OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 945, 28 May 1880, Page 3

OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY.

At a special meeting of the Committee of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce held on Tuesday last, the following report was submitted by the sub-Committee appointed to consider the question of the Otago Central Railway :

“ That a memorial should be sent to the Railway Commission in the following terms :

■‘The Committee of the Chamber of Commerce having carefully considered the question of the Otago Central Railway, are of opinion -

“ 1. That this is the most important line now projected in Otago, and its prosecution is a matter of very great importance both to the miners and the settlers in the interior, and to the City of Dunedin. “ 2 This railway is one that must eventually become the main artery of communi cation with an immense tract of country, extending as far as the Wanaka and Hawea Lakes, and even to the West Coast, and including the principal mining centres of Otago, ami a large area of agricultural and pastoral lauds still in the hands of the Crown. Every section of it, as the. lino advances, will prove of benefit to the country.

“3 The engineering difficulties, at first thought to be considerable, are now found, on unquestionable evidence, to he but very slight, and are chiefly confined to the sections now in course of construction.

“4 There is no other line which could be made in Otago that, from a Colonial as well as a local point of view, affords greater promise of benefits, both direct snd indirect, inasmuch as it will encourage both mining and agriculture, and largely assist in increasing the population of the interior by opening for settlement land which could not possibly he occupied profitably till connected with the coast by railway. The sale for cash of a portion of this land would provide a sum which would go far towards paying for the cost of the litre.

“5. The annexed extracts from evidence collected from official documents regarding lire practicability and the value of the line, arid the area of tire land which it will open up, ought nf itself to satisfy the Commission and the Government that the Otago Central is a line which should ho put in the first rank of railways to he constructed as funds are available, and that the works in hand should be pushed on whh al! possible speed.” It was decided, after discussion, to forward to tho Railway Commission and to the Otago members of the Assembly, a memorial embodying the report.