OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY LEAGUE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 16

OTAGO CENTRAL RAI LWAY LEAGUE.

A meeting of the 0ta.30 Central Railway League was held on Monday night. There were present — Messrs Barron (in the chair), Jolly, _ Carroll, and Sli-anach. Messrs Bathgate and Brojvn wrofco apologising for non-at-tendance. The three members for the City— Messrs J. A. Millar, J. F. Arnold, and A. R. Barclay — were present by invitation. The Chairman said it had been decided at the last meeting of the league to ask the members to attend and furnish them with any information they rnighi possess concerning the line and the progress that was being made with it. He would invite Mr Millar to speak. Mr J. A. Millar, M.H.R., said he had not written specially asking for the exact state of tho vote just at the present. He thought it advisable to wait until tho end of the i^resent month, when the colony's financial year would close. They would then be able to consider a full period instead of a broken one. He would tell them, however, that for sixteen and a-half miles beyond "Wedderburn the line was in course of formation ; in fact, nearly completed; and the station buildings at Ida. Burn were being- erected. He had lately seen the Minister of Public Works, who told him that he was about to proceed up Central Otago and see what he could do to have the works pushed on. The Minister's intention was to have the two tunnels at the Poolburn Gorge put in hand immediately, in addition to the work being carried on at present. The Wedderburn section of the line would be open for pnsaenger traffic at the beginning of May and open for goods traffic about the first week in April. The Minister intended to have as much of the vote spent as he possibly could before the end of the present financial year ; but, though there were 300 men working on the line, it would be impossible to expend the £60,000 which had been voted. When he (Mr Millar) spoke in the Houpe regarding the line — it was cither in September or October last — there were then only some 80 men employed. The number had been gradually increased, tvnlil on February 19 there were 274- labourers and 36 artisans engaged. The number of men. employed at the same lime on the North Island Trunk line was 378, or 63 more than on the Otago Central line, while there were only 227 men working on the Midland railway. In the light of that comparison, he thought thoy would admit that they were £fijijan£ a fair share, of the expenditure ol fch%

amount voted for trunk lines. The Ivfini&ter had ?l j3 o informed him that he intended to have tl'ie Ma'mherikia bridge put in hpnd at the carlie«t po.-.siblo moment, and would {five instructions for the plans to be drawn up as &oon as he got back to Wellington. Tlw expenditure on the Otago Central line at xh® present time was something like £1000 per month. At fie end of the present month, however, he would undertake to let them know exactly what had been spent during tho p.i"t financial year. With the full 12 months' oxpondiruro before them they would then be in a. position to properly criticise tho Government's action.

In reply to questions, Mr Millar said the Otago Central railway was getting a larger proportion of its vote than was the Midland railway. Ti>e tunnels at Poolburn Gorge would have to depend on the vote of next session. The vote of next session would cover the whole expenditure of the Mauuherikia bridge. As, however, it would take almost 12 months to get the material for fie bridge even from the old country, the expenditure would be comparatively small during the cominc; year, and the bulk of it would have to come out of the following financial j-e-ir. The Minister vas strongly impressed with the necessity of pushing on the line.

Mr Jolly : I noticed in tho Times that 200 men were to be knocked off from the Otago Central line.

Mr Mil'ar that that had been the intention, and it was due to a report that there was a scarcity of hands for the harvesting. But the Minuter, when he came south, found that the report was not correct, and therefore he cancelled the order to reduce the number of men.

Mr Arnold. M.H.R.. said he had been present at the interview Mr Millar had with the Minister of Public Works, when the whole matter was gone into. He endorsed what had been said hy his fellow member. There was no doubt that the Minister was anxious to push on the line. He intended to visit the Otpgo Central district before Parliament ".et. -to '.Lai bo foiilcf a'.'-i^ tbo ler.cv* 211 a bilt?r manner than he could at present.

Mr Barclay, M.H.E., said that he was in sympathy with the objects of the league, and had always been «o. In times pa=t there might have been ronsons for delay, but now that times were good, money plentiful, and the proved pueees-i of the gold dredging industry was likply to cause a great deal of traffic on the railway, there was no excuse for the line not being pu'hed on. The efforts of the Government peemecl to be satisfactory, and if they were continued, the members of the league would be able to congratulate themselves on thefi igorous prosecution of the work on which they had sst their hearts.

Th? Chairman said that as regards tunnels, they had a?ked the Government a long time ago to have them constructed in readiness for the line. He thought Mr Millar should telegraph to the Government expressing 1 egret that tho plans for the tunnels at Poolburn Gorge were not ready, and asking them to ses that they were prepared at once. Mr Millar said he had no objection to sending a .telegram, and Messrs Arnold and Barclay intimated they would join Mr Millar in doin- so. Mr Carroll then moved a vote of thanks to the members for attending and imparting the infcrma4->n they had done. He was sure they all were impressed with the urgency of the work. The motion was carried. Mr Millar said no thanks were due either to himself or his fellow representatives. They were simply doing their duty in trying to see that a fair share of the public works money was spent in the district. The meeting then closed.

A man named Harry- Ashmore has been fined £10 and 30s costs at Dannevirke for destroying fish .by dynamite.

The Rev. Wyndham Earee's singing of " The Absent-minded Beggar " on a recent evening at the Pahiatua patriotic concert resulted in the audience throwing on the stage 291 coins, amounting to £6 Os 4d, also a watch and a diamond (?) ring.

The vsgistrar of electors for the Thames electorate has been sending out notices to those electors who did not record their votes on December 6. He received one back from a. lady with the following scrawled across it: — ■ *' Mrs did vole, and voted for Greenslade, and if that is the way the election was conducted no wonder M'Gowan got in."

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