THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2565, 13 May 1903, Page 11

THE OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

It would hare been of interest to the public if information had been procured for last week's meeting of the Executive Committee of the Otago Central Railway League respecting the amount out of last year's vote that was expended on the line. The reports that were received from the branches of the League iv Central Otago imply that satisfactory progress is at present being made with the line, but we question very much ■whether it will not be found that once again a considerable proportion of the appropriation has been allowed to lapse. And there is certainly room for grave disappointment that the hopes the Minister of Public Works has repeatedly held out concerning the progress that should be made with the construction of the line are not being more liberally fulfilled. The general opinion in the district, one report that was read at the meeting of the League on Monday night stated, is that, should the present number of hands be kept on, ;he line would be open about the end of 1904 to Leask's, which is the point described on the Government survey maps as Manuherikia Township, and also known by the settlers as Lauder Township. But in 1900, in his annual statement to Parliament, the Minister expressed the expectation that the line to Alexandra would be completed within three years. Between Leask's and Alexandra lie, however, several miles of route, including sections in which there will be a great deal of heavy rock cuttings. Between these points, moreover, two bridges, crossing and recrossing the Manuherikia, have to be built. He would be a sanguine individual, under j the circumstances, who would, if the j present rate of progress is to be adhered to, speculate upon the chance of the railway reaching Alexandra before 1907. It is probably because he is in despair over the prospect of the line being completed to Hawea in the lifetime of the present settlers in that portion of Otago /that Mr Herdman, the member for Mount Ida, has formed the strong .opinion he recently expressed, through ipur columns, in favour of the speedy conjstruction of the road from Matakanui | [through Thomson's Gorge to the Lindis .Creek, in which event he would be content to see the railway stop for the jn-eseut at Lauder. But, while the

settlers in the Hawea and Tarras district probably clutch at the idea of the Thomson's Gorge road because it would, if it were opened and traffic by it were ! practicable, bring them within, under i favourable conditions, a day's journey from Dunedin, it remains to be proved that the route in question is actually i practicable. The consensus of public opinion aud the weight of engineering testimony are entirely against Mr Herdman on this point. The grades would be so severe that it would almost certainly be impossible for teams with heavy loads to negotiate them, and the maintenance of the road would involve the authority that was responsible in considerable annual expense. Mr L. D. Macgeorge, whose letter to the Railway League on the subject was published by us yesterday, is probably speaking by the book when he says that the Vincent County Council, while it is quite prepared to expend Government money on a road through Thomson's Gorge, would decline to spend any of its own revenues upon the work. Even, however, if it were admitted that a road practicable all the year round for traffic could be constructed through Thomson's Gorge, Mr Herdman's suggestion is open to the very serious objection that its adoption would involve at once the exclusion of Alexandra, Clyde, and Cromwell — the three principal towns in the Duustan Valley — from the railway system, and the abandonment so far as railway communication is concerned, of a portion of Central Otago that should be revenue-producing in a high degree. It would, indeed, be a grave mistake, from the point of view of the community as a whole as distinguished from that of a particular locality, if the railway were stopped at Lauder. Such a proposal should not be listened to for a moment.

Mill hands are scarce at the present time in the neighbourhood of Riverton. Valuable Discovert for the Hair.— lf your hair is turning grey or white, or falling off, use " The Mexican Hair Renewer," for it will positively restore in every case Grey or White hair to its original colour, without leaving the disagreeable smell of most " Restorers." It makes the hair charmingly brautiful, as well as promoting the growth of the hair on bald spots, where the glands are not decayed. Aek your Chemist for "The Mexican Hair Rexewee," sold by Chemists and Perfumers everywhere. Wholesale depot, 33 Farrinetoa road London, England.