STRATFORD RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 7

STRATFORD RAILWAY.

{ :' v • - THE TANGARAKAU GORGE. I : A GREAT COALFIELD. I WHANGAMOMONA TO , STRATFORD. - i i . No. V. 1 JIT OCR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER. From Tatu to Whangamomona is a most • interesting journey. The distance is about | 32 miles, but it is not fair to measure distance by miles—the depth of mud, the , roughness of the track must be added: and j! under these conditions from Tatu to Whaf ngamomona means a long day's journey 1 even on. real good horses. , The country for some distance beyond 1 Tatu is of excellent character, and then one enters tho Tangarakau Gorge and there ; opens before one some of the finest scenery ; in the North Island. Great papa cliffs rise sheer from the edge of the river to vast heights. They -are not even or regular, but ; are carved into fantastic shapes. ' In places one sees gigantic pyramids lifting - their peaks out of black hollows of bush, ) on the other hand vast domes tower overhead. Here and there recent slips show the cliffs blue-grey, but for the most part ; "luxuriant forest growth clings even to the • steepest places, the crimson water fern tapestries even overhanging precipices. A PICTURESQUE GORGE., Our way lay along the bed of the Tangarakau River. A narrow track has .been cut into the base of the great papa bluffs, but as the level parts ■were boggy, and the hard parts dangerously slippery, there was not much opportunity to admire the scenery ; .still its wild beauty impressed one, and one could well imagine . that in summer weather a walk or a ride through this'fine gorge would yield abundant pleasure. It is certainly one of the show places in New Zealand, and the Tourist Department might; with advantage, advertise its attractions so that travellers can have the chance of seeing what is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque places still left in .Us primitive stale. The Government, I believe, have, reserved the gorge and' the forests surrounding it for scenic purpose?, and it is to be hoped that steps- will be taken to prevent its beauty being spoiled. I would not advise any nervous traveller to make the journey through the Tangarakau in winter time, or until the summer heat has dried the tracks. In places it is positively dangerous to horsemen; for the narrow ledge track over which one lias to ride is slippery and treacherous where it has been cut out of the papa, and a fall into the deep swift waters would in nine cases out of ten mean death. A NEW COALFIELD. There are evidently immense deposits of coal in the Tangarakau, and in other places both to the north and the south of the Stratford-Ongarue Railway. One seam I saw exposed was fully eight feet thick, and another a little distance from the road measures, I am told, over thirty feet . through. The coal seams are overlaid in most places by the papa formation, and it is quite possible that they may extend westward almost to the Main Trunk line. Men who know this part of New Zealand declare, that it possesses one of the -largest ' in the colony, and one has only to notice the frequency with which outcrops . of coal are marked on the Government maps and their wide distribution there to believe the statement. It is, of course, only in such places as , the Tangarakau, where river action has cut through the overlying formations, that one has any opportunity of examining the character of the coal measures. As we had no time to spend in exploration I could not say what geological age the coal measures belonged to, but I should say that they were contemporaneous with those of other North Island lignite coals, and are not, as some people believe, of the Devonian age, and 1 likely to carry bituminous coal. The Stratford-Ongarue Railway is not to be carried through the Tangarakau Gorge, but crosses the Paparata Ranges a little further to the south. Even if it were to be carried through the gorge I should say that the construction works would not by any means be so difficult as those that have to be undertaken to carry the Midland up the Waimakariri, or the Otago Central up the Clutha. Once through the Tangarakau the road or track climbs by easy stages to a moderately low saddle, and then winds its way through low hills to Whangamomona. For a few miles the road is formed of burnt papa and both our horses and ourselves felt the tremendous contrast between the sea of mud we had waded through and the clean, hard, well-formed highway. I would like to make everybody in New Zealand realise the difference between the sloughs and wallows of the bush track and a metalled road. If I could perhaps the city people might forego their clock towers and their elaborate public buildings for awhile until , the baekblocks had at least passable ways made into their settlements. I am so impressed with the pecuniary and commercial , value of good roads that I would urge the Government to make these works and new railways come before everything else ' a the ; expenditure of public monies. The nation ! could find no bitter investment than gnod | means of communication. A few n ill ions spent in forming and metalling our main ; roads would yield a magnificent interest. That few miles of burnt papa is, however, ■ only an oasis iu ether sea of mud which lies between Whangamomona and the railway line at Toko, but it gave a, good finish to a long an 3 jfuti „.jig journey, and ifc will, I hope, servo us an object lesson to show what immense good can be done even by burnt papa. % THE STRATFORD SIDE. I have given some general idea of the area of country wir !'. would be tapped by the extension, of ib . -ailway from the Auckland end or froir, Ongarue, say, to the foot of the Paparata Ranges, and have shown that for 20 miles or more on each si<Je of the' route there is good land. It is just as . ell to show something of the count: - on the Taranaki side of the ranges. From the Tangarakau Gorge to Stratford is about 60 miles, and 55 out of this 60 is settled, and 40 closely settled for an average distance of seven miles on each side of the route ol the railway. In places there is a width of 20 miles settled, but if we take the average at 14 miles and the length at 55 miles, it gives an area of nearly half a million acres of more or less settled country to be tapped by the extension of the railway. This does? not, of course, mej»n that it is the only area affected by the line, for there is a very large amount of country beyond the boundaries mentioned that will be benefited by the line and that will contribute freight to it. I was assured by one of the leading settlers in the district that the land on each side of the railway route would averagely carry two sheep to the acre, and after seeing it I am quite prepared to believe tin estimate to be a fair one. That it is , butter ? I'od'jci'.'j.; , country as well can be j seen by die daily factories dotted along the road. Dairying is, however, hampered by bad roads, and until the railway is built j and conueetcd with roads both dairying and j sheep raising , insist continue to develop 1, but slowly, and under a serious Inyidicap.

