Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1897. The Carnarvon -Sanson Tramway.

Manawatu Herald, 28 August 1897, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1897. The Carnarvon -Sanson Tramway.

Tsk business men at Bulls have now an opportunity to carry into effect that object, which, at one time they were loud in their protestations of desiring, viz., the continuation of the Carnarvon Sanson Tramway to that township. Tha destruction o! the Bulls road bridge necessitates the erection of a new on?, and that at as early a date as possible. We understand that expert opinion has been taken and tha local body is advised to place the new bridge about a mile lower down the river than the old site, and if so, we believe it would mean almost that saving in distance between Sanson and Bulls. A saving in distance is necessarily a saving in expanse and thus, even in this one item, makes the obtaining of a connection with Fox ton by rail so much easier of accomplishment. One heavy item of expense in the early day3 of Tram connection was the cost of a bridge over the R*ugilikei River, as the then existing bridge was bath too weak, and too awkwardly placed to use for Tramway purposes. The flood has re-. I moved this obstacle, and it should ! be easy to arrange that the new bridge should be made ssrong enough to carry the light engines in use on the Tram line. Any bridge that will be erected must ba strong enough without further extra expense, to carry the continuation of the Tram line, as many loads now taken on the roada very often equal the weight of the engine. No township can afford to be so niggardly in erecting the approaches to its centre as to make it so weak that only a certain class of traffic can approach it. The idea of every business man is to open up his own premises, and the town he resides in, to the whole world if they can but be persuaded to pas 3 through it. We hope the residents of Bulls will bestir themselves in this matter to some purpose, as hitherto their energy in talking has been great but correspondingly small in doing anything. They have used the bugbear of the cost of a new bridge to act as an excuse to avail themselves of the outlay of the Manawatu County, without contributing one half-penny towards the construction of the Tramway. We have shown that the bridge has now to be built and it is as easy to build a substantial bridge as any other, and of hardly any further cost. The continuation of the Tramway to Bulls would be of great service to that town, as well as to the Tramway itself. There would be a greatly increased traffic over the line which would be most acceptable. The cheapening in cost of freight to all the Lower Bangitikei would amply repay any outlay that is necessary to continue the line from Sanson. We doubt very much if the Manawatu County Council would be inclined to take any further steps, as they have had, as we have previously remarked, all the expenditure, with but a share of the advantages. It would seem that the best and most prompt way of continuing the original scheme of Tramway connection with Foxton, would be for the energetic residents of Bulls and Lower Bangitikei to form a company to buy the existing line from the County and continue it to their doors. Money is cheap and plentiful, and it could very well be shown (if, as the Manawatu County has declared, the Tram line can be purchased very cheap) that there was money in the venture. In fact the company migh,t get extra advantages if they raised money enough to build the bridge and await a term for payment by the two interested counties. The Tramway made to Bulls would place it within four miles of the junction of the Main Trunk line to Auckland, and thus put that country in a very mush better position for carriaga of goods than it now ie. We expect opposition would be raised by Martou acd Wanganui, but if there was this opposition it would only be further proof of the advantage such a connection would be to Bulls.