MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12285, 1 June 1903, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

THE WAIMARItfO FOREST. ■ TIMBER OVEB-ESTIMATED. - 'jv TBLWIUrH.~OW>" CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Saturday. • A REPRESENTATIVE of the Post, - 110 has : , t * gone over the Main Trunk line, is conJributinj? a series of articles to his paper LtJbtng the works. Inter alia he says A pumice belt extents, generally speaking, rJL Te Kuili on tlu north to near Tura■Srere on the south, a 123 miles stretch. Much of it will probably make good pasture, but on some of it the timber is the best crop the soil will ever bsar. From the Wai " jnarino forest alone the Government will, under ordinary conditions, receive in timber oyalties an amount equal to the construction of over 100 miles of the .Main Trunk line. Outside the ptmice belt in the Waikato to the north, aid in the Hautapu and Upper Rangitikti to the south, the land is very good and settlement will proceed apace. . Elsewhere it will be slower. The scanty pumice flats that continue to be met with down to Taumaranui are not likely to be of much importance. Taumaranui is much ''larger than Ongarue, because it is nearer the head of the works. The population of these places fluctuates as the co-operative workmen move ahead with the line. Piriaka, on tie other side of the Wanganui. rive miles beyond Mat-ammo-, is larger still, but in a short time the bulk of the Piriaka workmen will have moved on still deeper into the Waimarino forest. Ma tap una and Piriaka will no doubt thrive on the Waimarino timber industry. Timber will be the first, and perhaps me best, friend of the district. Piriaka js on the outskirts of the Waimarino forest, and will be the headquarters of the heavy engines to be used on the Waimarino up'grTde. Besides W'anutrino Matapuna seems destined to Ik the milling centre of a much •less widely-known forest, from tins point left (or eastward) of the line. This is a native ovned area named Puketapu, in the • Tiringamutu Valley, estimated to contain a large quantity of first-class totara, an in.,valuable asset, especially as the totara in the Waimarinc has been over-estimated. There are vigilant would-be buyers watching Puketapu, but it is native-owned and negotiations are slow. It is, by the way. fortunate that the Government acquired the Waimarino

block. None of the northern townships, Otorohanga. Kuiti, Ongarue, Taumaranui, and Piriaka. can compare with Taihape, the outermost township on the southern end of | the line, which is solidly built for progress, having a great advantage over the first four northern townships named in that it lias a sound tenure. Otorohanga, Kuiti, Ongarue, and Tauraaranui, are native-owned, the railway land excepted, and the natives expect ; great increment and fix high rentals. The j first two have been declared native town- ! ships, which means that tue Government will take over the land as. agent for the natives, and lease it much on the same lines as at Pipiriii. The same step will probably have j to be taken at Ongarue and Tuumaranui. j Piriaki will have the freehold, tie Govern-

ment having laid out a township on its own land and offered it for cash.

At Mangaweka a position has arisen similar to that existing in connection with the bridgeless Wanganui, and similar also to what took place at Makokine. A big river has to be spanned, the work takes longer than was anticipated, and the result is that the formation work beyond has to .be fed with material carted at great cost. The ballast engine runs only to the south side of the Mangavveka viaduct, and the earthworks are up to Turangarere, 29 miles north. When Makohine proved obstinate the Minister for Public Works formed and carried into effect

a rather during plan of carting an engine ! across the Makohine, and on to the forma- I tion works beyond, so as to ballast and j complete that part of the line more cheaply, and to have the railway ready for the run | right through to Mangaweka as soon as j trains could cross the viaduct. It is not i unlikely that the same plan will be followed by carting an engine to the north side of the Mangaweka, so as to have the line to Tai- j tape ballasted ready for the completion of I the Mangaweka viaduct. j The forests upon the pumice celt, the Wai- J marino, and Puketapu. are a vast national { asset, but it is a pity that' the totara in the j Waimarino has in the past been greatly over- | estimated, and that the value of the forest j has consequently been mis-stated. The j totara is not equal to in quality, and it is j very much below in quantity, the figures that j have been generally current "and accepted, i It is practically confined to the northern ! ' part, mostly to the section from the Wai- j marino summit north to Piriaka. | Like every terra incognita the land tapped ' by the .Main Trunk line has been alternately ' represented as a Sahara, and as the promised land. The fact is that it is neither. Pro-

perly worked it will pay for itself, and the only -war to produce that result is by means of the trunk railway now building.