The Gorge Bridge.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 299, 22 June 1895, Page 2

The Gorge Bridge.

« DEPUTATION to tiik MINISTER of LANDS. (Per Press Associatlou.) Wellington, June 21. A deputatiou waited on the Minister for Lands urging that the present bridle track from Fitzhcrbert to Pahiatua should be converted into a dray road, and that instead of restoring the present bridge over the Manawatu on the Gorge road, assistance be given towards the erection of a bridge over the samn river at Hokowhitu ou the now road. If this were done the Gorge road could be clone away with altogether and an enormous expense for the maintenance now involved saved. At present anj r flood which damaged the railway also damaged and completely stopped communication whereas a new road would provide an alternative route when the Gorge railway was blocked. The Minister, in reply, said Government would do one thing or the other— either assist in the reconstruction of the present Gorge bridge or assist a new scheme, provided the local bodies and the people iu the district favoured it. The Cabinet would shortly be considering the question of the Gorge bridge, and if the deputation submitteel its proposals in writing and got the opiuious of bodies interested, the proposals would be considered together. Mr McKenzie expressed his opinion that the railway should have gone by the Pahiatua-Palmerston route instead of by the expensive Gorge route.