NELSON RAILWAYS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 178, 29 July 1874, Page 2

NELSON RAILWAYS

______ We have received the full report of the statement of the Minister for Public Works and take from it the following extracts: — The Nelson and Foxhill Railway works have progressed satisfactorily, and the date fixed for completion is November, 1875. A preliminary survey has been made of the proposed trunk line from Foxhill to the Brunner. The works will be of a heavy nature, and the gradients very severe j but not more so than on some of the other lines now in hand. I shall refer again to this line presently. The Westport and Mount Rochfort line has been somewhat delayed for want of a survey staff; but the first section to Fairdown is now about to be let, and the surveys for the completion to Ngakawau are in a forward state . I see no reason why the entire railway should not be completed by the end of 1875, and hope that before the middle of 1875 the permanent harbor works may be put in hand. The commencement of these works depends upon the ' completion of the contract for the first length, the date of which is August, 1875. The Greymouth and Brunner line, including the suspension bridge over the Grey River, is in hand ; but the railway works are not in such a forward state as was anticipated This is not the fault of the contractor, but is owing to the necessity which has been found to exist for improving the line over a ehort length where heavy slips are threatened. The Engineer-in-Cbief states that the steps he has taken are sufficient to insure tbe safety of the line, and the cost of the additions will be met out of the appropriation taken last year ; the protective works undertaken have answered all expectations, and have stood the test of some very severe floods. ##*# # . * The vote of £10,000 for preliminary surveys being nearly exhausted, we shall ask for a sufficient sum to enable us to have full and complete surveys made of the line through from Foshill to Brunnertou, and thence to Canterbury, and from Greymonth to Hokitika, as well as for such other portions of the connecting links of the trunk lines as the staff at our command will enable us to do. There will be no necessity to do more than this before the next session.

It hns been stated by my hon. colleague the Colonial Treasurer, in his financial statement, that the Government consider the railway scheme as adopted by the Parliament embraces the main trunk line from Kaipara, in the North, to Auckland, thence by Mercer to Newcastle, and southward to Wellington, the railways from Napier and Taranaki joining the trunk line at such points as on survey hereafter may be found to be the best. , Then from Nelson to Hokitika ■, the main trunk lines running through the valleys of the Buller and Grey and into the Amuri by the best routes procurable, and passing South through Canterbury and Otago to the Bluff, together with the line from Invercargill to Kingston, the line to Port Chalmers in Otago, and tbat from Christchurch to Lyttelfoo in Canterbury. Theonly railway which I think it right now to call attention to is the connecting link with Blenheim. It has transpired during the survey of the Foxhill and Brunnerton rnilway that a very easy line to construct can be got from a point about fifty miles from Nelson, on that railway down the Wairnu Valley to Blenheim, which is in course of being connected with Picton. During the thunderstorm which occurred on Sunday, 19th instant, the academy of Mr Scott, in Hampden street, Hokitika, was struck by lightning. The Register says :—Fortunately, Mr Scott was in at the time, and was able to extinguish the firo which broke out on one side of the house without difficulty. This is tho second occurrence of the kind known to have taken place in Hokitika ; the piledriver, on the wharf, having upon one occasion been fo shocked at the lightning, that it could stand it no longer, but cops'zed. The Assembly of California has passed a Bill requiring all miners to keep in good order and operation two shafts of ingress and egress, means of ventilation sufficient to give each miner 230 ft of pure air each minute, keeping hoSting machinery in good order, and overseers of mines to be deemed guilty of manslaughter if death occur from want of attention to its provisions. A sensational story appears ia an Australian provincial paper, to the effect that Arthur Orton was hanged some years ago at the Melbourne Gaol in the name of Jackson. The records of the gaol have been examined, and the man Jackson, referred to in the story, was banged certainly in 1855, but at the time he was 44 years of age. This little circumstance destroys the beauty of the tale, because the real Arthur Orton would not be much older now, if he be in the land of the living.