian range in Ceylon, and with ordinary labour at ten shillings per eight hours* work ; it is assumed that an estimate which has been lound sufficient for railroad construction at Nelson will more than suffice for localities where the difficulties of country are not so great.” Having now pretty well exhausted the subject, I will say no more than merely advise Mr. King to ponder over the foregoing facts and figures, and ascertain if I have made any impression upon his “ indisputable” railway statistics, and then inform the public whether they are to have, in spite of absolute experience, the exploded fallacies of the Great Western Railroad to guide them in the construction of “ Our Railway.” I am, &c., Amor Paxri.e. February sth, 1862.