OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LINE: ITS PERILS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15847, 20 August 1913, Page 8

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LINE: ITS PERILS.

TO THS EDITOR. Sir—l think I voice 'the sentiments of. the bulk of the population of Central Otago when I draw attention to the serious danger the travelling public incur in ■ passing through the gorge between Pukerangi and Hindon —a matter of sonic 11 miles. The stupendous engineering feat of constructing such a line amid extraordinary physical difficulties, coupled with the dangers that might evolve from time to time through Nature' 6 instability and the forces oi denudation operating amid such perilous conditions, should, we deem, havo made the projectors of the schomo hesitate and ponder- well before embarking on so bold an enterprise. There is no need to enlarge on tho his"torieal aspect of the undertaking or to enter into a discussion of the motives that actuated tho men who had to do with its inception. That it iva6 conceived in folly there is not the shadow of doubt. To think of constructing a line through a desolate waste of howling crag and rocky precipice in order to. tan the illimitable resources of a narrow, limited patch oi oountry of doubtful and varying productiveness was surely the madcap idea of a fgroup of motley-minded bipods in a, moment of mental aberration. There is no use blinking the fact: Everyone knows that tho thing vra6 nothing more nor less than a tremendous blunder. Commercially, that is undoubtedly so; and the happenings at the end of last .week have emphasised another aspect of the matter—a matter of far graver moment. Through the

heavy rainfall a considerable number' o: slides took place in the gorge—some 16 1 am told—these temporarily suspending the traffic, and, what i 6 more serious still, creating a feeling of uneasy suspicion and lack of confidence on the part of would-be travellers. It is a mere coincidence that these slides —in one case a heavy mass qf 6ol:d rock came down on the line—occurred fortunately when the line was clear; but they might quite reasonably havo occurrod during the progress of a train through the gorge. Tho idea is suggestive—one shudders to think of what might have been and what might! be at any moment! There is n. deep-rooted conviction among the people of Central Otago—and these events show how very reasonable and justifiable the conviction is—that one day an appalling catastrophe will take place in the gorge. It is surely high time for those in authority to awake out of sleep, tako occasion by tho forelock, and avert such a very possible and tremendously dire calamity. To re-

main coldly indifferent to this matter, to allow oneself to bo lulled to (sleep on tuo lap of a false security under the impression that such things may not occur again—to trot out the trite " Things without all remedy should be without-regard; what's done is done" argument—this 1 consider and I refer to the powers' that be, were almost criminal- The tiling is not without all remedy, and I maintain that dillydallying might, and very oonceivably will, spell disaster. True, the expenditure on this line has been tremendous—and the outlay, be it allowed, has been most uneconomic And unoorapensatory. But it is better to be wise before the event by contriving, if possiblo, expedients to avert misfortune than paasively to stand by and reap the fruits of folly.

In this case liaply it is possible to contrive expedients, and the expedient lies along the line of the scheme that ought originally to have been projected and carried through. I refer to the route from Palmereton or Dunback to Hyde or Kokonga, or oven Waipiata. Such a. line would not be very costly, comparatively speaking, and I am convinced its construction, if not voluntarily undertaken, will ultimately be undertaken through the sheer compulsion of circunis'tanccs.—l nm, etc., Actios.