The Otago Central Railway.

Otago Witness, Issue 2561, 6 May 1903, Page 73

The Otago Central Railway.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, — I see your reporter has had an interview with Mr Berdmari (member for Mount Ida) with respect to tho Otago Ccixtral railway. As my view is entirely opposed to his, I should like to show to others that Mr Herdrnan is entirely wrong about the railway stepping at Blacks and the road through Thom?on's Gorge. I know there aro som© in Backs who want the railway to stop there. Some time ago a man wrora a letter to th© Otago Central Railway League giving an account of the progress of the work on the railway. Ho a.Vo stated that if the railway came to Blacks the people would be satisfied for it to ?top there for a long time. Hia reason for desiring to have it stop there no doubt is that he has a farm adjoining the station and has built an accommodation house close to ii, and will likely want an hotel when th© railway comes there, and his property will be worth ten cr twenty times more if the railway stopped at his property instead of being continued oa to Alexandra. Clyde, and upwards. ilr Herdraan is no longer a resident of Otago, but resides in the North Island, and no doubt he is the same as all North Island men — they are net satisfied if all the borrowed money is not spent in the north, and therefore want the railway to &top at B'.acks. This would pleas© some of the people residing there, and Mr Herdman also, for otherwise he would havo come round to Alexandra and upwards, along with Mr Burnett and your reporter and photographer of the Times and Otago Witne-S3, and seen the country for hinw&lf before he expressed an opinion about stopping ihe railway. In regard to making the road over th© ranges through Thomson's Gorge, he says the farmers from Hawea and Tarras would oonie over the ranges to Blacks, if tho road was made, even if the railway was at Clyde. He is en-tiroly wrong. There is no man who will cio»s the ranges at Thomson's Gorge where' he might at any time be snowed in and have to leave hi 3 team on the ranges, instead of coming to Clyde, with the road almost level, w>hoTrt any hill whatever. Horses would pull more than twice the quantity of stuff than they would over a steep range. The dihtance would also bo shorter to Clyde tli an to Blacks. From Mount Pisa Station to Crcmwe-llis nine miles, and from CromwelL to Cl^-de 13 miles — in all 22 miles. Mr Herdman says it is 19 milea through Thomson's Gorge from Matakanui to Lindis, and, say. seven miles from where it enters th© flat at Matakanui to Blacks. —in all 26 miles. Mount Pisa is nearer to the Hawea than th© Lindi3. which makes it fonr miles longer than the Cromwell and Clyde road. Mr Herdman says there nra only two small towns — Clyde and Alexandra — that would be left without the railway. He forgeta that Cromwell will bo left without it plso ; and the population of tbc«e towns is not so pinc.ll as some other country towns of Otago. In Alexandra, Bad Hill Flat, Earuscleugli, 'Clyde, and neighbourhood thero is a population of over 2000. Should onos the railway be- there, the Crown land opened for settlement, and the. water which now flows to the sea without any use turned on to tha land, it would not bo l^ng before there* would be 10,000 of a popu'ation. It is one cf the best places for fruit-growing, perhaps, in New Zealand. Seme yoars ago one of tho Government experts. Mr Boucher, vfei'.ed this place. He had been working in the fruit-gro-,ving part of California. He saw the fruit here, and said it was as good r.s Californian fruit, and this place reminded him of California. Some years ago the Teviot and Alexandra fruitgrowers sent our fruit to Mr Lode, of Dunedin, to dispose of Mr Lorie telegraphed to me: "Your peaches and apricots urn the bc=t ineidc Dunedin market ; receive ready *a!e at top price, although th© market is glutted. Send all you can." I got that telegram two years running. And <-veryona knovss that the Teviot peaches and apricots have tf-e nami 1 of being very good, both in the South Mand and Wellington. In our district we can grow grapes to perfection in the open air, while 'the Roxburgh fruitgrowers havo told me that they cmnc* grow any except under gJa?3. The reason ia that there i* a range, between Alexandra and Roxburgh. The Teviot i? on the south and we are on the north sids, which makfs it all the warmer. Wlu-n the pre^3nt Premier and tho Minister of Public Works (Hon. Mr Hall-.Tone*) were here in my garden tbev lemarked that th<=y never would have believed it pc^sibk' to have so much fruit growing en 'he rrE-es a^= they paw here, nnd that I would never cart it all 70 miles to the Lawrence railway, which was quite true. More than the half of it'waa waited on th© OToun'l. My tree? had then been growing wild for scm-3 year-, without any cultivation, pruning, or ptt-^n-tion, as it did not pay to cart the fruit to the railway. which took four days on the road. But it is not cnlv fruit, but grain of all descriptions as well, that is grown l-.cs. When the memliers of the Waste L»anc'« Board were Tookine ar the Montei© run I was w'th them, i>nd they called on tin new pettlerwnt at Earnscleuph and at my farm when 20 aerns of opts wAre being reape-1. Mr Barron and Mr Duncan ntat^d that, llipv had n"c seen any finer oats growing anywhere th « year, either as to quality or quantity I havo seen barley grown on a neighbour's farm, and have nPvc-r s©en betrer quality jrrmv anywhere. When my land was first taken up it was as bare- as any public road — not a particle of grass pro win* anywhere. This. Mr Clark., member of the Waste Land Boa^d, can verify, for he was with me. and examined the land bpfore it wa? open for sett' ftT ncnt, and he did cot, think it would be of any use. He- has vi-jited it "-inn?, and was never more astonished in hu> life, to see *;ueli a change, ond ho believes now th'tt, it will grow any Drain or grass equal to that on the Taieri Plain. Triers nrp thousands of acres oquallv a^ good i-bout Alexandra and Clyde— in fa^t, the terraces are bctfcT for fruit-sri ovinor than the flat, as thn frost den"! not affect the trees there as it does on the flat.

