OPENING OF THE LAWRENCE RAILWAY.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 143, 6 April 1877, Page 6

OPENING OF THE LAWRENCE RAILWAY.

..;. The;line;of.railway. connecting Lawrep cc with-.tha" Main' South -Trunk Line was formally opened for traffic; oil Mon day last, apd ; ,this..event, fraught with so much importance. to the/inhabitants of the township and district,' was- celebrated by, them in a, befitting manner, A committee »was appointed some time ago to make; the necessary arrangements,' and i.tjiaving been. announced that! the line would definitely beopaned on ! Monday, invitations to .a r banquet were issued to about 150 of the leading public men of Dunadin. The list of 'invitations included their Worships the Mayors of Dunedin and Port Chalmers, members of Parliament, .-clergymen, members of the legal profession, and others..

A special' Train,.- of seven carriages, left Dunedin at 9 o'clock, and after a run of two, hours and a quarter ' it ! reached Clarksviile,- the junction of the Tuapeka line. Here it was joined by a few from the neighborhood ' Balclutha, etc. At. 11.20- the train left, for Law- 1 rence, which it reached at 12.45 p.m. The new .line is exactly 20 miles long, , and the distance from Dunedin to Lawrence is^s9A .miles. For the first five miles after leaving- Clarksville the line is comparatively level and straight,' .and. then commences a succession of curves, such, as is not- to be found on any other line in this part of the Colony, ■ Only about- 11 miles out of the 23 are i straight,, in the remaining, eleven there are no less ; than 143 ' curves. Tho sharpest radius is 5 chains, which is 21 chains sharper than the minimum radius on the main lino, but, wo understand, not so sharp as the minimum radius on many of the northern lines; From Mount Stuart Station to the Rouni Hill tunnel, a distance of 4-| miles, the gradient is from 1 in 41-| to 1 in 50. From the Hound Hill tunnel the line falls again towards Wnitahuna, but the gradients are much easier, the lowest level at Waitahuna being 328 feet above sea level. There is again a rise with steep gradients of 1 in 411. upwards to the saddle at Detert's, the station now called Forsaitk. Then there is a small incline, of from 1 in 44 to 1 in 50, to the Lawrence station, the Lawrence station being situated 557 feet above sea level. The ruling gradient on this line is therefore 1 in 44^, and that of the main ' line is 1 in ~50 in Otago ; but in the North Island the gradient is much steeper. The most important bridge on the line is tbeTokomairiro Kiver bridge at Glenore, which consists of three spans of 60 feet ; and the Waitahuna River bridge, of five spans of thirty feet. The bridge at Glenore is built of masoi.ry piers, very suitable stone for the purpose having been found in the immediate -locality. The other bridges are also of masonry, and the whole of the superstructures are !of timber. There are two tunnels on She line. The one called the Glenore tunnel, through the range between Miller's Flat, and the Manuka Creek gorge, is 483 yards long ; and the other, the Round Hill tunnel, through Saddle Hill, is 214 yards; both are through clay elate and schist. The earthworks on the line have been particularly heavy, consisting of ()ou,ooo cubic yards, or only 2000 yards less than there is on i the whole of the Dunedin and Clutha Railway. ■ The cost per mile has been between L7OOO and LBOOO.

A large number of the inhabitants of Tuapeka turned out to witness the arrival of the train. At one end of the station there were between three and •four hundred school children, who, under the direction of Mr H. L. Squires, and led by Mr C'orrison's brass band, sang very correctly and effectively the Zealand National Anthem, composed by Mr Thomas Bracken. This formed a very pleasing feature in the celebration of the opening' of the line, and was probably admired more than any other part of the oeremony. Mr Bastings, M.fLR, then" took his stand on the engine, and addressing the assemblage, and authorised by MaCony ers, Superintending" Engineer of Railways, declared the line formally opened. The intimation was received with cheers. THE BANQUET was held in the spacious Town Flail. -The tables were furnished by Mr George Silk, in a manner such as perhaps has never been excelled in the Colony — everything first- class, and provided" on a most liberal scale. Mr Horace Bastings, M. H.R., occupied the chair, and the Mayor of Lawrence (Mr Fraer) the vice-chair. The chairman was supported to the left by Messrs Sea ton, M.H.R., W. Conyers", Green, Cargill, Hislop, and Bell ; and to the right by the Hon. W. H. Reynolds, Messrs Burns, M.H.R., W. N. Blair, McCarthy, Steward (Mayor of Oamaru), Mouat, Stout, M.H.R., Professor M'Gregor, and T. K. Weldon. The usual loyal and patriotic toasts were given and heartily responded to.

