OUR WAIRARAPA LETTER.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 75, 29 September 1880, Page 2

OUR WAIRARAPA LETTER.

I* HOM OtTB. OWN dOßß**£l!pNlHSN*j*]; jGseytown, September 26, 1880. Th* Rirantaka railway diapeter is now almost forgotten— a thing of the past ; still to many its effect v, a*^d will be. for aoin,e time' tb Cpme,, a S.oij£ce of grief)., and a 9 event never to "be, erased fropv the me.' xnory of thoi* who have b.e*n bereave^ by the sad disaster. ThV' majpnty 0$ those maimed and otherwise wouhde^., arf.-prrtty well recpvefied. There are now or\ly two remaining patienta m the Wairarapa Hospf-. tal— Mr. A. B. Jackson and Mr. E. .Ha?*— both of whom are" m a critical -tate, th* formerly being dangerously bruised internally m th» loira** ]***rt- Qt I&t.ty> d ftm &

is expected that it will take some months for him to sufficiently recover, so na to resume work. Mr. Hare, who received terrible scalp wounds, and waa otherwise badly lacerated, ia an old man, and grave doubts are entertained as to whether or not he will eve. recove his strength. The little boy Nicholae, whose head was so terribly bartered, and entirely scalped, lies at his horn* ' at Featherston m a precarious condition, Several medical operations, have been per* formed upon him, and on Friday, Dr. Hosking, of Masterton, again operated on the pool? boy'a skull, and succeeded m *xtracting several lumps of gravel. The suf* ferers are daily anxiously enquired after and much public sympathy is exhibited) and this is all that can be done for th* sufferers. The gloom which was castover the country by the accident is gradually lifting, and ere long will be obscured. Speaking of railways, I may as ; well mention that as we are no uncommon people m this district, and being pretty fairly " m " aa Colonials term it— we have determined upon dispensing— or rather Government has . genwously done so for us— with an engine upon our pet" Branch, Line ! '« We do not like that obnoxious smoke whiVh ia permitted from those horrid engjiea,** say the officials termed Ministers, &{tei running from Woodside^ to Greytown, where* thn, wind as a rule blows south-east, and an conveys the smoke fairly into tho cars, to the annoyance of aristocratic travellers j and so they have determined '< tipbn (by they I mean Johnny Hall * Co.) running our train by horses, and with, this end m view have called for tenders.. Whether or not any one will be. found mad enough to go into for the thing„remains to be proved, One thing appears perfectly clear to 'any right-minded man, that the Branch line can be worked far cheaper, by, steam thin, by horse-potver. The specifications require! that tenderer-, shall .be pr-pared to find st_am*power, if Government so wishes. They must m any case provide horse-power-enough to draw a bupden of 'twenty -six tons from G-reytown to Woodside. To do this will require ten horses at least, and they must be atauneh indeed to start a load of twenty-six tons, iiiother fault to be found is that the please- is? too short, being only twelve months.- I think, and?eveiy one else thinks, tha";.; our. ten par cent, saving and eoononiicirf riends. J. Hall & Co., have put themselves into the wrong box once more. However, we shall ace how they, get on. The one great error w*<s committed long ago, that of construoti ing the railway instead of making a gopd road to Tf oodside Station, as I pointed out m this journal some time ago, arid on* which is now being realised. -But the novelty of having a. railway running into thn City of Greytown! . A city, be it rev membered, of some 600 inhabitants -(think of it) was too much for us to overcome. We were weak of nerye ; . "We petitioned ; we sent deputations to Government, asking, praying, and begging that they would give, us a. whole railway,* all to ourselves, and they, generous souls > acceded to our wishes. They at once set their Engineers to work (plenty of^which wawtoba' found waiting *nd watching to surrey the line over -wl.-i.jh tfcey managed to blunder no leas than Ahre* times, to a cost of . something like £2G DO to the taxpayers, and. after all left it a blunder and a wretched failure, tlie line itself, m all costing over £"t 5,000, After such :work ae' this we begin to cry out about hard timea^ and eyen M ajor Atkinson finds, his coffers ar* getting low, but he will stick to it until the last dollar is out, .then VC9Vm\*l Trimble, who is waiting for droppings; Can take it out of his h^nde. Th.ey'lament th* financial condition ofthe colony /.then why were they io cowardly as to first impose 6d. per gallon on Colonial beer, and then, on the^ complaint of the brewer, take it off again ? The Wairarapa. Standard, m a* recent article, speaking of the cost' o_> Taranaki, said: "It were a pity T«rana_j, withy its iron sand, its member for Grey and Bell, Te Whiti and followers^ the. Constabu-! : kry, and Colonial Treasurer, were not submerged for tw*nty-four hours und;er tha sea. Then New Zealand would be a desirable habitation for civilised and rational men." I think the. writer might as well have added a few other names, whbie owners, would be none the worse, of TC thorough keelhauling to have purged and cleazuted them of their.