THE OTAGO CENTRAL

Otago Witness, Issue 1762, 29 August 1885, Page 13

THE OTAGO CENTRAL

Your "Peripatetic Jotter" has the high honour of being the first colonist to receive practical benefit from railway communication upon the Otago Central, and as it's first through passenger on Wednesday night last performed the journey from Mullocky Gully to Dunediu in the shortest time the distance has ever been covered. Having spent the day in perambulating Messrs.Matheson Brothers' Hindon contract, s ' I passed Blullocky Gully shortly after 4 o'clock, intending to' catuh the express at M.osgiel, but on passing through the first tunnel 1 f ounrf the platelayyera about to knock off work for the day, who informed me that I was just in tyne for a passage to % Wingatui— .a most unexpected pleasure after a .hard day's tramp. Seating myself in the corner of an empty waggon, the platelaying gang were , distributed over the other empties, each in command of a brake. As became the representative of the Otago Witness, I was placed in the lead in company with the " look-out " man, a very patriarch at platelaying. All hands were aboard, the brakes were lifted, and off we went at from 15 to 20 miles an hour. Popping through the second tunnel at a rate ' inconceivable to one who had so often tardily threaded its dark mazes' by night and by day, each alike dark to the traveller, we were speedily thereafter rounding the many curves ahead, our aged " look-out" keeping His weather eye round tile corners to make sure that the locomotive was out of our way, until, as the Taieri Plain burst upon our view, the engine was observed making from the ballast-pit. The course being thus clear, off* we rattled at a rare pace until brought up by the Messrs Whittaker and Son's men and the ballast gang, about a quarter of a mile above the North Taieri road. Having taken them aboard, and although thus losing " way," we then shot rapidly round the corner and past the engine, which stood upon the ballast line, pulling up beyond, where a number of the labourers reside: The engine ,theu camn up from behind and pushed us ahead to the Wingatui Junction, which was reached in good time for the 5.15 p.m. train frdm Mosgiel, reaching Dunedin shortly after 6 o'clock, just two hours exactly from Mullocky Gully. 1 "I have every reason to believe that the trucks by which we travelled would of their own accord have reached Wingatui, the momentum received in coming down the line being, I should say, sufficient tb 'carry them right across the Taieri Plain. ' The main camp at Nen thorn is 800 ft ' above the level of tho Dunedin Custom-house, giving a fall from Nenthorn to Wingatui of ■ fully 30ft to the mile, so that by the use of powerful brakes locomotive power could be dispensed with entirely, but, as a matter of course, ■ t&e upward pull will be all the mere stiff ; however, the ' balance ' of traffic will doubtless be downward in carrying ' interior produce to market. I had also the pleasure of performing the upward journey on Saturday morning last, when the engine did the distance in"ha),f an ' hour, with a light load. Messrs ' Black and Allison, the Mullocky viaduct foundation contractors, have the honour of being the first consignees of railway freight per •the Otago Central, having on Tuesday taken delivery at their tunnel store of a truck-load, of , cement ; so this looks like business at last. I am very pleased to be able to report lhat - the Home Mission Supply Committee of the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland ' have been led to devote their attention to the spiritual requirements of the hitherto neglected denizens of the Otago Central, and that, all things considered, a most favourable reception has been vouchsafed to the pioneer representative of the Synod who on Sabbath last officiated at three central positions on the line — viz., the main camp, Nenthorn, in the morning ; atj the Flat Stream in the afternoon ; and the main camp, Deep Stream, in the evening. The Rev. "D. Borrie, of the North-east Valley, preached an earnest and impressive sermon in the smithy, at Nenthorn, when he stated that he had been ■ sent to report upon the Otago Central as a field for the employment of a missionary. From what he had-seen he intended to report favour l ably of the matter, and hoped that ere long a missionary would take up his abode among them 'and announce his arrangements for regular services, which he" trusted would meet with their approval and support. The numbers of workmen employed at present upon the several contracts are as near as ' may be as follow: — Sections. Contractors. Men. Wages. "' £ Wingatui ... Whittaker and Mackie ... 60 GOO Ditto ... J. T. Dick 30 ' 250 , Ditto- ... .Black and Allison ... 20 200 Hindon ... Govt. wages men ... 2 20 Ditto ... Do." do. do. (borers) 5 50 ' Ditto ' ... Matheson Brothers ... 100 800 < Ditto ...O. and W. Gore ... 30 300 De"ep Stream Miller and Smellie ...180 1,750 Neuthorn ... It. Meikle and Co. ... 180 1,750 612 N £5,820 The amount 'given as wages is. calculated for j th,e full inqnth, but as few of the gangs made fxx\\ tinje owing to the late sjwy storm, the j ajqount". actually paid fo.r last month's labour TYas prqbably £1000 less than stated. Contrary to. ■^hat might reasonably be expected, the ', ,|ullest time is, as a rule, made by those who are employed in the most exposed sibuat}o,n.s , (with the exoeption of tunnellers), suoh aq the 1 Bluffs and rooky faoes where the. atarfl goes* *' sppil,' much lost time being the. rean"- m weather upqn the blook -ol&vy- ". „ o f wet roads leading , thei'eff*'"' cuttings and .heavy toeuablf"'"- which become too VWifcft"" ' \ - ,/ork to be prosecuted with ado - uo the contractor. l It will be observed that the four Government , wages men of last month are now reduced by 50 per cent., and I trust that the Public Works Statement will have provided for this item being in. future expunged from my monthly wages sheet. Messrs ■ Black . and Allison's staff of workmen is likely to be increased to about 50 men during the coming month and Mr Dick's probably to. a, similar extent. Gored tunnel hands are likely also to be about doubled, . but otherwise si should think the numbers employed are likely to remain somewhat as at - present unless Messrs Whittaker and Mackie's , staff is increased, as it probably will be by their commencing the extensive earthwork formation at the <Wihgatui Junction included in their contract, the [material for which I fully expect will be obtained froYn Messrs Gore's brick-yard in the hntnecljate vicinity. ' • * Judging from the present latent feeling that permeates through the navvies of the Otago

