OPOTIKI-OHIWA RAILWAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1455, 16 May 1905, Page 2

OPOTIKI-OHIWA RAILWAY.

The following letter haa been sent from Opotiki:—

Opotiki, 3rd May, 1905. To the Hon. Sib J. C. Ward, Minister for Railways, ' Wellington.

Sir, A. number of gentlemen, residents of this district, and having certain valuable interests in the town and county of Opotiki, have banded themselves together with the object of ultimately obtaining a better means of communication with the town and the port of Ohiwa. As is well known, fair-sized steamers and vessels can enter and leave this latter port and in the pa9t this has been proven. The better means of communication upon which we are unanimous is a railway be it of narrow gauge and light constrution or constructed aocording to the Government pattern, and as a preliminary step towards this end, I, upon behalf of my committee, beg to approach the Government cannot see their way to construct the line upon their own account, at least material help will be aooorded to us in our efforts. Our request then is firstly : Will the Government at once send a thoroughly competent engineer to investigate the pro posed line, to confer with my committee and place his views before us as to what is the best route for the line to take ? What class of line would be best route for tho line to take ? What class of line would be best in the interests of the district, and wbat would be the approximate coat of the same ?

Having ascertained these devils whichmy committee feel assured would be favorable ,to the propossd work, wo would then request that the Government either at once take tho work in haud‘and proceed expeditiously to a termination or sanction the proposed work under the Railway Construction Acts, and subsidise the same. My committee feel assured that we oan place many good grounds before tbo Government for the speedy conatrnction of the proposed work and among others we would briefly mention ; I-—A largo area of Crown Land in the' district is now being oagerly inquired for by intending settlers, but the fact of our present exceedingly uncertain means of communication with large oentresie an absolute deterent, and of late many of these would-be settlers have come, wished to stay, but seeing the state of things, have gone elsewhere.

2—lt ip .confidently anticipated that with the successful termination of this work the steamer companies interested will arrange for laJger boats to call at Ohiwa and more often than at presentiand we would submit that increased facilities means increased products and increased prosperity. We woald point out that some time ago v a Railway League was formed here. This t body is practically defn'not.and tfie present B committee have no eonneotion with t

the same. We woald also state that, in the interests of the district, we have decided that better communication with other parts of New Zealand is most desirable, is in fact urgently required, and that we shall leave no stone unturned to Beooro

that object. We would also urge that this lino, small though it may be, if completed would form a valuable link in tbe railway system which we trust is contemplated in the distriot, and the extension of tbe line to other productive centres in the Counties of Opotiki and Wbakatane would without doubt speedily follow the completion of the Opotjki-Ohiwa railway. Finally we would earnestly request your approval of this our object, and early send

a competent man to investigate tbo matter thoroughly. An early reply will oblige.— Yours faithfully, • W. A. CARTER,