NELSON RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1372, 24 February 1912, Page 14

NELSON RAILWAYS.

SLOW DEVELOPMENT.

60 MILES IN 39 TEARS.

It is very freely admitted that the de-1 velopment of tho town and P™«« °. f Nelson has been seriously retarded through its very inadequate means -of oilw communication. The first sod of the Nelson railway was turned on Jlay o, 1b.., and since then construction has proceeded at a snail's pace. At the tiro, oj wruuig tiro line runs southward, passing t,toi..:> Stoke, Kiehmond, Brightwater, Wakefield, Foxhill, lielgreve, Kohatu, aud on to Tadmor and Kiwi, a distance ot 42 miles. A lurther section of 12 miles on to lilenhope is almost completed, making m all CO miles. When construction was first started in 1873, ths work was well .up to the standard, so far as quickness was rcouired, and the line lo h .hi.l. (-1 miles was iinished in 1870-toii nines u year In the next 07 years, including the Uleuhopo section, tho progress of construction has been at tho rate of one mile six chains per annum, while, counting from 1573, the rate altogether has keen ono milo forty-one chains per annum. The West Const railway, so long advocated, is still a hope of the future, and tho connection between the important towns and village.? is still kept up by road aud bridle-track. H is probab.o that tho work will be pushed on faster in the future, but it is very unwise to venture on a prediction. No one will gainsay the strategic importance of railway commlinicitloii with Westport, while there is no doubt that the opening up of

the rich dairy country in tho Murchison district would bo of great value to the province, nnd the country generally. When Ulenhopc is open-ad there will still be 55 miles of country to ojien between the railheads, and 20 miles on tho route past Murchison are very rough. On (he Nelson side the country is not at all bad. The entire road may be completed within the next ten years, but in hardly less than that lime. The Government has just let ii contract lo Mr. Galbraitb for the erection of station buildings at Gicnhope, and this work will be commenced immediaiidy. Tile station yards have already been finished, and although tho line itself is not yet ready for trallic: inio the new terminus, il i- expected that public, works trains will bo running into llin ploco in March, and Unit tho now aection will bo opened well baton Jum,