THE MANAWATU RAILWAY,

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11955, 2 May 1902, Page 6

THE MANAWATU RAILWAY,

[BY TELK3BAPFT. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Thursday. The Manawatu Railway Sale and Purchase Empowering Act, which empowered the Governor to enter into an agreement with the Manawatu Railway Company for the purchase of the railway, expires to-day. A meeting of directors of the company was held this morning, and resulted in a letter of some importance being forwarded to the Government. This is lielieved to mean that negotiations for the purchase of the lino are still in progress. The Manawatu Standard (Mr. Pirani'paper) has the following:—" We learn that it is a fact that the Government contemplate the construction of the railway line from Bunnythorpe to Ashhurst, the idea of course, being to divert the traffic from'the Manawatu line to the Rimutaka line—™ chimerical a proposal as was ,m. cntor . tamed. Of course, the origin;,; scheme for the construction of the section fro,,, 4sli hurst was that this route should be adopted and a railway reserve was set aside along the centre of the roads between the point's named, and lias remained intact ever since The estimate of the cost of th* branch line is about £28,000, and, with the necessary buildings, will total something like £35 000 We believe, as a local venture, that the lino should bo constructed, hut that its construe tion will injure the Manawatu Company or tempt passengers to travel on the W'ura'rapa line to Wellington is too ridiculous to entertain for a moment. Certainly tlmre will he a saving of half-an-hour at 'the outside in the time occupied between Wancanui and Woodville, hut it must be remembered that already me Government are carrying passengers and goods for 50 miles for nothing by that route, and even that great inducement has not resulted in injuring the Manawatu Company's business. The sooner the Government are told by the people of the colony that they are not going to be allowed to ride roughshod over I a private company for she purpose of depreciating the value of that concern when they have the right to purchase it at a failprice the better it will be for the good name of the colony."