The Railway Contract.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 541, 3 July 1880, Page 2

The Railway Contract.

We are authorized to state that the llnilway contract for Patea section has been let by the Public Works Department. The name of the successful tenderer is not communicated to this district although inquiries have boon made by telegraph. According to the usual practice the successful tenderer should be informed through the local Public Works Office that his tender has been accepted, and that it will bo necessary to pay the required deposit and find sureties for due execution of the contract. As n such communication has been received at the Patea Office, there is a presumption that the successful tenderer is not within this district. Several tenders of a joint nature were made by business men in this neighbourhood, and we know that some of them would have been strong enough financially to have carried this large work through. The price is likely to range between £15,000 and £20,000. Prices are low at present. The contract has evidently gone elsewhere. The fact should become definitely known in a day or two. Mr Olliver must have received a score of inquires by telegraph from this district—and goodness knows how many from elsewhere ! —to which no answers have been returned, or answers which answered nothing. The ways of high officials are a standing puzzle to plain men. There is as much mystery about •what they do as about what they don’t. The work comprises the construction of the wharf, with extensive excavation, also road-making over a bridge across the creek, and covering the mouth of it with a brick culvert filled in with earth ; a bridge under the roadway for trains to run to the low level of the wharf ; making the per-manent-way skirting the river-bank; building two or three culverts along that track; and the heavy work of constructing a strong wood bridge across the river at the bend. The length of permanent way, from the bridge to the wharf, is nearly a mile. The road-making higher up, let some

months ago, is well advanced ; but it is stated that no time is specified in the contracts for the completion of that curious omission, if true. The contracts now let will carry the Railway about two-thirds the distance to the junction with that part erroneously called the main line. The section connected with the port of Patea is as much a part of the main line as any other. Engineers have persuaded Ministers that the levels were not favourable to running the mainline directly to the port of Patea, and that a junction about three miles from the port would overcome all difficulties. So the traffic is to be worked by means of a junction, and all the trains are to run into the Patea Station and go out again, as they do, for example, at Oamaru.

We are informed that one or two additional contracts for the main lino are almost ready to be given out, the surveying being complete and the planning nearly finished. These have been delayed beyond the date (end of June) at which the parliamentary vote of last session would be available. Now the unexpended vote for West Coast Railway construction must come under review in the House of Representatives. The only consolation for West Coast settlers is the fact that this Railway is likely to be viewed by the colony as the true solution of artificial troubles and Ministerial muddles on this Coast. The Railway cannot be left unfinished. If settlers in these parts will only make their voice heard outside the district, and heard with emphasis at Wellington, the local Railway works are likely to be pushed on with accelerated speed. But do not let this important matter drift till the end of the session. To cry out then would bo like making a fuss over spilt milk,