The Vice-Chairman proposed "The Parliament of New Zealand," coupled with the names r.f Messrs Reynolds and Stout, to which those gentlemen briefly responded. " ;

The Chairman, in a complimentary speech, proposed the health -of "The Engineers and Contractors/" coupled with the names of Messrs Blair and Smyth; '

Mr Blair, on rising to respond; was loudly applauded, fie said : MrQhairman and gentlemen,— This toast has been responded to so oiten -during the

past few years, throughout the Colony that it is difficult .for. ma! to. any anything that has not been said already. If I were -a public mn;h°r would throw aside the subject altogether, and ■ discourse, on " men and manners" in the form that best suited .my fancy, from the affairs of Bulgaria to the pernicious effects of "Leicester mutton , but as i only appear in this character on occasions of this kind [ must stick to my text, and nolens volens drive the hackneyed steed another stage.; In the first place, I must congratulate this district on having at such an early period of its history acquired what i is universally admitted 'to be the most powerful weappn in the hands of Progress. In 1861 the rfcite of this flourishing little town was a wilderness known. only to those true, pioneers of civilisation— sheep, shepherds, and surveyors.. :The.raain road waS/riot opened right through till 1873,,.and,n0w, early in 1877, the hills and ; gullies re-echo with thediscordant-yet-.melbilkms shriek of the "iron horse." — (Heaiyhear.) Tha engineers .are frequently twitted, if not abused, about the curves and gradients I on; the Lawrence Railway; 1 : The cry is, j " .Make straight our path," I confess | it is rather tortuous and "steep, and I ! believe the shade of Brunei would never j pronounce it fit for public traffic in the \ present state, if that worthy spirit has j not changed materially, since he battled ( with the material universe, Tarn sure j it would be disgusted at the degeneracy \ of its professional .followers, who pre- '". siurie to call this one-horsa track a rail- >" way. — (Laughter.) There .is:, one »n- ;. swer that meets, the request for &n easier ; line : Give us. the money. , But where is it to come from V~ All the gold that Gabriel's Gully and Blue Spur" has pro*, ducedj or can produce, would not make a railway to Lawrence according to the old standard. And aftei ; all, the question is to a great extent' a matter of ? opinion. Unfortunately flat 'curves and gradients are desiderata anywhere, but the price afc which, they are obtained is ;, the true test of their suiiability. Railways of this kind are found to answer in other countries where the traffic is much heavier than we may expect here for many years, so I think we should be satisfied — (Applause.) I am a stron* ' believer in the principle of having light cheap railways to ■ every settlement, ' rather than a few expensive ones between the large towns. Better that all the members of one family should liva plainly on mutton and damper than that one or two should fare-surrptuously on the choicest viands while the ..rest are starving. — (Hear, hear.) If we had followed the example of our Victorian cousins in the matter of railway construction, instead of having the line running to Olutha and Lawrence, the present opening- would be at the He> W liance, twenty miles from Dunedin, After humorously rderring 1 to the extensive writings in the Press with regard to the line, Mr Blair continued : I may say that notwithstanding the roughness of the country, the cost of making good ; anything that was found 'insufficient,;-.-, and -in providing for. contingencies that ! coil id or might have been foreseen, did; not amount to three per. cent, on the f . total cost of the line. There arc fen;! such extensive works in any country of, which tiie same can be said. In acknowledging the compliments that have been paid the-engineers, I must transfer the largest, share of the credit to Mr Dartnell, who has had 'the immediate * charge of the works, and to his inspec- , tors, Messrs M'Millan and Hunter,; Mr Blair also referred to the contractor^ who had all seemed to do their best for the completion of the work, and made; special mention of Mr A.. J.. Smyth. He concluded his speech* amidst pro- ; longed applause. Mr Steward, May. r of Oaraavu, proposed " The Success of the Lawrence Railway," coupled with the health, of' the. Mayor of Lawrence. Responded to. by Mr Fraer. ; The Chairman proposed " The health-: of the railway staff of New Zealandj coupled with the name of Mr Conyers/'r to which that gentleman briefly replied.! Professor Macgregor proposed "Thsf. Mining, Pastoral, and Mercantile Into), rests of New Zealand." Responded tof by Messrs Grieve, Herbert, and Jolmf (Jargill. \ The toast of the Press was also diil); honoured, and responded to ; and this! concluded proceedings at the banquet. ; It maybe mentioned that a few of; the visitors denied themselves the plea- i sures of the banqueting- hall, and instead occupied their time by visiting the Blur Spur. They examined the whole of tb« : workings, with which they were nweir interested. The Blue Spur abundantly rewards the trouble of a visit, and the surprise is that many more of the stran- . gei's did not on Monday go to witness the immense operations going on there. While the township of Lawrence is prettily situated, and may, in time, become a very prosperous centre, and pleasant place "of residence, the surronnding country is. the reverse of inviting — barren, treeless ridges, with the flats fill converted into gravel pi' s through the operations of the miner. It. is to be hoped many of . the inhabit- ;: ants of the Clutha will shortly take 8 ; trip alono- the new line ,of railway an" . visit Tunpeka. It would do them good. Thoy would appreciate their own town- .; ship and district for ever after. ■ - /^

The special train left Lawrencfl at a quarter to six o'clock, and the various visitors, were speedily wheeled to their destination?, no, accident having oC \ " curred throughout the day. • - L -