Now, Mr Herdmn !a Qizious for the

Government to savo money; then let no more Government money be wasted on roads, but let each county make their own roads at thoir own expense, and none will be wasted. The north has had thousands of pounds spent on road-making, and now they say they have- no roads, so the money must havo been wasted, the same as some of it has been in our district, aa for instance on the Galloway-Ida Valley road. It was to be made so that there "would be an easy road to the. railway, at Ida Valley. Public money has been spent on it for ssveral years, and it 13 not finished yet. and the railway will bo at Blacks before it is. There v no longer r.ny need for it, and there the money is .wasted. The same will be the cnto with the money to be spent on Thomson's Gorge. Mr Hardman says it will take £SOOO to construct 16 milos, but it is more likely to take £20,000, and the railway should be made to Alexandra, Clyde, and Cromwell long before Thomson's Gorge road is made, as the road can scarcely ever bo of any u.«e on account of tba liability to be blocked with snow. — I am, etc.,

A. C. Iveessn. Earnscleugh, Alex-iidra, April 22.

An elderly man, Thomas Smalo, wa« committed for trial at Christchurch for selling a mixture of resin and paraffin for beeswax, and by means of this false pretence obtaining £30, £17, and £20 from three persons. Professor Bickerton, colonial analyst, stated that he had examined .a cp^cimen of the composition, and found there was no beeswax iv i 6; that both the rehial ingredients •of the mixture were spoiled by mixing, and that the stuff was of no market value whatever. Later on he analysed another sample, and found it to consist, like the last, of resin and paraffin.

Prior to the commencement of his d'scourse at Holy Trinity Church, Gore. la=t Sunday evening, the Rev. J. L. A. Kayll (says the Ensign) stated that he had been frequently asked lately to mak& a pronouncement in regard to the question of harvestine: on Sundays in view of tho late season and the bad weather. He said that we had not rigid laws in regard to Sabbat'i observance as the Jews had under the Mosaic Dispensation, an-d they were always allowed to re;cua their harvest from possible danger even though it involved working on the Sabbarh. Distinctly there was nothing wrong in farmers working on Sundays to save their crops if there was any r&a=cn.\bb fear that the harvest could not be rescued in good order otherwise.