THE WELLINGTON AND MASTERTON RAILWAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4900, 5 December 1876, Page 2

THE WELLINGTON AND MASTERTON RAILWAY.

(BY OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) MR.' OAKES’. CONTRACT. V.

My first letter left such as read it at the termination of Mr.. McKirdy’s contract, 26 miles and 78 chains from Wellington. Here Mr. Oakes' contract begins, and runs right up to the summit tunnel, that is, the one through a saddle of the Eimutaka. The contract involves some very heavy work, of which a good deal has been completed, and the contractor has suffered from; the nature of the ground, though not to the same degree as Mr. McKirdy. In consequence of the road diversion which I mentioned yesterday, Mr. Oakes has not had men ■at work just at this end of his contract for some ‘time/ the hands being engaged upon the road diversion before mentioned. As a resultalarge embankment wants finishing, but after the gap created by its not being completed the line is practically almost ready for the laying of the permanent way for several miles.- A feature about the work just here is the manner in which the contractor, by the permission of the Government,; has in many instances avoided the construction of long and expensive culverts of brick or. concrete through the widest and lowest portions of large embankments. By filling, up the bottom of the gully and carrying the water-way on a siding the stream is taken across the line at a point where a small bridge, or a short culvert is all that is needed.

Early in walking up the contract one of-the slips which seem a necessary consequence of railway-making has occurred. In the very first cutting there are the signs of where a slip took place, which brought away some 5000 yards of stuff, not ; cleared ;away under Is. fid. a yard. A notable fact in this connection is that Chinamen, in consequence of their steady persistency, absolutely are better at clearing away debris than are Europeans. Beyond this cutting are the marks. of where a great embankment slipped ‘ away no less than three times. A hut is now built on the top of the second slip.

Coming to a side-outing 100 ft. deep, and a timber bridge 150 ft. in length, the line commences to follow up the course of the Pakuratahi river, and being for several miles quite finished, with the exception of the permanent way, the walk along is most easy, and gives an opportunity to enjoy the views along what struck me -as being decidedly the most: picturesque portion * of the railway. On this contract'there are no less than sixteen diversions from the line as originally planned, all suggested, I believe, by the contractor to the ! Government, and all vast improvements on the original plan. In most of! these cases the engineers had laid out the line to run somewhere about the middle of the river, involving for its construction bridges or heavy retaining walls. But by taking the line further into the hill a capital route - has been obtained, carried along by cuttings and sidings. For instance,, at ,29 miles 55 chains from Wellington, a bridge,'to /: have iron-girders* and. stone piers, and to be a quarter of a mile in length, had been planned, but by the simple expedient of keeping further into the hill this has been saved, and the line runs on,by no meqns .heavy embank-. ments and pretty shallow, cuttings. As I have ■ said, this is the most picturesque portion , of the railway, and the line runs so that the passengers, .who L hope in a couple of. years will be travelling along it by thousands, will be able to get capital opportunities of seeing the densely wooded valley, the trees on whose sides have every gradation of the lovely tints / for which the New; Zealand bush is celebrated, whilst some' couple of hundred feet below a clear,and,glistening river;brawls over rooks, or babbles along its pebbly bed with'the music of street waters. At thirty miles and a half from Wellington we come to the first tunnel, on Mr. Oakes” contract, which is 77yds. through, and will be lined with concrete. Immediately after passing through it is a place where a bridge was originally planned, but where a diversion has now. obviated the necessity for its construction. ( .The most important diversion,-with, oneexception however; occurs at 30 miles 66 chains from Wellington, where two 80ft. and two 40ft, bridges were laid .out; > Mr. Dakes*, by making a pretty heavy cutting through a £ook„ turns--the river, from its original course, mid thereby destroys the elbow which it formed, aud which caused the bridges tobeprovided fori'. At'-31 miles 18 chains from town is a very handsome bridge of 80ft., with iron girders and massive concrete piers, fixing the foundations for which was no light work, entailing as it did the going down-.

over 16ft. in order to get a solid bed. , The bridge takesthe line" to what was planned as a tunnel through a rocky spur, but which is now converted into ah open cutting.- "At 31 miles, 53 chains is abridge of two 30ft. spans, with "a splendid , pier and abutments of the most solid ' looking masonry. It carries the line across the river at a height of 30ft. Just ‘ in this neighborhood is, the house of the resident engineer -for the section, Mr. Mason, a most prettily , situated place, where we met with a hospitable reception, aS indeed we had met from Mr. Winks, the resident engineer of the previous section, to - Whom our thanks are due. "Mr. "‘Mason has got quite,; a pretty little garden, and there being a large camp of Mr. Oakes’ ‘theneighborhood, the* locality presents*, quite a startling change from the solitude of the j woods through which one has just passed previously. I may mention here as- a most creditable matter that in this camp 1 alone, last Saturday, evening, over £34 were collected from the men, in order to aid a fellow-workman who had been disabled by an accident: • • . - ‘V ' ■ .