The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, MAY 28, 1883. CENTRAL RAILWAY.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1040, 28 May 1883, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, MAY 28, 1883. CENTRAL RAILWAY.

The advocates of the Central Railway joining at Wanganui are jubilant over the report of Mr Nicholls, the “ special commissioner,” as he is termed, of the New Zealand Hci'ald, We are told that hisi:testimony-is independent, and therefore worthy of special consideration. We are not at all sure about it ourselves. The paper which employed Mr Nicholls is the organ of the wealthy land-owners in Auckland. There are such things as land rings, and it is not improbable that Mr Nicholls received a hint before he left as to the route which would be most acceptable to his era ploy ers. We are certain that the trading community of Auckland will not approve the ultimatum of Mr Nicholls. They desire to see the line pass through the townships along this Coast, and the people here would also be glad to see it. If the line is taken to Wanganui, we shall find our railway—instead of being the trunk line and the consequent highway of traffic—a more branch. Anything more injurious to the progress of this district could not be advocated. People, if they want to take a trip to Auckland, would first have a fifty-mile journey to Wanganui, thus adding greatly to the time and expense. Any goods which came from Auckland would have to undergo the same roundabout process, to the manifest loss of their owners. Mr Nicholls’ report is said to have laid the bug-bear of the “ desert,” ns the inland country has been called. We think it makes the “ desert” even more dismal than it was understood to be before. After leaving Murimotn plain, the traveller had to pass through a dense forest of thirty miles to the river Wanganui. « The Ateao country” says Mr Nicholls, “is very mountainous, and broken with innumerable boggy creeks, and travelling is very difficult. I was five days on the journey. I next took a south-east course through Tuhua Bush, and had to cross the Manganui Ateao ten times at different points, besides 'Other brreanioj Trhldi were mostlj flooded. We gained open country at the~Wat-“ marino Plains, south-west of Ruapehu, after travelling through fifty miles of forest on foot. Since leaving Murirnotu the horses suffered greatly through the scarcity of food and the difficulty of travelling. I passed over nothing but high mountains, swartips, boggy creeks, and rivers strewn with enormous boulders.” From the above it will be-seen that the difficulties to be encountered are ■much greater than will be met with on the Mokan route. Mr Williams, a gentleman pretty well acquainted with the country, said, at the public meeting on Tuesday that no serious difficulties existed. Mr Nicholls says : —“I believe the Taranaki route is more difficult, by reason of t'he broken and densely wooded country south of the Mokan.” Mr Nicholl’s evidence on this point is worth nothing, being only hearsay. His remarks upon his journey are probably more valuable. He sums up thus :—“ Forty miles north of Lake Tanpo are the pumice plains; easterly of the Lake, pumice plains; south of The Lake, on the Rangipo Valley, pumice land also, but there is-sheep country south of the Ruapehu Desert. The soil is light alluvial, and well grassed westerly from Ruapehu through the valley of the Wanganui. As far as Taranaki the country is mountainous and broken, and covered with dense forests extending north through Tuhua to Titiraupenga andjjßangitoto Ranges. Open pumice plains extend north of Ruapehu and Tongariro ; also along the western side of Lake Taupo; likewise north-westerly of the lake and north of Titiraupenga there are open pumice plains of grjeat extent. North-westerly of the Rangitoto Range there are open undulating plains of good alluvial soil extending to the Waipu Valley and ranges bounding the West Coast. The country south of the Titiraupenga and Rangitoto ranges is mostly broken and densely timbered.” Why, the whole record teems with pumice plains and broken country, and dense forests ! To construct a railway through such a district would be a costly undertaking indeed, and, as Mr Sherwood put it the other night, unless some great genius can discover a means of utilising pumice stone there did not appear to be much use in the proposal at all. Of course Mr Nicholls reports a tolerable quantity of good country, but on the other hand the Mokau has as much if not more. Besides the latter line will be 60 or 70 miles shorter, and a large sum would be saved in construction. We hope that every effort will be made by residents on this coast to prevent the line being taken to Wanganui. Full exploration will be made, and it will yet be shown that the “ Taranaki route” is by far the best and cheapest, and will serve the convenience of a settled district. It would be well to hear what Major Atkinson thinks about it, on Wednesday.