OREPUKI RAILWAY.

Western Star, Issue 870, 13 August 1884, Page 2

OREPUKI RAILWAY.

There is—or at any rate has been until lately—a common feeling; of scepticism as to whether the Orepuki railway would ever be finished. Optimists, however, were sanguine that the present generation would see that stupendous piece of work successfully accomplished. Per once there is every reason to suppose that the anticipations of that hopeful class will be more than realised, and that before the advent of the year of grace 1885 the iron hor.se will be running to and fro with the regularity characteristic of the railway service. This statement will perhaps be received by some with the accustomed shrug of the shoulders, indicative of unbelief. There is some excuse for this feeling, considering that for various reasons the line—about 18 miles in length—has taken some ten or eleven years to attain its present stage of completion. However, the work has now reached a point and I has got into hands that warrants the prediction that the line will be opened to traffic before the end of the year. This will cause a complete revolution in the social and commercial life of the settlers in the Orepuki district. Completely isolated—not by distance altogether, but by the horrible state of the roads—from any other centre, the life,of-the-settlers there has not been 'of the most enviable kind. The im- , mediate prospect-therefore of railway ! communication with the outer world may well be hailed with delight. In order to ascertain what progress was; being made with the platelaying and ballasting, our reporter, in company I with the contractor for the work, Mr J, Concher, visited the line on Saturday! last. Picking up the ballast engine at 1 the Round Hill crossing, the present terminus of the line, we were quickly j conveyed a distance of eight miles, j where platelaying and ballasting were jin active progress. In addition to the guard’s van—which, by the way, was well filled with goods for various people along the line —the engine carried nine trucks full of ballast. The first thing that strikes a passenger is the solid nature of the rpad already completed, the motion being as steady as some of the lines now running in this district, —more so than the portion , between Thornbury and Waimatuku where the light rails are still in use. The ballast is obtained from a pit about a mile east of Round Hill crossing, and is of a splendid description. The double run necessitates the engine travelling at present a distance of about 18 miles, and this of course will be gradually increased as the platelaying proceeds. The point reached on Saturday by the platelayers was opposite Mr McPherson’s homestead at the western end of Paihi flat—that terror to travellers in former days, befjre the County Council had reduced to a minimum the chances of becoming bogged. Provided anything like decent weather prevails during the next four or five weeks, Mr Concher expects to have the engine through to the terminus by that time, and a week or two * hereafter will be sufficient to complete the trimming up and put the line in a condition fit to hand over to Government. But for the wretched weather experienced particularly during the past mouth and an insufficient supply of trucks, the work would have been much further advanced ; notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, the contract will be completed well within the stipulated time—a fact that redounds with credit to the energetic and enterprising conduct of the work. This is the only contract connected with the history df the Orepuki failway that has come anything near the stipulated time of being finished, if we may except that of laying the permanent way from the former terminus to the Round Hill crossing—a distance of about a mile and a quarter —also completed by Mr Concher. The work, men too have been regularly paid their wages in full—a new and ex-S ceptioilal feature in connection with* Orepuki railway contracts, as many to their cost are aware. Tenders have not yet been called for the station buildings, platforms, and sidings, but we understand that the plans for these works are completed and that very soon the contract will be in the market. Two or three months will be ample time to allow for these works, so that there is little doubt but that the line will be opened for traffic before the end of the year.