THE WAIPORI-BERWICK ROAD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVIV, Issue 4448, 22 May 1897, Page 3

THE WAIPORI-BERWICK ROAD.

A meeting of the Waipori Miners' Association has been called for to-night (Saturday) in order to discuss the advisability of impressing upon the Government the need for a further vote for the Waipori-Berwick road. This road, or rather bridle track, for tbat is all it is, has been provided for out of the vote of £1,500, which, it will be remembered, was granted during the. last session of Parliament The road is now in process of formation, over 20 men being employed on it under the co-operative system. It is believed by many that the completion of this road would mean a great saving in the cost of carting, as compared with the present cost of cartage from Lawrence, and so an agitation has been put on foot in order to advocate the construction of the desired road. At the present time, the brjdle track from Berwick to Post-office Creek is nearly completed, but there is no likelihood of the road being fit for any wheeled traffic until tbe present vote is supplemented by another £1,500 or so, and then formation only would have been proceeded with.

It is stated that the grade is a very ea3y one very different, indeed, to that of the Waipori-Lawrence road — and it is claimed that the cost of carriage of goods from Dunedin via Outram is but little more than that incurred by transit over the Milton- Lawrence line and Law-rence-Waipori road. The distance from Henley, the railway station for Berwick, to Waipori is about 24 miles, while that from Lawrence is 14 miles, being a gain of 10 miles in favor of the latter For instance, from Dunedin to Waipori via Henley is 45 miles— 24 by road and 21 by rail ; via Lawrence it is 74 — 60 by railway and 14 by road ; and it is merely a question of carriage by waggon v. carriage by rail. The question is whether goods could be carried more cheaply over the railway to Henley and thence by road to Waipori than by the present route. The answer to that will have to be given by the carriers, for it would be too much to expect the Government Railway Department to adapt itself to circumstances. But if the Kail wayDepartment does bestir itself, there would be but little doubt that the bulkier aud heavier goods, in the traffic of which the carriers cannot compete, will still come round by Lawrence. More especially will this apply to the traffic in coal, coming as it does from Stirling. Tbe total distances by the Lawrence route and by the Henley route from Stirling are nearly the same, but the greater distance covered by rail in the former case will allow that commodity, so much needed by the dredges at Waipori, to be borne with greater cheapness and. despatch by the present Lawrence-Waipori road than by the now proposed road.