TUNNELLING OUT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 3

TUNNELLING OUT

THE RIMUTAKA DEVIATION

(By Coleman Phillips.)

I regret I cannot agree with the editorial in.The Dominion of December 37, headed,'"Unprofitable "Delay"' (re Wellington railway wmr.b); or with the blame ilho members of the deputation threw upon the Government. It would have been more correct' had tho word "unavoidable" been used, in placo of "unprofitable." When i -find, strive ns I liavo done, that I cannot keep my own small, orchard as clear of grass as T should like, owing tr the shortage of labour, how can I possibly blamo the Prime Minister or lilie Honourable Mr. Coates for not doing the impossible? My surprise is the admirable way they are doing so much, these very ticklish times, with labour quite out of hand. Let us be a little generous, and give all our Minis\ers a spell, after carrying us through the war a.* they havo done, and the strenuous times of the aftermath — always worse for any homeland than tho war itself.

Moreover, the words "unprofitable dolay" do not apply to' the Itiniutaka deviation,- ns I am quito content with' the progress being made. _ Wellington and Wairarapa are beginning .to take the matter ce'riously now, and to understand ill. Mr. Mossey has brought the great question of electrification to the front; a matter I began with in _18!)3, when pointing out that the Wainui tunnels would havo t'i» lie run by electric traction, as the plan show.--. The Prime Minister was quite right_when he said "that trains much heavier than New Zealand trains went over steep grades on the X'aiiadlan Pacific 'railway, whero electric Iracvion had been developed to a considerable! extent." Exactly so, but , this was inland, not on any port line. Would Mr, Miissey like to fee tl;e people of Christchurch travel to Lyt'ielton over the hill in preferoneo to tho tunnel. Wellington wants a low-level line out and in, in some direction, like Christchurch or Auckland, or Dunedin, 'which are all tunnelled into. Why mu-t Wellington's 'waffle rr;iwi over the'hills . Besides.' the great work to-day of all first-class railway engineers is to redueo grades, by means chiefly of very costly tunnels, and I re* spectfully insist that Wellington must tunnel out. Wo wnnt no more surveys,- ns Dr. Newman and Mr. ! Field very rightly said. Mr. Massey remarked, too, "The raeKikariki deviation was more a question of road than railway"; en-that tho'Wainui is uhe only way Wellington can tunnel out. This is the great question for ovoryone now to decide. Is the city to tunnel out, or continue to crawl over the hills. I said, in my ■ lost letter to your columns." that by electrification, Wellington express traffic should reach Masterton easily in one and a half hours." Is that the desideratum, .or shall it fnke three houia. by negotiatiw steep hill grades under electric traction.' Should not Wellington have as ( easy an approach by tunnelling as any'other of tho great cities? Must it for ever lio condemned to crawl over its surrounding liills, Jt lies at the IjoUdrn of a basin. AVhy not pierce the rim? Next we come to Mr. J. P. Luke, who etill hsirps upon the damage, to the }Vainui water supply, which I corrtnd is a mvth, as it enn be avoided.- Surely Mr. Luke wiU not end his long term of of. fico as Mayor (which he has«filled with I conspicuous ability all through the war) with so narrow-minded an objection. I have hammered at our worthy Mayor for yeurs past to broaden his mind to "<•}• iington'e true wants,-and lie has broadened it excellently well, as his'last loan bill proves. Why spoil the "whole tliinj? now by objecting lo the "Wainui tunnels? I a-m positive thai! no damage need be done to the reservoir directly the mandate is given to , the engineers that'no damage must be done. I will show, on the spot my?elf, if necessary, thai' no damage .need be done, even if wo have to work the chief tunnel enlirely from the Wairarapa end. a Let Mr. Luke suspend his judgment.until he sees how easily the Orongorongo • water tunnel will be pierced by Mr. temple, and what aji entirely different, proposition the. three-mile-I'orty-.seven-chain tunnel will prove ill construction to that ter» rible Oliru tunnel in. Canterbury. Herein the-'great advantage r>f dolay is shown. ; Tho niistt? are clearing. The experts' are only misleading us. Furtlher surveys are not required. The simple question stands out: , Is