THE CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 340, 15 June 1894, Page 2

THE CENTRAL RAILWAY.

The members of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce are inconsistent. At a meeting of that body, at which the Members of the House for that district were present, a resolution was passed regretting so little had been done in the way of exploration and surveys to enable Parliament to come to a final judgment on the best railway route to adopt. We, and thousands of others in the colony, looked upon the question as definitely settled some years ago, but that the work had been hung up owing to the obstruction of the Auckland people, who have persuaded themselves into a profound faith that the coast line via Taranaki is the only and best one, although the reports of practical and skilled surveyors, of independent judgment, have declared it to be impossible, unless at an enormous expense. Wo believe the idea is to get the Taranaki and West Coast trade attracted to Auckland, while the gen eral good of the colony is ignored. Now, if trade is the main object to be desired, we have long held the opinion, based on experience, that if the central line from Marton were completed at once townships drawing nearly every ton of their supplies from Auckland would form in the various districts passed through, whose population in ten years would exceed the whole number from Taranaki to Rangitikei. Our view is borne out by the following extract from a letter written by Dr Newman to the Welling! on Post. Writing of his trip through Hunterville, Awarua, Hautapu, Inland Patea, and Waimarino, he said he was surprised at the magnificent wealth there is in the forests of white pine, totara, rimu, &c, and at the general titness of the country for close settlement. He then goes on to say : — " Good as I thought the Awarua, I now unhesitatingly assert that equally good are large portions of Oruamatua, Ruanui, Rangitaua, Rangiwai, nearly all the land lying to the west of tin? railway route between Marton junction and the Wanganui river. Also, equally good and equally lit for close settlement is a great part of the much-auused and con stantly-derided Waimarino. Granted that the eastern edge of this magnificent estate runs up into high country, this is ouly a small portion of it. The immense bulk of this island is fit for small pastoral settlement. One flat is of special value. Partly in Waimarino and partly across the Pipiriki-Ohakune road are 33,000 acres. All the country (as far as from their mouths to the Central route) drained by the rivers Wangaehu, Turakina, and their tributaries, such as the Mangawhero, will all become a first-class grazing country. All along the open railway sawmills are busily working. The Hautapu is quite the finest white pine bush in New Zealand. In other parts of Awarua and Otamakapua are splendid sawmilling bushes of great extent. The whole of the big Waimarino flat is covered with a dense forest of rimu and white pine — " enough to pay for the railway," say enthusiasts. All over large tracts of Waimarino's large expause is now growing the most magnificent varied luxuriant bush, and away up in its northern corner nearly 25,000 acres of the forest totara these islands ever grew. The Maoris are willing to sell the greater part of the land they own." If the Auckland people would only open their eyes and look on these facts free from blinding local prejudice they would discontinue their factious obstruction to the completion of the central line, and instead give the Governmeut hearty encouragement to get on with the work.