OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13857, 21 March 1907, Page 3

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Silt, —I notice the Minister of Lands is reported to have stated that, the Otego Central railway would he finished in April as far as it would go for many years tq come. If such, is to be the case, what is. the position of the settlers in the Upper Ciutha Valley? Is the construction of the railway to Clyde of any benefit to them? I should think not. It u-iil simply provide means of competition against, them in the local market they had. Its detention at Clyde is only a.boycolttgainst the very district that was held up as an inducement for its construction by its promoters. I heard a gentleman say on the public platform that the Otago Central railway was being constructed where neither God nor man intended it to be. That may bo so, but I hope that ,t will not be allowed to stop at Clyde for any length of time. For if it does, an injustice will bo done to the Upper Ciutha district that no Government can be guilty of unless its treats its predecessors' promises with contempt. 1 know the country from Wanaka to the sea, and I have 110 hesitation in stating that from Cromwell to Wanaka it offers more inducement for close settlement than any part; of the country through which the line has been constructed, and is the only part where wheat can bo grown successfully. Then there is the timber trade—a most important one,—and there is the scenic and sporting attractions, unsurpassed in. Now Zealand. I have not the slightest personal interest in the Otago Central, but T know every transaction in connection with it since its first proposal l by the Provincial Council, and I think it is very hard lines for those settlers in the Upper Ciutha who settled there on the promise of having this line finished years ago to their doors, to be told that they are doomed to disappointment indefinitely while railways are being constructed along the sea beach to compete with water carriage. But I suppose such will be the ease while railway routes are decided by the support they will bring to thoso in power at the time. However, my sympathy is with the settlers in t.he Upper Ciutha Valley, and if I have said anything to bring their position under public notice my object is attained. —I am, etc., Ax Old Mixeb. Long Valley, March 14.