THE WAIRARAPA RAILWAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4131, 17 June 1874, Page 3

THE WAIRARAPA RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The report of Mr. Calcutt, a General Government officer, settles the question of our railroad paying well from the beginning, of which I never had a doubt. If but 50,000 ft. of timber go by it daily to Wellington, it will yield, at 4s. per 100 ft., carriage £IOO daily, or nearly £30,000 a-year. And the return trucks can take from our plains the best of metal for ballasting and for other road purposes in the Seventy-Mile Forest. Surely, now, the General Government will push on our railroad. There is no reason why the formation of the road in the Valley should not at once be proceeded with. When the Hutt road strikes the Hungaroa Hill there will be but thirteen miles of cartage between it and Featherston, and return waggons would bring the material over the hill for 10s., but certainly for not exceeding £1 per ton. The weight of material required for a railroad, X was informed by the best of authority, would_ he about seventy tons per mile. This at £35 or £7O per mile would be a small addition to some £SOOO per mile (estimated cost of railway), and would be saved in interest of money and early yield of return from railway. With the railroad to the Mungaroa, and from Seventy-Mile Bush to Featherston, all the horse-power of the Valley could then be devoted to carrying loads over the thirteen miles of hill until the tunnel was made practicable. This is what the Americans would soon, bring to bear, and our Premier, fortunately for the Colony, does not appear behind thorn in the belief of applying borrowed labor and capital to a new country. Mr. Caloutt’s report will relieve this Province, possessing so much productive land, from the sneers of its numerous opponents. For if the Provincial Government manages our forest wisely, it wall yield a good return from sawmills alone. It is fortunate for us that the Seventy-Mile Forest has been thus long unavailable, though not for other parts of the Colony. With a moderate charge per acre for the land, and a tithe on sawn timber at the mills of sixpence per hundred superficial feet, the Province may get therefrom, without being the least hurthensome on the industry, some £lO or £l4 per acre. Such a plan would keep the mere speculator out of the field in favor of the industrious capitalist.—l am, &c., Samuel Revans.