THE NARROW" GUAGE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 876, 25 November 1870, Page 2

THE NARROW" GUAGE.

The following extract from a private letter received by a gentleman in Wellington, from the hon. F. Dillon Bell, has been handed to the Wellington Independent for publication. After illustrating that •' colonising work must be organised to be successful" he proceeds:— " Of course a very powerful agent will be found in tin's new system of Narrow Guage Railway. I have just been to see the Ffestiniog line, which you have heard so much of, and which we write officially about. I can only say that no description can give the least idea of it. you see a toy; it is a giant in its power. Nothing looks so absurd, after thundering along the great railways to the North and being dazed by the size of the engines, the length of the trains, and the ceaseless rush and whirl through tunnels, over embankments, along cuttings, and across bridges,—of the little Ffestiniog line with its tiny engine and train along side of whkh a_ man looms enormous, You get in, wondering what next; presently you begin running up a steep hill at the rate of 15 miles an hour, following the contour of the ground. You come to a sharp curve, and, turning round, you see XH tail carriages of the train coming round the last sweep. You are in the middle of what ,seems all but a qi'cle of little carriages, the engine looking ridiculously small, the long line of trucks behind being just big enough to hold a b,ale of wool. You are running along a line of 1 foot 111 inches guage, and while on one side the hiU is a few inches from your feet, lor the Irish jaunting- car projects over the rails, and you can't help fancying you are going to have your

brains dashed out by the riding, as soon, as you turn to the other side you see only the precipitous descent of the hill, with nothing between you and the slide down. Presently you look at the distant hills, the stream shining silvery in the valley below, the ferns cl >se enough to pluck, the trees on your right and left: why, this is New Zealand ! The illusion is. wonderful. I never saw any one so struck with a novel scene as Kuowles was, who accompanied me. Heaps of who know the Alps by heart have never seen this quiet Ffestiniog Vale, and of course the New y?ealander who cornea home must do his Rhine and hi 3 Lucerne ; but if you want him to be reminded of his country, send him to the Ffestiuiog Railway. But apart from the surprises of the scene, the cool calculation pf adaptability to our wants soon comes. I do not hesitate to confess that after reading what I could aud talking to people who knew,, the surprise Jjfelt was us if | had never heard of a cheap railway. I can say is that after seeing this one I have ceased to consider there is any difficulty in New Zealand. As for the Wairarapa road,. the Horokiwi, the Waikouati, and dozens of others where wo have made expensive metalled lines because we knew not of possible railways, there, it certainly will not be loug before these are abandoned in favor of the narrow guage railway. The Ffestiniog lipe once seen, all sense of difficulty or trouble absolutely vanishes; and although I am no engineer, and am quite incompe-. tent to decide whether Fairlie's Bogie engines or Fox's Norway engines are the best, it is satisfactory, perfectly satisfactory, to have been on a line which for 7 years has done what I iiave seen at Ffestiniog, visit to the Norwegian lines with the 3ft. Gin. guaga will be very interesting to you : and when you take the impressions we have each received and weigh tliera together, you will realise as well as we do ourselves that an entirely new era is open, and that the " Railways of tsie Future," to use the title of the Times. Essays, will give New Zealand a place she never dreamt of getting by any other means. Whenever the time comes that you shall be able to spend money on New Zealand railways, you need entertain no sort of doubt that here, already dene and in full work, are exactly the patterns we want, suited precisely to the country which we live in, and possessing the elements of advantage most precious to us. This is the evidence before our eyes of the fact, and the men are here too. J don't want to be sanguine, but I am quite certain iu my own uiincl; aud I only regret I did not see for myself iu time to write before the Assembly met."