TAUPO TOTARA TIMBER COMPANY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 59

TAUPO TOTARA TIMBER COMPANY.

WELLINGTON, October 12. The Special Committee of the House today further considered the Taupo Totara Timber Company's petition to extend its railway and to acquire certain areas of Native land. Mr W. C. Kensingtqn, Under-secretary of Lands, gave evidence as to the area of Crown land which might be influenced by the proposed extension and as a general rule the character of the country. The immediate area of Crown land to be benefited would be 166,800 acres, inside a radius of 30 miles. Dutside of this radius 184,441 acres would benefit in a secondary way.

October 13. The petition of the Taup.o Totara Timber Company was again before the Special Committee of Parliament to-day. Mr H. J. 11. Blow, Under-secretary of Public Works, gave evidence that the company's line was a light one, worked by special rolling stock. The engine took eight hours to run 50 miles. The line was not up to the. standard of Government railways, and considerable expenditure would be necessary before *it could be authorised to carry passenger traffic. At present it was fit for light traffic at a. low speed, if that would suit the requirements of the district.

According to a writer in the current issue of the Railway Review, the total membership of trade unions was 11,185,056 in 1909. The countries with the largest membership are: Germany, 2,500,000; Great Britain and Ireland, 2,347,461; France, 977,350; Italy, 820,000; and .Austria, 536,493. The number of tradia unionists in Australia and New Zealand is given as 261,548. *