Wellington to tunnel out via the Wainui; or is it to continuo the present line from thn Upper Hutt. up tho Pakuratahi Gorge, to a low level point, below the present Kaitcke Kailway Station; thence by a mile tunnel through tho Old Coach Road summit; and. so drop down_ to a point between Teathcrston and Woodside at. l'ernad'e? This would, put Fentherston (one of the greatest exnorting stations in' New Zealand) on a side line, and would' de : stroy any chance'of Wellington putting ■in a dnm hereafter at the Pakuratahi, harnessing 'at .that point some 7000 h.p. for the electric working of the Hutt vnllov trams, and supplying the city, and the whole-valley,-with a first-class water supply. Surely these great disadvantages rrfust strike Mr. Luke as two to l)°- avoided, in the interests-of Featherston, the Hutt valley, and the cuv (the valley people should support mo to t ie utmost, when I am thus advocating halfhour trams from the Tipper Hutt.to the oity; and an excellent water supply tor each house along the whole line). Supposing, now, we all delay a littlo more, until'we see how Mr. Somple gets on with his tunnel. If he find H that work .easy (as I firmly believe hp will), then tho present bogey of piercing, the long tunnel will vanish into tihin air, and the Wainui 'deviation willgptthe yupport of the. whole of the Wellington and Wairai'apa poo'ple- My task has only been to 'guide public opinion in this master in the proper way for our general benejit, and- Mr., Luke's opposition, on account of dnma-s to the Wainui reservoir, should not 1m allowed to stand in the. way. M Wellington grows, more horse-power water will he required, and' the Pakuratahi Gorge is the 'only-spot a- ™table. dam can be put in, convenient to the citj. Why absolutely destroy that great future assot by taking the deviation up the "orge:, for even then all goods traflic would Tave to bo risen 857 feet before it can bo dropped into Wairarnpa. r iis rita and fall of h'alhc (whether clocfi to or steam driven) is altogether too great a handicap for -Wellingtons-future proas Christchurch wisely did when first Wan its railway policy baclv in 1868. I think over what that city has put up Sth so long in its pokey, littlo, dirty, smokv tunnel (exactly the same length ns tlie chief Wainui tunnel), and what a different proposition a double tracked, spacious, electrirally-drivcn Wamm tunnel would ba; a' pleasure for everyone to travel through i a groat boon and n blessins, not only to the citj. but the wboie southerr. ha'W of.the North Wand. Tho railway fhould never liave been telccn over tlie Rimulaka to Fentherston from the TJitper Hnlt. Ihe lato J. C. AfKerrow (Surveyor-Gonornl) ohce toll me thai in' 1870 it was propose.- to tunnel ; through, from the IJpiHM' Ilutt direct to Cross Creek (eleven nnle-'), in n straight line but the task was Ihen beyond our. nbilitv. So ill asking far what I have, these past. 30 years, it is only to nmk* the citv realise that it must tunnol out in everv direction it can; never to hwitatc, but'reduce its grades on every side. To "et the very, best boring plants, and wiic-never a progressive work is roc|inred. to insist upon tunnelling where tunnelling is advantageous, and avoid crawling over anv hill- - .'in Tlie delay, therefore, owing to the war. has been unprofitable. Every phase■ oi the matter is now More the pej>ple. Ihe If on. Mr. Mussey and the Hon. Mr. Coa es are not to be blamed. The Vholo district -north of -Auckland badly wants roading. Far more public money wants to be npenlin (Hie unopened north than anywhere elw in New Zealand. Tho Auckland f?aily.-.«> Station is worse than ours in Wellington, i know for a fact that people are drifting up north from Invcrcnrgill, Dunedin, Gore, Timaru, Christchurch, and othei K.uthcrn towns. Mr. Coates has not upcnt moreiDonoy tlmnihe should ha-ve done Auckland Province, and our worthy 1 rime Minister is playing the game to-day, as he 'has played it right through the war. For the'past 43 years r have lived in Wairarapa, away from Auckland, but I still take rny. lint off to the Queen Oily of the Jwirth, and say she richly deserves all the public funds we can give her. A\e have had tons of -oublic money spent in Ticnthnm and Featlierston cami>s. purely we should not grudge that long li9t of

small eubsidies to tlie Roadless North. I feel certain Wellington will get its rail- ' way station quito as soon as Auckland gets hers.' , ;