MIDLAND RAILWAY LINE

Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1931, Page 2

MIDLAND RAILWAY LINE

ANOTHER. “DEAD END.” REAIOVAL OF SERVICE AIATERIAL. NELSON, February 24. Of the 320 men employed on the con. struction of the Midland railway Ik>twoen Kawatiri and Alurchison, only forty remain packing up the materials for the permanent way .in depots along the route and .shifting much of the equipment to other works. Since work on the line- resumed late in 1928, following Sir Joseph Ward’s election promise, about £240,000 lias been spent; once again however progress is held up at the command of the Government, and still the railroad runs to a dead end, with no chance of bein'/ able to justify itself on the balancesheet or to wipe off any of the £15,000 which is set down as the annual loss on it. MATERIAL BEING TRANSFERRED. Almost every train which comes from Glen hope to Nelson brings a truck-load of barrows, tents or other service equipment of the department which is being sent elsewhere. No material for tibe permanent way is being taken from the scene, but stacks of this are, at present, almost the only indication that the work may be resumed one day. .Much of the workshop mfiuhjnory, besides other material, is being sent to tlm northern end of the South Island Main Trunk works by lorry by way of Tophouae arid the Wnirau Valley, SINGLE: MEN DISPERSED. Tales are current in Nelson that some of the single men who have not vet left- the scene of construction are m distress and have been forced to pick blackberries by the roadside in order iVj make a few shillings. The Department, however, made provision for practically all the married men. Besides the forty employed in stacking the material, eighty were transferred to road work on the Tarakoe-Wainui road in Golden Bay. About 120 single men were dispersed, and to this may be due the fact that, for the first time during the present depression, Nelson and Alotueka have had to organise the relief for unemployed. WHERE LINE STOPS. From Nelson to Kawatiri—a distance of sixty-three miles—the .Midland Line has been opened and under the control of the Railway Depai tsuent tor some time. Soon after the lasi, election the rails were laid a mile 'be} ond mere. Three more miles have since been completed, so that sixty-seven miles ot rails are now in position. This section ends at Gowan Bridge, but, for a further fourteen miles j 90 per cent, of the formation has been completed, thufi bringing the route to within four miles qf the town of ADu'oluson, FORMATION WORK. These last fourteen miles have been the chief scepe qf activity since the work began again. Steam navvies, which are to remain for the present, have been working on cuttings, the spoil from which has been used to build up txe embankments, One oi these is fifty chains long, In one or two other places big, blasting operations bad to be undertaken, one and a half tons of powder being used in a single charge. The engineers found, however, that the country was not nearly so difficult as it looked; practically no formation work of a difficult nature has to be done in order to lay the rails right to Murchison, Beyond lies a stretch of twenty-eight miles through the heart of the Boiler Gorge before the other railhead at Inangahun is reached. The rugged nature of this particular section has been constantly li'eld against the construction oi the bn©, but engineers do not' consider the difficulties nearly so great as they appear to tho casual observer. Though no detailed survey of this final section of the line has yet been made, it is thought that as far as possible, the line would link up the various terraces along the route which give access to what' are undoubtedly fertile valleys.

MURCHISON’S POSITION,

Not a great deal of expensive work needs to be done before the people of Murchison could have the advantage of the railway for which they have waited ro long and so patiently; hut it is for the Government to say when they shall be given it. The prospect is much more distant that it was three months ago and, even when it in completed so far, there aJ’e still twentyeight miles beyund untouched.