NORTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11840, 18 December 1901, Page 5

NORTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

FURTIIkiI DISMISSALS. friT TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION*.] Wellington*, Tuesday. *l'irE Post's Raetihi correspondent telegraphs that 100 men have been discharged from the North Island Main Trunk works there at a moment's notice. Most of the, men are greatly distressed, as 110 other [ work is to be got in the district.

The Commissioner to the Railway League ha'-; sent in the following report: —

I have during tin last week been over the railway works right to the farthest end at the Tunanui station, some three miles south of the Wanganui River. A strong force of men and some ten drays, besides bullock teams, arc still at work on the second and most northern piece of "'crib work'' in the river. 1 presume that they saw that to leave such a work in an unfinished state would be to court its destruction. The piece of similar work near the to-be town of Piriaka is finished, and is a. wonderful improvement over having to scramble through the mud up the steep face of a huge slip as we have had to do in the past. Mr. Lewis, of the Wellington survey staff, is now camped on the site of the future city of Piriaka, and shortly commences to survey it into suitable .sections. This is th« station at the bottom of the big grade, and also at the commencement of the Waimarino forest, and so is expected to be a place of some little importance later on. The carpenters are now busy on its first house, a cottage for one of the public works engineers. A few men arc still at work on the cuttings and banks south of the anganni, but very few; and in fact, all the way from the Ongc.ruiie station, the fcene has changed, and while there are still considerable numbers of men at work the bulk of the cuttings aro not manned. Several I noticed a week or two's work would have finished them. However, the engine crossed the Ongaruhe bridge for the first time 011 Friday afternoon, 13th inst.. over the temporary bridge erected, owing to the delay in the c f the ironwork for the permanent bridge, and 1 understand thai it is proposed to start plaiclaying directly the holidays arc over, from the south end of the bridge 011 to the Tariniramutu station, the north end of the next Ongaruho bridge. This section is some 10 or 11 miles, and it will very considerably lessen the cost of the cartage to the heavy work on ahead south of Tunanui. What a waste of time and money it is that these bridges are not ready. If they (four) were ready for traffic it would have been possible to have laid the rails right to Turanui with a little push inside, this financial year. That would have meant some 34 miles of rails laid during the year, and v..? could then have almost excused them sacking the largest half of the men. But the bridges are not there, and not likely to be for many weary months to come, and 1 may as well mention here time if it is not taken in hand this summer there will be another very serious cheek at. tho

"spiral!'' where the line dives under itself through a tunnel. Then: is a lot of heavy work that cannot be rushed at this point, and if they don't start ii this summer, or at any rate open up roads to it. we shall not be past that point in three or four years, much less through to Wellington. All signs pointed to a start bein>r made there this summer, but now all such ideas seem to be abandoned.

There seem plenty of men left on the works to open up the road in front of the platelayers oil to Taringnmutu. Tlif bridge and culvert gangs, and also a. full force of qnarrymen and masons, are still at work on this section, and small gangs are also at work on the heaviest of the cuttings, and the rails will hi.- well on to that station by March, so that we shall have about 20 miles of rails laid from the tunnel in the financial year, although none will have been handed ever and opened , for regi'laj traflie. This, with the 10 miles promised at the southern end. lessens the gap, but leaving the big works in the centre untouched shows that there is not the slightest intention to pntthe road through in three or even four years. .An engine and rake of trucks and a. strong body of men are still at work on the perennial slip just south of the tunnel, the ballast pit men seem ill fair force, and tile two powerful stone-crushers with their respective engines are. in position at the Maramataha quarries, ready for a good start after the holidays. Now, as to the question of how many men have been dismissed. This is, of course, a question that only the Department itself can answer correctly, but a good deal of the confusion has arisen owing jo the Department and many others speaicing as if the wholesale dismissals, when gang after gang was knocked oft' all along the line, was the commencement of the reduction of hands. This was not the case. I advised you many weeks ago that hands were being reduced quietly, ami I am satisfied that my telegraphed statement that three' months ago there were close on 000 men employed, is correct : but 1 was perhaps under the mark in saying that only 200 were left. The,mailed fist, or its absence, seemed to have had sonic effect, and the dismissals suddenly ceased, and some men that had been discharged were put on again, so I am told, and, ■as far as one can judge, the number now employed is between 2CO and 300, and I think nearer the smaller number.

Sly grog-selling lias received a severe check the last month or so; the Public Works Department refusing- to carry it on to Ongaruhe lias had t'no effect of putting waggons on again from, the funnel, the stuff being brought over the hill from the station on pack horses. However, the police last week made a most successful raid at Ongaruhe, and secured liquor said to ho worth £100 belonging to one man, and they also seized on the railway 15 heavy cases of "sundries ," which were found on opening to contain a quarter-cask of beer each. It is rumoured that the persons who consigned them arcs to he proceeded against for making a false declaration on the consignment note. The local constable has also been appointed a ranger for the Wellington land district, and as all the land south of the Wan garni i River is Grown land he paid file known law-breakers an official visit and gave them 4-8 hours' notice to qui and it is said that they did not take long to get back on to the Maori side of the river, and in other ways there has been a clearing out of many of this class.