THE NEW ZEALAND MANGANESE COMPANY'S TRAMWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4298, 23 August 1875, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALAND MANGANESE COMPANY'S TRAMWAY.

As a resident at the Bay of Islands, one cannot but notice the steady progress the place has been making during the past year; and first we see a flour-mill, erected at the Kawaknwa by Messrs. Galigan and Co.; the next improvement is a good, substantial wharf at KusselL built at Government cost and erected by Mr. Holloway, to whom it does credit; then we have a telegraph office', with wire 3 running north and south ; but the most novel undertaking for New Zealand 13 a wire tramway two miles in length, erected by the New Zealand Manganese Company to convey manganese from the top of Tikitikiora, a hill 600 feet high, across gully and swamp, and a mile oat inco the bay, where there is a vessel moored, with steam engine on board, to work the endless wire rope which forms the wire railway. No doubt a description of this tramway will be amusing and instructive to many of yonr readers, as it is the first of its kind erected in New Zealand, and in fact in the Australias, and no doubt many more such lines will be erected when the practical usefulness of this one is known. Well, then, I will begin where it first came into my view. Riding qut from Rujsell to Orango, where the manganese mines are situated, we first came in view of the tram about half-a-mile from the place, and the first thing that is observed is a long line of piles running out into the sea as far as the eye can reach, and at the end lies a vessel moored stern on, in line with the tram line. On nearer approach these piles are seen to be a number of tripods made of heavy timber and placed about 100 yards apart. On the top of each is a horizontal iron shaft carrying a wheel or pulley on each end, on which the wire rope is supported. Immediately fronting the land is a mango swamp, 300 yarCbetween the shore and the sea. The line passes through this, and then ascends the mountain side. Yiewing from the road, we saw a post here and there where the line passes over the rises and spurs, and then it i 3 lost to view away up in the hills. We ride on, ascending the hills by the bridle track. Presently we come to the tram line, and ride under it. Here we get a good view seawards. The line lying right in front of us in a straight line, we go on ascending. After a pleasant ride round the head of some deep gullies across which we see the iae spanning, we noticed one which must be 200 yards across, and 100 feet deep. There were eight boxes on the wire rope between the supports in. this span, four going up and four coming down. We soon arrive at the mines. These are situated about 100 feet from the top ol the hill, which is 601 feet by the Government chart. Here we make the acquaintance of Mr. A. Christy, the manager, under whose superintendence the whole of these works have been planned and carried out, and from the half hour's conversation we had with him it was easy to see that everything had been well planned and digested before commencing operations, and with a view to their extension, for it is in contemplation to extend this tramway two miles further inland. I Q describing the mines, I will just say, every drive or level as pointed out is opened out with a view to connect the whole by trams with the receiving sheds, where the mineral is broken and sorted; We noticed piles of man-

-anese at the mouth of every drive, of which Sere are about ten; some of the piles havelOO tons in them. We now go to the sorting sheds, and describe the tramway. The Iheds of which there are two, are 40 feet l„nc and situated about 200 feet apart in Lc with each other, and with the tram line and at such a level that it is expected -.1] the mineral from the adjoining hills can he received into them by gravitation, and the level is the most convenient to carry the w ire tramway into tho sheds; the wire passes right through both sheds, and then round the back terminus, which is a cast-iron drum or pulley C feet in diameter. Revolving horizontally in each shed is an iron rail running along both sides of the building, and connected by a curve at the back end ; this rail is called the shunt rail, and it receives the hangers with the boxes from the wire rope ; the empty boxes coming in on one side are tilled while hanging on the shunt rail, and are then pushed round the curve . and run on to the wire on the other side, so that boxes are continually coming in empty on one side and going out full ou the other side, at the rate of four boxes per minute ; the boxes carry about one cwt. of mineral. Everything works quite^simple and easy, there is no confusion. Xow we will visit the floating terminus. This is a barge of about fifty tons, —the old Maori Chief steamer that was. Here she is moored ; with four anchors ; on her deck is a steamenuiue which gives motion to a cast-iron putley six feet in diameter, which revolves horizontally about ten feet above the deck ; around this the wire rope is carried, then it passes over smaller pulleys, which are placed near the stern of the vessel, and then along the supports to the shore. There is a shunt rail on deck, similar to the rail described in the sheds, which receives the boxes as they arrive on board from the wire rope, an 1 while on this rail, which is eight or ten fe< t from the deck, the boxes are turned ovi r and the contents run down a shoot into tb 2 j vessel loading alongside ; the box is then pushed on, and it runs to the return sid", where a man receives it and liberates it at tl e proper distance, and it goes away empty I y the return wire to the mines again. it works splendidly, there is no hurry, bit every person in attendance has 1 0 look sharp, and the workings must lo seen to bo appreciated. Undoubtedly there wire tramways will be found most usijfu! for New Zealand. They are thoroughly practical, many of them being in use in England and on the Continent. They wll •carry from 50 tons to 1000 tons per day, .n loads varying from half a »wt. to half a to 1. They wiii carry up hill or down hill, will .jo round angles up to 90 degrees by using certain appliances invented by the patentt ■-.>; they will carry timber either sawn or in iue Jog, coals, stone, mineral, case goods, a id in fact .-linost anything, and for street r;i dways, they are just the thing for city and suburbs. All that is required is a line of stout posts along the centre of the stre t, with short, raised platforms for passeng-. rs to be taken from. The line, driven by a ateam-engine, would never stop during ;ae day; passengers would sit in an arm-chair of suitable construction, and would bo run on to the wire or taken off at every street if required ; the line is perfectly noiseless, : nd collisions are impossible. Here is just ;he thiug for Auckland; —no tearing of str ets to pieces, no horses, no smoke ©r dirt of • Jjy kind. All that is required is a 10-horse sti unengine, placed at some convenient point oi the line, a row of cast-iron posts placed along :lie centre of Queen-street, up Grey or Waket::ldstreets, on to Parnell or Ponsonby, d wn Parnell Rise up to tho Court-house, d wn Shortland-street. It is astonishing the -ase with which these trams carry up such grales as these, and, in fact, must be seen to be believed.—[Correspondent.]