OVERLAND FROM WELLINGTON TO NAPIER.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 135, 9 February 1877, Page 6

OVERLAND FROM WELLINGTON TO NAPIER.

(Written for tlw. Clutha Leader.) Starting from the Petone Station, which forms the temporary terminus to the Wellington and Masterton Railway linti! the site tor the permanent ter-. :minus is reclaimed from Wellington Harbour, this railway runs between the •sea and the narrow road, which is the ■only land access to - and from the town -of Wellington, aad overhung by high cliffs, just sufficient room is left in places for two vehicles to pass. Tintraveller will probably be struck with the superficial construction and extreme tortuousness of the railway, following, as it does, every sinuosity of the harbour, even where it would have, by •reclamation, been more economical to have made the line straight; but he -will Snd by observa'ion that this needless and often costly tortuousness is •characteristic of the New Zealand General Government railways, probably •out of sympathy with the policy and practice under which hitherto they have ■been constructed. Nine miles from Wellington, leaving the sea and passing the villas of the Hon. VV. Fitzherbert, Mr Buckley, and other?, the line enters The Valley of the Hutt, the boast and •resort of Wellington citizens, — a narrow -strip of good land liable to floods, and bounded by scrub-clad hills, which, to "tthe east, are a picture of sterility. The Uppe-r Hutt station is at the head of the Valley, here showing patches of birch --and the remains of trees left by the axe •of the bush man or the fire of the set -tier, though, when the ground is not •covered Avith stones, there are a few /acres of good gras3 and cultivation. 'Some enterprising person has sold land in town sections, and tAVO good hotels, -a bank, some stores and dwellings, and the coaches and railway here meeting, give an air of evanescent prosperity, which will pass when the line is carried ~t"n rough the rugged defiles of the Remu-

taki, which here begins, and continues for fifteen miles.

It is said that the curves on this part ofthe line are five chains radius, while the gradients are 1 in 15 for three miles in one stretch, and there are eleven tunnels in thirteen miles, one being 638

yards long. These tunnels, designed and constructed too small, are now being enlarged at a considerable cost in but the contractor, by substituting open cuttings for tunnels, has, it is stated, saved some thousands •of pounds. The steep gradients are to 'be overcome by a central rail and enor--mous and complicated engines ot great power, constructed upon the " Fell principle," which has, by the highest -authorities, been pronounced an engineering success, but a great practical failure from a pecuniary point of view. It is uncertain when the Hne will be • completed, but it is certain it will not :- afford those advantages which we had a right to expect irom so great an expenditure, and such as would have been . given by a proper railway. The writer .is informed by an engineer of large experience, who has carefully examined the country, that by selecting another -route, and having one tunnel, a shorter and a more easily maintained line, with no gradient steeper than I in 42. could have been constructed for little, if any, • greater cost ; or to put it plainly, a line on which the loaded trucks could be hauled as cheaply as they can be hauled - empty on the line now being constructed, which, it is certain, must be ere long abandoned if a railway is needed ; and of this there can be little ■■ question, taking into consideration the vast and valuable country to which it would supply the outlet, and which the traveller will enter after descendingfrom the Remutaki. The coach road, over which is what a young* Colonial • would call " a caution," is just wide • enough for one vehicle at one time. There was a regulation that the up and -down dray traffic on this road snouid be upon different days, but now, with increasing recklessness, this wholesome rule is abolished, and some serious accidents have occurred, partly from this -cause, and partly from the high winds, which would occasionally capsize any vehicle not heavily ballasted, and have, ;it is said, made more than one coachdriver prematurely bald. The troubles and dangers of the Remutaki having been surmounted, the first place we reach is tbe thriving village of Feather ston, where we had dinner in an excellent inn, opposite to which is ? large public hall, where the beauty and fashion of that, part of Wairarapa were •disporting themselves with one pair of -skates, which the enterprising owner hired out at Is per half-hour. The road now passes through a level plain, rather stony in places, while in other parts on this, and apparently all on the opposite side of the plain, the soil is a good free alluvium, capable of growing "•all forts of farm produce, while the stony land is . good sheep grazing ground, carrying, it is said, one sheep per acre; but the sheep seem coarse -wolled, scraggy, and ill-bred, and, with numerous rabbits, seem to test the Darwinian notion about the survival of the fittest. The next place, Greytown, a long, straggling village, inhabited by a mixed European and Maori population, is prettily situated amongst gardens and orchards and good grassy paddocks, but •shows little sign of commercial activity, «xcept a sale of a bankrupt draper's •stock, which did not look healthy ; but A ihe signs of railway construction have siot yet reached thus far. The next

village, Carterton, is also straggling, is situated in the middle of a native bush, has some neat cottages and well kept gardens, but is intersected by a river, which has a perverse habit ot overflowing, and silting up parts of the town, and abandoning the bridges, which hay«

been erected al. great length to accommodate its erratic disposition. The road now pusses through wide, open, level country of good sheep soil, as yet. but thinly populated. About V 2 miles furiher on, we reach the tOAvn of Masterton, 50 miles from Wellington. This is a very rising ami prosperous town, with churches, hotels, banks, and post and telegraphic stations, and is destined cc long to become a place of considerable importance. Property, both urban and rura!, has, since 1872. quadrupled in value. There is a great extent of good country, of which Masterton is the natural capital, and it will probably be the junction of two important railways.

( To be continued.)