LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 193, 5 August 1874, Page 2

LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.

No. 4 PUBLIC WORKS.

The Public Works now in progress, or likely to be undertaken, in Hawke’s Bay may be classed under four headings: No. I—-The Railways ; No. 2—The Common Roads; No. 3—-Harbour Works; No. 4—Works to prevent overflow of Rivers. , . With regard to the Railway, which rather from the nature of the work, than from any very great belief I entertain of its intrinsic importance, there is little to be said. The works are extremely insignificant as works, and the line along the beach from Napier to the Ngaruroro River, is ill chosen, although the cheapest. Seven or eight miles of line run through an entirely desolate and. uninhabitable region ; on the one hand is the sea, and. on the other an impassable swamp. As a general rule railways are intended to open up fertile districts, and by rapid and cheap transit, to enable producers to send the result of their labors at. small cost, of lime and money to the nearest market. But. Hawke’s Bay is not. singular only in the curious disregard of her own interests as evidenced by the direction accepted for the first and only railway she has, or is likely to have ; it seems quite an understood thing, in the administration of her affairs, that as little good as can possibly bo got for the money shall be the order of the day. I incline strongly to think that the passage of heavy trains at a fast, pace over the shingly foundations upon which the rails and sleepers are laid will have the effect of materially displacing them. “ Two of atrade neveragree,” and doctors always differ; it need not therefore bo a matter of surprise to you to be told that the above objections, both as to the direction taken by the line and as to the constructions of it, are diametrically opposed to the opinions of many engineers, whose opinions are certainly of value. As to the matter of “ cheapness,” all I can say is that in regard to such very important and presumably lasting works as railways, that term and that, system are entirely misapplied. I by no means advocate unlimited funds to be spent at the discretion of any one man, or any dozen of men, however honest and well intentioned ; bnt I do most emphatically advocate a more liberal scale upon which great and lasting public works may be carried out so as to be not in name only, but in very deed and fact great and lasting. Our railways will be to generations yet unborn, what ■ the pyramids are to us, the mighty records of a great and wise people, whose works have outlived the very name and language of their nation and of their engineers. I do not suppose that we have amongst us a Stephenson or a Brunell, but I feel pretty nearly sure that the light which those two great geniuses have thrown upon the art of Civil Engineering would not have been half so resplendent if their works had been executed upon the cheap principle. Genins never thrives on small change; and bread and water, and the development of great mechanical skill is almost as ranch a matter of pounds, shillings, and i>ence, as of superiority of intellect. Without money, or rather without a sufficiency of money, there would not be a “Britannia” Bridge.or“GreatEastern.” No! No! my excellent economists, it won’t do, a “ cheap ” railway will be found rather dear in the long run, if in no more important items than broken necks and crushed and mangled limbs and bodies. However, that discussion has taken us off the line, and we will get back again; but it is not worth while to trace the railway throughout the whole course. It is being carried on a bit here and a bit there. In one place you come upon an encampment of Scandinavians or some such, at another you find yourself amongst a gang of the latest arrivals, speaking a dozen or more different languages, or dialects, of the same, which may be very nearly as broad as it is long. It will be sufficient to say here, that one great object Of this line is to tap the great Totara (sid) Forests, supposed to lie somewhere in the direction of Wellington, and-that the other great object of the line is to bring down the staple, wool, to shipping at Port Ahuriri at. a cheaper rate than now; besides other, and, according to the doctrine taught and accepted in Hawke’s Bay, very secondary and trifling matters, such as, for instance, a possible, but by no means probable, shipment of grain. This railway throughout presents no engineering difficulties, but still it seems to progress but slowly, certainly it doesn’t go by steam. Thecominon roadsof Hawke’s Bay, upon the construction and repair of which large sums are annually spent, are much the same as roads elsewhere, when any attempt at making them in a substantial manner has been attempted. The main road running from Napier to Waipawa with the exception of what- is called the “ beach,” is as fine a road as any in the colony, and doos great credit to its original constructor ! But it has the one great drawback to its more perfect utility, and that is its extreme narrowness,- only one track wide I! So that it is rather a touch and turn over sortof driving to pass a large or even a moderate dray. Road Boards are very prevalent just now in Hawke’s Bay district, but the disease is very mild at present, not such a virulent irruption as that'whieh has attacked this little place ; and it is sincerely to be hoped for the sake of those people, that they may never know as much about the disorder as we know. I begin to have a. strong suspicion that the New Zealand Colonist has rather a liking than otherwise for taxation, upon the same principle, or For the same reason, as the eel likes skinning.