RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143764, 12 April 1912, Page 7

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln a leading article of your esteemed paper you quote Mr. dames Alien's figures on railway construction. i\ow, 1 w-ui, with your kina permission, review railway construction, past and present. The railways built m the cany hays were as tramways compared witu the railways of to-day. There were many briuges which were not necessary, anti were pulled down, lit Out pipes replacing them, in other oases bU bin culverts. Only in one cas.e do 1 remember a 7ft cmrort replacing a bridge. Again, I recollect a gang of men Doing sent to repair a bridge wnero they found the piles had not been driven, the iron shoeing showing above the ground. Most of the culvert© wore built of red pine, which do not last long, and have had to be renewed in concrete at a great expense. Sleepers were also of red pine, and the rails forty pound iron. The grades had to be altered, some being as steep as one in twenty-seven. Tuo fact of the matter is that these railways have had more money spent in making them up-to-date than they originally cost. Yet Mr. Allen compares tbo original cost per mile with what it costs to-day having concrete tunnels, Iron-girder bridges, hardwood sleepers, 70-pound rails, many viaducts, largo stationyards, many with the block-system, and a splendid grade from end to end, no slumming, no wash-outs. Now, Mr, Editor, i come down to the Stratford Main Trunk. I see you reckon they are behind the times in railway appliances and construction. Well, sir, in my opinion, the mot-hods of railway construction have progressed very little since the first locomotive was built. We had the same appliances, trolleys, hand-carts, whpclbjrroivs, scoops, shovels, picks, and drays. The steam shovel is not a success. The Public Works Department has plenty of these applicanccs and the co-operative men are given every chance to use them. The work is lot, at so modi per cubic yard. Wheelbarrow work is clone with wheelbarrows, trolley . work with trolleys, horse work with horses, etc., etc. The men are not branded with the- broad-arrow and their individuality gets full scope. Now, the shingle ut Mangare Road, you say it cost 50s per yard to cart it. Now 1 know the men who carted it. They received 50s per day for six horse-teams, and carried two yards per day or at the rate of rougfily 18s 6d per ton. I was carting for private people over same road and distance at 30s per ton. The shingle was- mostly used for culvorting, some being left over. Now. Mr. Editor, if a Public Works engineer was to criticise your methods of running your newspaper. you would think it was presumption on his part, he having not had the training required to run a newspaper. Of course a newspaper editor can criticise an engineers method of railway construction, because lie knows all about transition ends of curves, and cart and slack, profiles, Chinamen, monkeys, and logics. Perhaps, Mr. Editor, you think they ought to wait until the railway is completed to the next tunnel to save carting and then wait throe years till the tunnel is completed. You will find, Mr. Editor, that there will he thousands of tons of materials carted on ahead to expedite the work. Now T come to the station yard at Whangamomona. You say it should be shifted two miles ahead. There is no population there. There is no township. At Whangnmomona there is a bank, a post office, a hotel, boarding-houses, several largo stores, county offices, stables. drapers, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, and residences of all description. Why did not these people build their homes and businesses two miles ahead? Because they know the Government do not put up political railway stations nor build railways for about thirtv of the Reform Party. The pen is mightier than the sword, but # it takes a good man to swing the banjo, i. 0., long handle shovel. Trusting I have not transgressed.—T am, Me., W. BLAIR, Pohokura, April 6. 1912.