THE PROGRESS OF PUBLIC WORKS IN THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 6

THE PROGRESS OF PUBLIC WORKS IN THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

•We have been courteously supplied by the Hon the Premier with the following notes upon the public works going on in the Manawatu District, taken by him daring a recent visit to the district:—

1. From Foxton to Orowa Bridge. —About fourteen miles, nearly level, preparations being made for laying tramway, well advanced. The track is sandy, with intervening Bpaces of flaxy land, with sandy bottom, wet in winter. The construction extremely easy; nothing more -than cutting tops off low hummocks, raising depressions of a few inches, and consolidating shifting sand, &c. The only difficulty when constructed will be to prevent sand drifting on the rails, &c, at a few spots on the lino where sand hummocks have to be cut through. These things will require a little continuous expense, as all roads will. Mr Stewart seems to have designed everything well on this section.

2. From Orowa Bridge to Palmerston, 12 miles. —The first five or six miles liable to be submerged in flood;, but probably not to the height of the tramway, save very exceptiontionably—say once injive or six years, and as there is no rush of water, little damage may be expected. This portion, however, will require “putting to rights” in wet weather. The remainder (about six miles) is above flood level. The common road alongside the tramway will, however, be useless in winter unless well metalled. The tramway will afford the means of doing this cheaply. The road is otherwise completely constructed, except about a mile near Ngawakarau, where the tram deviates ; but the common road is constructed on a circuitous line and can bo easily metalled from the tramway. 3. From Palmerston to the point tvhere Main Bail or Tram from Seventy Mile Bush to Wanganui turns off.— This, say five miles, will be identical with the piece below Palmerston, except that the metal being on the line, it is already complete or nearly so. The same applies to the remaining six miles to the crossing of the Manawatu river. This will be a fine metalled road and easily kept in repair. It is now far advanced towards completion.

4. —After crossing Manawatu to Gorge, about one mile and a half, good metalled, road, far advanced towards completion. The sectionsof road described are about thirty-eight miles in total length from Foxton. For travelling purposes, and to the eye, dead level the ivhole wag; though there is a rise from the sea to the mountain, when tested by the instrument. The small bridges and culverts are all in, and the whole of the work, as far as T can judge, is being executed in a most satisfactory manner; though after the wettest winter ever known, atfd while still under execution, it is not yet all quite as smooth as a bowling green. A week ago Tamihana Te Raupuraba drove a buggy and pair from Foxton to the crossing of Manawatu, walked on to the Gorge, and returned to Palmerston the same day, coming on to Foxton the following one. The first day’s drive must have been at least 49 miles, which speaks well for the practicability of the road at present. 5. The Gorge. —The great mountain chain which severs the plains on the East Coast (Hawke’s Bay) from those on the West (Manawatu), and which is several thousand feet high (say 4000 to 6000), is pierced at one point by the Manawatu river, which has its main source on the east side of the Ruahine ranges, and gathers its tributaries from the central parts of the chain, and the gullies on the Western side. The road is taken through the Gorge by a side cutting, not more than seventy feet above the level of the river, which elevation is attained from the plains on either side by so easy a grade as not to be preceptiblo to the eye. I have never met with any mountain pass of so easy a character as regards level. The only difficulty is the character of the precipitous mountain side along which, and into which, the road is cut. Nearly two miles continuously and some more in patches, are almost solid rock, requiring chiefly to be worked by explosives. This of course will be costly work, but the bulk of the line in its other parts will be exceptionally easy, so that the one expensive item of the Gorge may be averaged without greatly swelling the total of the road from East to West Coast. I think the platform along the rocky portion of the road is. being constructed too narrow (only 12ft in the solid). This of course is simply a question of economy, but the cost of future slips if made too narrow—and the very unpleasant impression made on the.mind of travellers by a suspension over a precipice of seventy feet—make it desirable that this part of the road should be constructed as wide as circumstances will admit. If ever the rail is taken through the Gorge, either the width will have to be doubled or the common road abandoned. When this portion is finished there will be considerable risk of land slips both from above and below, and a pretty strong gang of men will have to be kept on it to remove obstructions. Their leisure time, however, can be utilised in widening the rocky points and curves, &c. I presume that the future repur of this road will be provided for by tolls. The bridges at either ends of the Gorge will offer an excellent locus in quo, which the traveller cannot by any circuitous route evade. 6. The bridges referred to will both be considerable erections, costing, I should guess, from £SOOO to £7OOO each. I think Mr Stewart has selected judicious sites for them, but would suggest that Mr Carruthers should personally inspect the ground before their form, &c., is determined upon. One, or both, would probably be well built on the suspension principle, if not too costly. The risk of destruction by large trees in the floods is the only danger they will be subject to.

