Work Started On South Island Trunk

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 685, 10 June 1929, Page 8

Work Started On South Island Trunk

CLEARING THE ROUTE SURVEY PARTY' AHEAD (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON. Today. Though Dominion- wide di*c u , sion has been provoked on tk question of the completion of th! South Island main trunk rail™* it is not generally realised that work on this railroad link has been commenced. ( )VER 50 men from the Public Work. Department are now engaged 1 c learing the surveyed route of the hT down from Wharanui. its pnorthern terminus. The old line run tor about a mile beyond Wharanui but this track has never been used and i, overgrown with bush. Overhaul and replacement will be needed in part Resides these labourers already en gaged, men are being employed to erwi accommodation for the construction gangs on the southward road. Neces sary cuttings for the line are also beinr made. South of these workers again them is n. survey party which lias recently been strengthened by the addi tion of two officers. This party now carrying out the heavy work ot surveying in the district about the Clarence River. Working up from the other end a survey party has begun operations about the Conway Riy,, as was recently announced, and this party will be strengthened from the north as soon as practicable. It win be some months yet before the surv.v is completed and the cost of the railway known. Meantime, however, the department, which has a good knowledge of the country, has prepared * rough estimate which is believed to be upon the right side. The coastal route, which has been endorsed by the Prime Minister, meanpractically what it says. The pro. posed route, from Parnassus, swing* north until it reaches the Conwav River, -when it follows this down to the sea. It then proceeds up the coast, moving a mile or two inland when crossing the Kowhal River and again at the Hapuka River, while a short cut is made across the protuberance of the coast, where the Clarence River empties itself into the sea. After that the line continues to hug the coast until it reaches Wharanui, the present terminus of the northern line.