THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1875.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 315, 12 March 1875, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1875.

a little more than six weeks a railway train will be running daily within 40 miles of .Naseby. It is calculated that the line between Uamaru and the Maerewhenua Kiver will i;e . penpfi f<>r traffic; before tiuj win:or comuifiieoK. Thia fact will mark -:, nora iu the hi.^

•'«>ry of the Interior, and is, if followed lip, of interest roTiiariy more than those alb present, settled .iujfcKe, - Waitaki dis-. tfict • iSy means ofvfcßis . railway, th.e Maniototo might be first 'placed in "clieap cduimuurcatioa with a -raapkef.By means of it the finest, forest growing country probably to be found in Otaga could be'opened-upand sisu, by means uf it, mineral deposits of greater vaiuw even than gold cuula be rendered available. It is tolerably certain that rich copper lodes exist at the back of Mount Domett.. Indications of elate quarries are not wanting on every side of the - present track through the Pass Outcrops of quartz are also freely exposed, Only requiring prospecting to prove their immediate connection with Rough. .Ilidge, Blaekstone Hill and Benciigo ; —and lastly, the beds of coal—good aw well as inferior—opened,and laid bare by flood waters and natural water courses—extend through hundreds of acres of ground. To develop these permanent sources of wealth nothing is needed but a good road through the Pass. The exact line of such a road would be a matter for the engineers. It would probably follow up the north branch of the river ; the difficulty in that case being nothing more than the cutting of a sidling along about three miles of a rocky gorge;—such work as has already been donb in the Province above Clyde, though country which at oue time it must have appeared impossible ever to penetrate with heavy traffic. A, ten mile extension of the Maerew'nenua railway towards the Pass would place a railway junction easily within 20 miles of the Kyeburn, and a good road could probably be cut through for between £±ooo and £sooo being little, if at all, more than is spent in bridging one of the southern rivers. Such a road would be of more value than many bridges, and would verv greatly enhance the immense tracts of Crown lands in this district. Ultimately the Crown lands will be ranked at their proper value. If they can be preserved from the hands of the speculat< r, the construction of the Main Interior Railway will do that. The Pass road would have this pecuniarly beneficial character that, anticipating the main railway, it would raise the value of Crown property to such a degree as to make it possible—if lands have to be parted with in order to raise funds for railway construction—to find those funds without any great or extensive sacrifice of land. •' ' !

If the Pass is unopened, and money is needed—a* we fear it will be to bolster up Provincialism, or rather to enable the Provincial Government of the day, like the prodigal son, to waste its pattimony in riotous extravagance—the very extensive and valuable lands at present almost unknown, comprising t'le watersheds of the Maerewhenua, Oteki<ike, Kurow, and other large streams forming part of the Waitaki watershed, will be sold in large tracts to capitalists as lands of inferior value. It is from such lands as theße that Otago must look for the sources of her mining wealth—if mining is to be a leading feature of her futuro. As State forest country from its formation, its well watered character, and its soil, the district' that would be opened up can hardly be excelled. _ It is iu similar country that the artificial forests of India have been created, modifying the climate of immense tracts of arid and desolate land —extending for miles below their in-, fluence. Coming nearer home it is in very similar country that the larch plantations on the A thole estates in Perthshire have been so singularly successful.

We know of nothing more important to the Waitaki district on the one side, and the ' Maniototo district on the other, than a better public knowledge of the value of the Pass Country. This can only be obtained by it being first opened up for public traffic.