7. Immediately beyond the Gorge, and on the Hawke’s Bay side of the riv*»r, the road cuts a fine deposit of lime conglomerate, which will be of great value to the West Coast, where no lime exists. It appears to be of great extent, and easily accessible, the road being cut through it where it meets it. 8. The blasting of the rock in the G-orge is a tedious operation, and rendered more so by delays in obtaining powder, which had to be sent for to Dunedin and Melbourne, and one supply wrecked at Kapiti. This experience euggests nitro-glycerine or gun cotton. I read an article in a “ Westminster Review,” a year or two old, on the properties of nitroglycerine, in which it was stated that all danger in the carriage and use of that material is now obviated by conveying the component materials in separate boxes, and using as required. Possibly Mr Carruthers may bo able to give information on this, which might enable the material%referred to to be used on our New Zealand works. 9. The contractors have laid about a mile of the tramroad at and below Palmerston. As far as I could judge it is well done. The sleepers procured by the Norwegians during the winter are large and in considerable quantity. A more powerful saw mill will be required to get rails ready for the completion of the work to Foxton ; and no time should be lost in getting the necessary plant up while the weather is dry. 10. Regarded as a great national work, the importance of the trunk road connecting the East and West Coasts can hardly be too highly estimated. Certainly there is none in the Northern Island which can be considered of more consequence ; and as a means for opening up a magnificent country for settlement it is unsurpassed. On my return from Foxton to Rangitikei I rode to the summit of ft lofty and isolated hill, called Taikoria, on which stands a prominent trigometrical station, visible for many miles around. .From this point I could see almost to Wellington on the south, and probably beyond Wanganui on the north, far out to sea on the west, and up to the Ruahino and Tararua mountain ranges on the east. Immediately below me, with the Otaki RiVer for its southern boundary, the Rangitikei for its northern, the sea and the mountains west and east, lay as fine a tract for colonisation as ever was trod by the foot of man—not less than a million acres in all. All that it requires is to be made accessible by roads and occupied by Workers. The great road which I have been describing runs fight through the heart of it, and will be the base of all the other lines which may be hereafter constructed. It will bring Wanganui and Napier into easy connection of two days or two and a half. It will feed Wellington with the produce of the fine districts from which, though politically connected, it is now geographically severed ; and besides the grand country on the west side which I have alluded to, it will develope the resources of large territories in the centre between the mountains and Hawke’s Bay, and southwards and eastwards towards the head of the Watrarapa. The occupation of this country has hitherto been retarded by a Variety Ot causes, among others the noncxts'uotion of the native title. That difficulty has now been overcome by purchase as regards by far the larger part of the country described, and will no doubt be soou got rid of in the remainder. The immigration and public works which the Government has arranged for in the district will do the rest ; and I have no doubt that the day is not far distant wh.en the block of country between Hawke’s Bay and the mouth of the Manawatu will be one of the most populous and moat productive for its size of any in New Zealand. It is not however a country to be subdued without labor. It is not of the character of that in some other parts of the colony where the fortunate first occupier has nothing to do but to turn loose a few quickly breeding animals whose annual fleeces produce in a short time a princely income, while one or two •shepherds are all the human agents necessary for the superintendance and management of a vast manufacture of wealth. A great part of the country I have described is covered with dense forests, and the fertile soil on which they grow must be cleared by the axe before it can produce the food or become the home of the immigrant. Other portions are swampy, but when drained prove to be the very best land. For those who shrink from laborious work there are open districts, but they will be subjected to the inconvenience of being comparatively far from timber, and the soil will perhaps be not so good. But in all these respects the country only presents features of difficulty common to most others invaded for the first time by the stranger. To the colonist who understands that his business is to make a new home—not find one ready made—there are no difficulties of consequence ; while no bettor locality as regards the solid realities was even offered to the immigrant. I visited the homesteads and enjoyed the hospitality of several settlers, who with all the drawbacks which have hitherto existed have made themselves comfortable far in the bush. I saw also the clearings of some of the Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes who were placed on land last year in the neighborhood. The temptation of profit derivable from small contracts on the public works in the neighborhood has drawn many of them from agricultural operations, but they will doubtless resume them when they have earned money by other employment. Not a single complaint of any sort was made by any of them, and all to whom I spoke appeared quite contented. January 12,1872. W. Fox.