HEAVY FREIGHTS. -.J Freight from Stratford to Whangamomona costs ten pounds* per ton. * What thiis means to the cost of living can be seen-by r-.li r\ i . y

the. following items: —Oatmeal which in Stratford costs;2s 9d-, per bag costs iii Whangamomona 7s. Wheat and oats are more than doubled in price. Wire and hardware are sent lip to fabulous prices, and the settler* besides paying twice as much as their fellow-settlers in more favoured parts of Taranaki have. to be content with a much-reduced price for their produce. Fancy having to pay £10 per. ton on butter and cheese and "wool. Such figures as the.se show that the settler is taxed most heavily for what ho produces and what he consumes. Is there any wonder that he fights hard for a, railway? Is.it . any wonder that- settlement is retarded under such circumstances? One is tempted to ask how any Government professing to have the welfare of the country at heart dare refuse railways where they mean «so much to national development Mid also whether it is ordinarily honest to sell or lease land without giving proper access to it. It is stated that the Government, in North Taranaki, have purchased from the natives a total area of at least 250,000 acres, at prices ranging from Is 6d to 2s 6d per acre, and have sold it or leased it to settlers at prices ranging from 12s 6d to 25s per acre. If all the balance of this money had been spent on roads in the districts dealt with it would have only been a fair business undertaking. If twice, the sum had been spent in the same way it would still have been a good investment. The price which the Government gives for land and the price it sells it at after all is a mere detail; the main thing is to make the best use of all lands in .the State, and that can only be done by providing railways'and good roads. A COACHING ROAD. When I reached Whangamomona and saw well-equipped livery stables and a hand-somely-painted Cobb coach I thought all the difficulties of bad roads were over, and when Mr. P. White turned up in a neat little trap, with the smart trotter Maitai in the shafts, I expected only a pleasant day drive, but I was disappointed. •* The papa metal came to an end almost as soon' - as we lost sight of Whrngamomona, and we got into papa mud—mud up to the axles' in places. Maitai, like the gallant animal he is, pulled us out of some awful places. How the coach with its load of passengers got through I don't know, but it did, and it speaks well for the energy of the mail contractor that he consents to use "wheeled' vehicles and not packhorses on such roads. SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAINS. There are no difficulties before railway construction between Whangamomona and Stratford. It is not such easy country as between Ongarue and Tatu, but it is well settled and well stocked. In places one .obtained magnificent views of Ruapehu and Tongariro lifting their snowy peaks toward the sky, and further on we saw Mount Egmont in all its glory— the noblest mountain on earth. The country through which we drove was pastoral country, show-, ing its recent emergence from the bush stage by blackened stumps and charred logs,'' but old enough, at any rate, to carry pleasant homesteads. '■ There is little change in the country until; one reaches Oruru, the present terminus of the Stratford-Ongarue Railway, and then, one gets not only the blessings of the railway, but of good loads also, and what these mean, to a country is seen in the growing • townships and the thick ' spread farmhouses. Good roads, however, came too late to save poor Maitai, who had dragged us through nearly 40 miles of mud. He was thoroughly exhausted before' we reached Stratford, and I had to leave him and get a lift in a passing cart in order to catch the train for New Plymouth. And thus I finished my journey over the' route 'of the Stratford-Ongarue Railway,' through one of the largest and finest districts in New Zealand, that only needs' this , railway to add thousands of people to our population and hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly to our national wealth. '