RAILS REACH NGATAPA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13426, 7 July 1914, Page 2

RAILS REACH NGATAPA.

■ To-day consftituited a r ed-letter >da.v or Ngatopa, and ; incidentaJjy^lm^ tant event m connection with the £nstruction of the Gisboime-SouthwlSte wSl the Elasfc .Co^t .-Main *S? With the re-erection of the temporary low-level bridge, pla-telaying opS were reWed' beyond Patutahi onJuTe f> f l^ ] £ st r^-> the gang knocked off, there wei-e only-ten cIS sL 'H reach - ? he station sue. ±tie remaining rails w?re' placed m position to-day, thus completing a creditable piece cf work. , There #ere aoout two miles of line'. .to put down," but the gang w*re also . engaged m shitting materia!, slips, etc.; Actual platelaymg was prosecuted at the rate, oi a quarter of a mile a day.. The railhead will be pushed on as far as Bnrns's about half-a-mile beyond ..the station site. ihe extension of the* permanent way into Ngatapa. which* is eleven miles from Makaraka, should effect a considerable saving m cartage of materials on tbe roads. .'..'.-.

Now that the rails have reached Ngatapa, it is intended to proceed, with the laying of th c service tram line un the Mangatotoe Valley. The bulk o"f the material is available. Red birch sleepers from Matawai are beipg used. .-'."'- The district can -hardly offer congratu-' iations upon the despatch -with which construction work, is being carried out seeing that it has taken no "less 'than ' two years and four months to put down ' 11 miles of almost entirely flat track.' itie hrst £ od was turned, m February,. AWLS, and a month or two elansed m consequence.of the fight over the"^ merit, of King's road and Makaraka £. the meantime the work was pro'secutS beyond the controversial area past Patu tahi, and the Makaraka route S ; «"' itely decided upon m Ju„Jf 19ll. : l£ fact practically all the earthwork ™ wh_ch the rails have during-the 3 few days been laid, ,half been^finisfid an* lying idle once September, 1913= " Not a single p,le has yet been dkven on tW permanent railway' bridge a?ro S s Ihe ■Waipaoa 'river. The coniL,^ - *_5_» to - *• ■!* -STSSnJSJ.