LITTLE RIVER RAILWAY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 554, 4 November 1881, Page 2

LITTLE RIVER RAILWAY.

The following is a copy of a letter sent hy Mr Montgomery to the Minister oil Public Works during last session, A copy was sent to the (Jo(inly GouiiJil, suit oy some it w .s rinvor published, in this journal. As ie is on a nutter of such vital importance to ti.e county, the first opportunity its taken of. publishing it :— "Wellington, 16th July, 1881. ''Sir. —Referring to the coiiverailion 1 had with you, respecting the extension of the A.karoa Railway to Little River, I have tiow the honor, in accordance with the suggestion you then made, to forward for yuur consideration a memorandum teUing forth the pa tieularsl then brought under your notice.

•' I presume 3'ou will coiit-ider I nef d no go back further linn tlie year 1878. In that year £01.000 was appropriated for (JXJ.IOIISOB to be l«e inenned in tho formation of the line, out of ways and means mentioned in the 4th .schedule of tho

'•Immigration an I Public. Works Appropriation Act" On the Ist July that year £96if) 17s 5d was at the credit of the Kll'jsiuoro and Forsyt.h Keclaination and AJc'iroa Itiiilwuy Trust." This mono}' did not form any part of the £30,000 before in nli< i Hi i , l>! V )tl i Ul lv) o i i it f l ' i )

"The Im-nigiMtion and Public Works Anp-onriiiinii Act, 1879," appropriated it 18,577 11-i M of the amount then at credit of thti endowment fund as part of the ways and means of that year.

" Thp cost of the railway from Lincoln to Lako Forsyth has therefore been defrayed partly out of loan and partly out of (irooiieds of sale of land forming purt of the endowment.

"As that portion of the line already fo-med will beof comparatively little value if' not Hxfended. I would wish earnestly to rof!O!iiM)oT)'I f h-it a Hum may be placed on the cHtimatesfor llio construe!ion of the lino from the present torminus to Little Ltiver, a distance of about seven miles; and I, venture to suggest that the cost might be defrayed out of loan in anticipa tion of receipts to be derived from the sale of the reserves set apart as the endowment of the r ilwoy.

"The value of the unsold portion of the endowment I estimate at £100,000 ; and I believe you may with certainty reckon on selling 10,000 acres of the land reserved around Lake Ellesmerefor at least £50,000, shortly after the lino, now nearly completed, will be opened. Of course this is only a portion of the endowment, but you may consider it advisable to sell only a part of the reserve during the present year. " I trust you will favorably consider the suggestions I-now offer, and place on the estimates the amount required for the extension of the line to Little River. " I have, &c, " W. Montgomery."