THE EVENING MAIL. MONDAY, MAY 7, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 323, 7 May 1877, Page 2

THE EVENING MAIL.

MONDAY, MAY 7, 1877.

" Words are things, and a drop of ink falling' upon a thought may produce that which makes thousand think."

Through the courtesy of the railway officials, by permission of Mr. Latvson, traffic manager, we are to-day enabled to lay before our readers some interesting information in relation to the doings of the Oamaru railways during the past month. It is scarcely necessary for us to dwell at any length upon the returns which we publish below, beyond stating that the amount of work done is highly satisfactory, and goes to prove that the railway lines in this district have fully proved themselves a good investment of public moiuy. We are uliable to give tiie actual earnings of the diiferent lines, as they are not kept separate, but aiv included amongst thosj for the Canterbury district. We may state that the quant'ty of goods carried by the railways to and from Oajnaru for the past month reaches the handsome total of 9276 tons. Having stated this much, we will now proceed to lay before our readers the complete figures in connection with the different sections of the railways. In doing so we shall merely content ourselves with giving the quantities of goods in tons in round numbers, omitting fractional parts. The following statement shows the total tonnage of goods carried on the different lines :

lis WARDS. TONS. Camaru and Chnstchurch Line—.North of Waitaki... ... ... 2,G53 South of Waitaki... ... •• 26y Maerewhetma Section... ... ••• 1,20.; Waiareka Section ... ... ... 600 Mo3ia ; vi Section ... 70'u Breakwater Railway 1,54S Total imvards ... ... 0,40. ODTWARDS. TONS. Oamaru and (. hiiitcliuvch Line ... 217 Maerewhenua Section... ... ... 171 AVaiareka St-ction ... ... ... 200 Moeraki Section 90 Breakwater ... ... ... 2,124 Total outwards 2,814 In explanation of the above, we may say that in. giving the statement of inward tonnage we have purposely kept the return from stations on the north of the Waitaki Bridge separate, in order to

show the immense amount of benefit derived by Oamaru in consequence of fc le opening of the line to Chnstcliurch. From this it will be seen that there was brought into Oamarn no Ijss than 2,033 tons of produce, which, had it nut been for tlie opening of the line, a?id the excellent facilities possessed by this place for the transaction of shipping business, would have been sent to other places to be. deal: with. In this connection we may add that nearly the whole of the freight from the north of "the Waitaki was obtained from stations on this side of St. Andrews. We might also, in explanation, say that the tonnage brought into Oamaru, with the exception of that brought from t'.e Breakwater, c msi.;ted principally of grain, while the outward tonnage, v.'it'i

the same exception, was made up of general merchandise, coal, &c. In order to show to what extent the opening of the Waimate branch line has benefited this port, we may mention that during the past month no less than 105 tons of general merchandise was conveyed by rail from Oamaru to Waimate. This fully proves that we were not far wrong when we stated that this port would reap the advantage of the larger portion of the Waimate trade. With a reduction in the cost of landing goods here, which we hope shortly to see effected, the quantity of goods traffic between Oamaru and Waimate will, no doubt, still further increase. With reference to the freight carried by

the railway to and from the Breakwater, we have compiled a detailed return of the nature of that traffic. The return is as follows : mVAEDS. TON?. Coal 691 Timber ... ... ... ... ... 201 Central Merchandise ... ... ... 651 Total ... ... ... 1,549 OUTWARDS. TON'S. Wheat 691 Oats ... ... ... 185 Barley 117 Flour 74'J Other produce and general merchandise ... ... ... ... 370 Stone ... ... Total 2,121 So that the exports of the district, accordto this return, lu.va exceeded the imports by 575 tons. The figures quoted will enable

our readers to form a pretty correct idea of the prosperity of the district, and we need not, therefore, enter into a lengthy disquisition upon the subject.