. Central, a large exodus will take place a month ; hence Criff el-wards. All information therefrom i in the Otago Witness from your Wanaka cor- ; respondent is being eagerly scanned by the , majority of the navvies. I have been at Crift'el , in common with most spots in Otago, and am well acquainted with the nature of the high 1 lands there to be operated upon this spring and next summer by the hardy gold-miner who is prepared to ".rough it" in that presently bare, inhospitable, and snow-covered mountain range , and the surrounding mountain chains over which the search for the precious metal is likely to lead prospectors the state of whose purses will enable them to prosecute the work with a fair chance of ultimate' success. Heedless of the warnings of your local correspondent, a few navvies have already thrown down their picks and shovels, struck their tents, and started for Criffel with heavy swags ; and in so doing, in my humble opinion, they have made a big mistake, as for a month or six weeks to come they will simply have to lead an inactive tent life on the Clutha banks or those of the Cardrona Creek, unless they prefer to patronise the Albert Town, Pembroke, or Luggate hotels, in the vicinity of the Criffel. No one should leave the Otago Central works — not even a month hence — unless possessed of means sufficient to exist for three months at the least without any accession, of income from the at •'best precarious and uncertain source of goldmining, particularly over untried mountain ranges, where food and supplies must necessarily be scarce and dear. If the Criffel prove a payable goldfield there will be ample time for everyone •to secure golden ground after the rush has been fairly established, as there is any quantity of similar ground to that opened last summer by the prospectors, that has led "to the expected forthcoming rush, which will doubtless this summer be the means of thoroughly testing the extensive range of mountains from Lake Wanaka to the Arrow and Macetown on the one ,side, and to the Kawarau on the other. I may mention that it will take fully a week to '! swag it " from the Otago Central over the Rock and Pillar and old Dunstan road to the Criffel, via Cromwell ; but much the shortest way is to strike off at Black's for Tinker's Gully, crossing the Dunstan Range via Thompson's Pass to the Tarras, or Sandy Point Accommodation House — an easy day's stage from Tinker's Gully. The railway pegs defining the route of the Otago Central could be followed for the entire distance to Albertown, but the route suggested is much the shortest ; still, while giving it, I would strongly advise all who are in work on the Otago Central, or elsewhere, who may be of a mind to try their luck at the Criffel goldfields, quietly to pursue their ordinary avocations, keeping their weather eye upon the results obtained at the first of the season, a month or two hence, by those presently less favourably situated for work, or who may follow up new rushes as their trade — that of practical miners constantly in search of pastures new. So far as I can see, from a hurried perusal of the Public Works Statement delivered on Tuesday night, no . new contracts are provided for beyond the Nenthom section — the £151,600 voted for the Otago Central, I take it, being required to complete the line to the 33rd mile peg, near the Sutton, and if so I was not far out in my calculations, given some time ago, of the probable amount required to .finish the total length now under construction, from the commencement of the Wingatui to tho end of the Nenthom section. Pkrifatkttc Jottkr.

BIYOE. August 24. — A few words were omitted from a sentence in a topic in my last week's letter, whereby a wrong interpretation was put on the remarks made. 1 refer to the paragraph in reply to " Peripatetic Jotter's " criticism on the fact of the Rev. R. C. Morrison not visiting the Otago Central. The words omitted were :—: — "That I knew from personal observation that the rev. gentleman's hack was not one of the 10 mile an hour sort," and their omission made it appear that Mr Morrison merely looked to " funds "as his recompense. What I meant to infer was that until a hack of the right sort was provided, he could not be expected to do wonders.