NAPIER-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 378, 15 July 1911, Page 3

NAPIER-GISBORNE RAILWAY.

(From Our Matiere Correspondent.)

In these days of feverish progress, when a member for a country constituency must have at least one railway proposal to foster and add to the already numerous family of bugbears which conspire to rob an already over wrought Minister of Finance of sleep, it would be extremely singular if the member for Napier and his confrere, the member for Hawke's Bay, were out of fashion in this respect. As a matter of fact, they have placed the Minister of Pubic Works on the "horns of a dilemma," far three routes of a railway, to be run parallel with or along the East Coast, have been submitted; but as no definite route has been decided on, the proposed railway is known as the East Coast Railway, and its objective will be largely the result of the route selected. The coast route is the most popular in Napier city, as it is proposed to run the railway across the Spit and along the coast via Wairoa to Gisborne; but as this is obviously competing with sea freights and a few hours run will land goods at Wairoa, it is generally thought that in advocating this route the Napier people are losing sight of their own interests. Wairoa has recently carried a loan of £90,000 for harbour works, clearly showing that in the near future, if fed by a railway, she may play no secondary fiddle as a coastal or ocean port Added to these considerations is the fact that the coastal land traversed by the route is in large holdings, each of which have already provided loading stages or boat harbours, where the lading of small steamers is completed with despatch; and wool and stores, except for a light freight rate, are subject to a less embargo than that on goods from an inland district tapped by rail. A feature of his route is the large holdings it would serve, with the usual sparse population, the exception being the Tangoio estate which was recently cut up by the Government and allotted to settlers, many of whom are finding the place anything but an El Dorado. It may safely be assumed that this route will be cut out of the railway proposals, for the main reasons that it will traverse a very rough and difficult route, serve few residents and compete with an already efficient and cheap sea borne freight. Having disposed of the coastal route, we may now consider what is known as the central route. This proposal is that a line shall start from Hastings, or some other point presumably between Hastings and Napier, and run via Puketapu, Rissington and Pohue, or rather to the south-east of the latter, and skirting a spur of the Kaweka range, tap an immense forest of timber owned by the natives and the Crown, and reputed to be one of the best belts of timber at present existing in the Dominion. Pushing northward, and running some score or so of miles inland of Wairoa, this line would junction with the Gisborne railway. The country traverse by this line to Pohue is a very old settled distrct, and ranges from dairying land near Hastings to sheep country along the rest of its route; tha latter almost, if not quite, all grassed by native danthouias and rat-tail, with a small proportion of English grasses, and carrying about one and a half sheep to the acre. Very good crops of turnips are grown along the portion of this route running from Rissington northward, only a hundredweight, and, in some cases, half that quantity of fertiliser being used. Also very good crops of a clean sample of chaffing oat are grown, and potatoes of good quality and a large yield are successfully raised. Rissington was s formerly the head station of the Patoka estate, owned by an old celebrity, "Barney Rhodes," and consisting of about one hundred and sixty thousand acres. The present station of Patoka was formerly an out-station of the larger estate. *On the death of the owner, his successors cut up the place into numerous subdivisions, all these lying between the Mohaka, Ngaror and Tutaekuri rivers. A fair amount of pumice exists in his land, together with shell rock, gravel and limestone outcrops, and the substrata is in many cases a form of sandstone. Those faces of the hills underlying the outcrops of limestone have superior grazing qualities to that of the surrounding land, and are used for fattening purposes. The few cattle grazed are chiefly the black Polled Angus, thi3 breed being found remarkably hardy, good grazers, and first-rate beef as three year olds. Altogether the central route has more solid claims to favourable consideration, both from its prospective payable timber and produce freights, and the amount of country tapped and the fact that an easy and practicable route exists along the Tutaekuri river and its tributaries. The third route, known as the inland route, except for some slight j deviations, is practically that of the central; but it runs through a good deal of dairying country, notably that about Maraekakaho, and the portion of the Tutaekuri river, passing along the bank of this stream and striking east- : ward from about the junction of the Mangatutu stream across by the Patoka estate via Henley to the point touched by the central route near Pohue. While endeavouring to give your readers an idea of the routes proposed it is of course futile to hazard any decided opinion as to which will be selected. Naturally there are strong arguments adduced by the advocates of the three routes; but no doubt the matter will be decided sooner or later, even if they have to appoint what the Hon. Mr Millar has been pleased to call "the sheet anchor of the shuffler," a Royal Commission.