Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1903. The Electric Railway.

Manawatu Herald, 19 March 1903, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1903. The Electric Railway.

Our American cousins seem fully aware of the ad van tapes accruing from the use of electricity, which everyday shows itself to be the power of the world. The time is not distant when the possession of water power, not for the old-fashioned water-wheels, but for the generation of electricity will cause districts and countries now apparently set out of the world,'to become the most important business centres. Our cablegrams inform us that American capitalists intend to build an electric railway two thousand miles long, from Duluth, Minnesota, at the west end of Lake Superior, to Galveston, the Texas seaport on the Gulf of Mexico. The line if drawn true between Duluth and Galveston, would show that it would run through the -States of Minnesota, lowa, Missouri, Kansas, the Indian Territory and Texas, The line would cross the Missouri river, and the many tributaries of that river and the Mississippi, and would run near the towns of St. Paul, Des Moines, Kansas and Jefferson cities and Galveston.

The sources of the Mississippi is in the north-west central part ef Minnesota, and from thence for hundreds of miles the river winds through swamps and lake to lake, with frequent rapids and picturesque falls. The description helps to illustrate what the tributaries to it must be like and discloses the means by which cheap electric traction is to be obtained. The Missouri river rises in the Rooky Mountains and has many large rapids, at one above Fort Benton, named the Great Falls, the river descends 327 feet in 15 miles, and the tributaries are similarly situated. We have thus a good conception of the promoters understanding the power they have to use. Duluth, the starting point ef this enterprise, has one of the finest harbours in the United States, and as she is so advantageously situated at the head of navigation of the great chain of lakes, and possesses im mense deposits of iron, granite, and freestone, it has rapidly increased in population and in wealth. Galveston, the seaport of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, has one of the best harbours of the State, protected by a breakwater, a,nd possesses a considerable trade.

Si. Paul, on the proposed route, is an important town and appreciates the value of water, as its waterworks furnish a daily supply of eight million gallons, and all parts of the city are reached by electric street railways. The scheme proposed seems an exceedingly reasonable one, and if carried out will be the means not only of introducing cheap traction, but also cheap power throughout the two thousand miles it is to run.