THE MIDLAND RAILWAY

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8309, 6 May 1905, Page 5

THE MIDLAND RAILWAY

THE RECENT CONFERENCE. FURTHER REMARKS FROM MR ROPER. Mr E. W. Roper, chairman of the East and West Coast Railway Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, has returned to Christchurch from the recent conference at Hokitika. and has brought back with him even more en-, thusiasm for the project than he pos r sessed before. He says that the conference was a historical one as far as the West Coast is concerned, as it was the first occasion upon which the whole of the. West Coast people stood united as one man. One of the most prominent features of the conference was the strength of the» arguments brought forward to show that the line, when completed, would be the most profitable in the colony. A million of money is required to bring completion about, and there is no doubt in his mind at all that there, will be a ; splendid return>for the expenditure of that sum. He has an estimate of the cost of working the line, including interest, and working expenses, andjhe is satisfied that as soon as the line is completed the colony will find that it has made a capital investment. There are 150,000 people in Canterbury, and 30,000 in the West Coast. Each community needs the products of the other, and must have them ; and the completed line, of oourse, will supply the missing link in the chain that will make rapid and easy communication possible. He estimates that the revenue from the carriage of coal and timber alone at £140,000 a year when the ,-fne opens. He is hardly prepared, However, to venture even a guess as to what it will be in the future, when both communities grow larger and increase in importance. He has, however, a faint idea of the probable growth of the passenger traffic. He points out that before the Lyttelton tunnel waa made, fewer people travelled between Lyttelton and Christchurch in one week than now someties pass between those places in one single train. Taking that as a criterion, he considers that he is perfectly safe in saying that the Midland Railway is full of promise so far as passenger traffic is concerned, at any rate. His view is strengthened by the fact that on the Tuesday night . that he stayed at the Bealey there were sixty passengers on their journey, and some time ago the number of passengers at the halting place was one hundred and thirty-two. / ' He was fortunate enough to have a long interview with Mr Dobson, the resident engineer of the Otira seotion, who has been stationed there for fifteen years, and has collected a stupendous quantity of information, which he courteously placed at Mr Roper's disposal. At present there are seventeen men on the survey staff doing work in connection with the enlinement. The entrance' to the tunnel, on the western side, is about half a mile up the Rolleston Gorge, which branches off the Otira. The tunnel, which will be five miles twenty-four chains long, will rise 848 feet before it reaches the Bealey, and it will emerge on that side at a spot forty chains frogi the magnificent fall known as the Devil's Punch Bowl, which is a good site for a power station. Mr Dobson hopes that there will be sufficient electrical power to obviate the use of coal in the tunnel, and to work by electricity the whole section from Greymouth to Springfield. From the point at the Bealey where , the tunnel will emerge to , Sloven's ' Creek, the spot near to where men are now working on the Springfield section, the construction* of the line presents no difficulties whatever. The distance is twenty-four miles, and i. can, if necessary, be completed ■'' in, twelvo months. Tenders have been invited for some of the bridge work between the Otira and Moyes'B Creek. When the 3i£ljicult section from Springfield to Sloven's Creek is finished, and that will not belong, the part from Sloven's to the tunnel will be easy work, and the train at Otira, .on the West Coast side, is only a short distance from the site of the. tunnel's mouth. The only work that requires time is the tunnel, which Mr Roper thinks should be built by contract, so that there may be a definite knowledge of its . cost, and the colony ' may be relieved of all responsibility in regard to. the construction. He. has no doubt whatever that when the tunnel is -ready for use, Otago and. Wellington, as well as Christchurch,' will' avail themselves of it, in order to reach Greymouth by an easy, comfortable and route.