Wayside Notes and Comments.

Southland Times, Issue 11672, 28 February 1891, Page 2

Wayside Notes and Comments.

«, LYTTELTON TO NAPIER. [By Winchester.] 111. Before leaving the Manawatu and Palmarston district a word about its produce and capabilities. All along the railway *re notice a great difference from our Southern fields. The bush clearings limit the size of the holdings, and still more the amount of cultivated ground. A rough clearing is sufficient to grow grass in any quantity, but for fields of oereals great labour must be expended in bringing the ground into a fit state. Large tielcls are therefore uncommon. The heavier rainfall of this wooded country, coupled with the warmer climate, causes an abundant growth of grass all the year round, sufficient to support four or five sheep to the acre without the concern for turnips and winter feed which annually brings to Southland great numbers of sheep to be fattened forour Northern neighbours. Under these circumstances it is uot to be wondered at that the growth of mutton is largely followed and more attention paid to it perhaps than with us. The railway arrangements also appear more complete than those down here, doubtless owing to the fact that the line is in the hands of a private company which is thereby compelled to foster such industries in order to obtain sufficient material to haul. Drawing their supplies of beef and mutton from this district we have first of all the Gear Meat Freezing Company in Wellington. It goes in largely for canning meat and working up its oddments, &c, into marketable products. Situated about nine miles from the city its meat is loaded on board the steamers from a hulk which is towed from the works to the vessel's side. This is perhaps one of the best managed companies in this line in New Zealand, and on that account came into special prominence in the recent labour disturbance. The butUHugs are very complete and extensive, and the company owns a number of Bhops in the city. The annual dividend ia 10 per cent. Being a Southlander I was of course anxious to find out if the Gear Co returned any bonus to shippers, but my informants were uuable to supply me with an}' answer. A second freeziug company in Wellington is the Ngtihaiiranga, which has its killing works five miles out, and rails its mutton into town to t he freezing machines. Three sets of freezing engines make the machinery very complete, and it is the intention of the company to construct new freezing works nearer to the killing yards. The frozen mutton is carted from the works to the ship's side. Financially this company is in as good a positiou as the Gear Co, paying 10 per cent, dividend : silent also on the matter of bonus to shippers. A third company, which however has uot ling started, has its works at Longburn, 84 miles from Wellington. The cattle here have to be driven some distance to the works, and in this they may b? said to be not tlw must convenient. The frozen meat is tailed to Wellington over the Manawatu line in trucks specialty constructed by the company, and loaded on board the steamers. In spite of the longer drive of beasts to the works, the small ness of their capital and the long railage, the company claims to pot mmtoft on ow4 v cheaply w oifchtr at it*

rivals. This shows that when proper arrangements can be made it is not so great a disadvantage as it would seem to have the works far removed from the port. These works are 10 miles further from their port than Kelso is from the Bluff, and they maintain that the advantage of being among the growers more than compensates the distance from the port. There is this, however, that in Wellington at almost any time the mutton can be shipped while at the Bluff it is only at stated periods, and when vessels do come in they must be loaded at once. It would, therefore be out of the question with us to have the stores of meat at a distance from the ship. A fourth establishment is the well known works owned by Nelson Bros, near Napier. These works also are doing well, and it is proposed to build at Woodville, 106 miles from Wellington, in which case, as the Mauawatu section of railway is almost completed, a considerable quantity of the meat will be sent via Wellington. Going to Taranki, which is a little out of our road, we find freezing works at Waitotara and Patea. The meat from these is shipped into vessels lying in open roadsteads. It is proposed also to build work* at New Plymouth and at Wanganui. from Palmerston North to Woodville is a distance of 17 miles, and the route takes the traveller through the famous Manawatu Gorge. The scenery here is very beautiful, but in the extension of our railway system it haa become necessary to construct a line through the gorge and beauty has had to give place to utility ; for the railway, with deep cuttings ani long sloping embankments monopolising one side of the gorge, which before was covered with thick bush, is to put it mildly not a factor in the present beauty of the scene. One scarcely requires to be of a nervous disposition going round the face of the cliff or it will fare ill with him indeed. On the right is a perpendicular cutting out of the solid rock — you brush the side as the coach passes — on the other you glance over the side of the wheel in many places straight down to the solid rock over which the Manawatu flows, or, as I saw the Otira Gorge once* described, " one traveller sat on the right hand side of the top seat and struck his match against the cliff while the other sat on the left and dropped his cigar ash into the boiling stream hundreds of feet below." Yes that is very like it, both feats may be easily accomplished though perhaps the distance to the river may be a little exaggerated. Little hope indeed of escape if from any cause the wheel varies a foot or 18 inches off the usual track. But after all there is little danger. The horses are trained to run close in to the face of the cliff ; shying is almost unknown with them, and though at times the leading horses are running at quite a different angle to the polera — so much so that in some cases a line joining the leading horses' heads and the driver would cross a portion of the chasm, Btill the route taken by the leaders Appears a matter of perfect Indifference to the pole horses who always stick to the middle of their own track. The reader may have driven a two horse machine through a twelve foot gate ; let him try a four-horse coach by way of change and instead of the right hand gate post imagine a solid wall of rock going up to a great height, with as much slope aa a telegraph post ; instead of the left hand post a precipice, no fence and no ledge, with a most inviting look for the wheel of any machine to go over. So far he would find a very awkward road to drive along, but it, instead of driving straight at it, he had to approach this peculiar gateway at an angle of about sixty degrees and come out of it at the same angle the difficulty would be Eeatly increased. Imagine the road from vercargill to Wallacetown Crossing to have these "nips " every quarter of a mile along its course and in all its straight reaches the same right and left hand supports and barring the scenery you will have a fair idea of the Gorge.