N.Z. MAIL. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 189I. OPENING OF THE GORGE LINE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 993, 13 March 1891, Page 18

N.Z. MAIL. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1891. OPENING OF THE GORGE LINE.

The greatest event in the railway history of the North Island is the opening of the line through the Manawatu Gorge. No wonder the whole of the interior from Palmerston to Woodville was in a state of high holiday on Monday. As Mr McKerrow said at the luncheon at Wood ville, the link that has been completed makes 500 miles of line Bolid. East and west, north and south, from Napier to Wellington,fromTaranaki to Napier there is through communication. The man of many flocks and herds has the advantage of communication in any direction he pleases ; the solitary individual whose hat covers his family can travel whithersoever he listeth. The railway system of the southern three-fourths of the North Island is at least complete. It has been long delayed. What the causes are it would be both bootless and invidious at this stage of the history to onquire, or attempt to discuss. The line is opened; the Gorge is conquered. Five hundred miles of line are Bolid. It is a grand fact.

The Gorge, whose difficulties have been the main physical cause of the long delay, is still the Gorge. Many good people are afraid that for years, nay, for all time, the Gorge will still be the Gorge. That is to say, they fear that the dangers which stopped the construction of the liue will menace its working progress. Truly, there is one place which looks appalling to the uninstructed eye of the layman. There are vast masses of loose material on the unsteady side of the Iluahiue spur that descends so steeply into the Manawatu River, which look ready to come down upon anything like decent provocation " from the rainstorms and the frosts. The railway management has taken every precaution against injury from that cause. The hill may some day throw a few thousand tons of stuff down, but in all human probability no train will run into it, and makehavoe of itself and its freight at the dangerous spot. The public can only trust to the management to do all that is demanded of it by iheexigencies ofthesituation. Ifexperiecce shows that continued working is dangerous, then it will be time to ask for other arrangements. We must preserve the solidity of the 500 miles. If the Manawatu Gorge line will not do it some other link must be found. At present the Manawatu line may be trusted. The richness of the country tra versed cn Monday by the special train Btruck every eye. It is a country of magnificent certainties. The forest is fast disappearing, grass fields are taking its place of unexampled richness, in years to come when the remnants of the logs and the stumps are gone the agricultural capacities of that great territory will amaze the world. Naturally the wealth will flow towards the best port, Wellington, in other words, is destiued to reap the greatest fruits of the solid 500 miles. Not only because the traffic will flow as in a watershed down towards the best of the harbours. There is more in the prospect a great deal. The country from the Porirua Inlet to Palmerston is of unexampled richness, and it is but scratched as yet. The great plain between Palmerston and the Gorge is in the very infancy of settlement. The vast stretches of fine alluvial round AVoodville are in the same state ; the ranges of Tararua and Ruahine are only now showing what can be done with their fruitful soil—fruitful right up to most of the summitp. AH this life is young, but it is remarkably vigorous. It is the life of a country which is not only delightful to the eye of man, but useful for every purpose of civilised life, social and industrial. The completed solidity of the 500 miles of railway gives that vigourous life a new instalment of energy which will drive it ahead in a manner of which we have at present no conception.