THE WESTPORT-REEFTON RAILWAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 12

THE WESTPORT-REEFTON RAILWAY.

WBSTPORT, July 3. At * largely-attended meeting of the Westport Railway League in tho Town Hall to-night the following, among other resolutions, was carried: —"That thu meeting respectfully urges the Government to place on the Estimate* a substantial amount to ensure the speedy completion of the Westport-Reef ton * raflway. We contend that this is in the best interest* of the colony fca: the following" reasons: (1) Large areas of valuable coal and timber lands extend along the whole route. The demand for coal from this district is far and away in excess of the. emppjy.. Experts ia the coal trade assert that in the natural increase of. coal consumption within the colony there is room, for -another colliery every four years. (2) The population em< ployed in working coal knds is about 10 times that supported by agricultural and pastoral lands. Mineral railways, as already demonstrated in the local section, are the best paying railway* ia the colony. (3) Large areas suitable for settlement would also be tapped, and the road wondd be a great boon to settlers, who for the past 30 x years have shown, the- land under the most advene circumstances to yield satisfactory returns both from pastoral and agricultural pursuits. (4-) The mail and passenger route from the Commonwealth to the East Coast of this island would be considerably shortened, the harbour of Westport being capable of accommodating vessels engagedl in intercolonial trade.^ (5) The extraordinary development of commerce in the Pacific having created an enormous and increasing market for ooal, it occurs to n» both from a colonial and Imperial point of view that it is desirable that these coal fields should be connected with the Bast. (6) The railway will be at a profit-earmwa stage as soon as the Nine-mile Gorge * reached—six and a-h«Jf miles from West* Por t-

A " oookey " out west na/ned M'Lure Had suffered from coughing and ehilfe^ He saved up his money like bees getting honey, , And never would spend on nu MS, At last in despair and much palri He opened his vane, d_>d MXorev. Some " bawbees" went bang, bat tß# praises he aang Of Woods' Gte.it Peppermint Cw*