RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume IX, Issue 339, 26 August 1868, Page 2

RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND.

[From the Home News.] That New Zealand will one day be covered by a network of railways, is as certain as that the country has been brought under the salutary influences of industry and civilisation. The recent improvements and extensions of postal accommodation to and from home and the active provinces of Australia and Tasmania, must have inspired a desire for analagous extensions and improvements m the means of internal communication. This, indeed, is manifest from the movements tl&t are \>ein<» made to introduce railways; and we may here say that the work of driving" a; tunnel through the base of an extinct volcano, is watched at home with no ordinary geological and engineering interest, rf or have we heard, without feeling much satisfaction, of actual and projected surveys for railways to connect the. rising towns of the two islands with each other and the sea." Fop nothing more largely or directly contributes to the production of wealth than easy and rapid means of intercommunication. A constant transmission of produce to the coast, and the return transmission of imports from the . coast to the interior, not only occupies labour, but it is creative of capital, and a stimulus to progress in* all col* ' lateral directions. 1 Now that the provincial and general - debts of the colony, have been, consolidated and provision made for their, extinction, we foresee that the next stage of progress will be a well devised railway system. For' such a system, to be executed by degrees, 83 the necessity for each section develops itself, we may confidently say that English capital will be readily forthcoming-. In anticipation of such an issue it may not be premature to offer one or two suggestions by which useless expenditure' may be saved and' the country be effectively supplied with those means of increasing its .wealth which railways nevet foil to create; and secure. , ... New. Zealand has a physical con- • figuration which, for the most part, renders the 'construction of railways upon the expensive system adopted at home practically impossible. It would be impracticable financially even if ft were physically desirable. But it is neither. At home' we* have spent enormous sums m making tunnels and embankments which we now know might have been saved, if we had had the wisdom to adapt the engine to the country instead of adapting the country to the engine. The only excuses we can make for the error are that our mechanical skill was imperfect, and • that we had little or no experience to guide us. New ' Zealand, however, need not be under either of these disadvantages, and its railway system may furnish the best and the last illustration of the troth that knowledge is a continually increasing;,, power.. Intersected by numerous rivers, and ' presenting everywhere an irregular surface, m many places diversified by; bold inclines, though m others with level plains, Ne,w Zealand is exactly the country, to which locomotives should be adapted, if its railways are expected to be cheaply made and remuneratively worked, it matters nothing if inclines. of 1 m 12 or curves of two chains., radius abound, as they probably may, m the mountain districts, if locomotives can be produced to work them. At ail events lines with such engineering features will be more cheaply made than if tunnels were cut to save the inclines or straight .lines run to save curves, and experience at home has shown that one great error has been that of spending too much' capital on' such works. There are •inclines and' curves of the description just mentioned on the line just opened. thrqngli the pass of Mount Cenia between France and Italy. There they are overcome, m a fashion, by the introduction of a central rail- between the -two. .lateral rails and by- the addition •••to- the vertical wheels oi the engine of four horizontal wheels, two on each side of the , central .rail,., which, ; to, secuoe adhesion grip it with a for.cc equal to a pressure of twelve tons per wheel. It need- hardly- be stated that this .pjanjs both-costly and wasteful. It is costly m construction and wasteful in.waar axai tear. The most remarkable fact, however, so far developed by the work* ing of the Mount Cenis line is, thai £bk horizontal wheels and the central rail have been little used, as Jar as tb]a locomotive iff concerned j and already the system is pfonouncea by practical engineers, : unsatisfactory fi-qm its' excessive friction and unavoidable ooirfplications. "' The trtie'locomotive-ror mountainous or Billy cßstnc^lfheYe economy and efficiency are as indisr penaable aa they are m New Zealand, ia that of Mr Bobert F. Fairlie, ot London, which, without the v central rail -or the, horizontal, wheels, ascends gradients of 1 m t2, and sweeps 'rotjnd curves of two pbains radius, at a less expenditure of steam 'and^vftlS greater attractive force than_J&e^nj^nj» _in. use on the Mount Cenis line, Mr Babbage says that the 1 jjowef of 7 inv^ntfyg' contrivances, and of com'r binin^ -machjinery, r i&. got *, difficult [achievement or a rare" gift. The [Mount Cenis engird is a proof of the truth of this . uncomplimentary remark, [inasmuch as it is certain that the object Imigh^'liafe^b^ "ejected l by'sifflpler [means. But tie .powers are rare which mil reduce the fojce of

gravity to a minimum, and altogether prevent centrifugal deflection by ordinary mechanical means.' This is/ what; Mr Fairlie does m his locomotive which commands the admiration , of all the practical men who have seen it, from the perfection of its effects ; and he does it by placing the boiler upon bogie frames m such a way that the whole machine adapts itself, invariably, to the peculiarities of the line. It is always m balance m turning curves> however sharp, and it always secures effective adhesion m ascending or descending inclines, however .heavy the gradients. ' ' ' , ] We. have deemed it right thus to call attention to Mr Fairlie's locomotive, because tho construction of surface lines m mountainpus countries is so engaging attention m Europe, • that it cannot fail to attract corresponding observation m New Zealand ; and because we earnestly desire that a colony m which England is so deeply interested should enjoy, m its railway system as a whole, the advantage of ihe latest and best experience acquired home.