District Notes.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 August 1893, Page 3

District Notes.

OTERAMIKA AND SEAWARD BUSH RAILWAY.

[Contributed] The “ unemployed ” are still at work on the Seaward Bush Railway, and ‘ the earthwork is very nearly completed down to the Mataura Swamp. This swamp, not far short of a mile broad, is very low and wet and will be worked and made up much more advantageously during the summer season. The number of hands employed are not nearly so many as there were a few weeks ago, and it is said no more will be taken on till after Parliament rises, when t is expected a number of additional hands will be put on to the work. The bridges from Mokotua station to the Gorge Road, a distance of six miles, are now in course of construction. Mr W. Millar and party are the builders, and the work is being pushed forward with good speed, I hear that after the bridges are completed platelaying is to be commenced and the lines laid down to the Gorge Road. Mr T. MacMahon is still the obliging Inspector of works on the railway. When finished to the Gorge —about eighteen miles from Invercargill —and nothing seems to stand in the way of an early completion —- the Gorge settlers and a number of Oteramika farmers who have hitherto derived little or no benefit from the Seaward Bush Railway to Mokotua, will then enjoy all the advantages of railway carriage within easy reach of their properties. The line will pass through maiden forest held by Massey and Co. and the N.Z. Pine Co., and not far from the State Forest Reserve, containing nearly three thousand acres of well-timbered land. This is the block the member for Invercargill, Mr J. Kelly, lately endeavoured to have opened to the public in small sawmill areas, but his proposal was objected to in the Upper House. Had Mr Kelly’s request been favourably received* and the forest thrown open there is no doubt it would have been applied for and sawmills very shortly erected. When the Mataura is bridgecZ and the line laid into the eas tern Mataura country a considerable traffic may be expected on the Seaward Bush railway to and from Invercargill— probably a service of five or six trains a week will be required to meet the increasing traffic from a part of the country quickly improving both in population and production. There is a large extent of good land, and settlement going on, between the Mataura and Waikawa, the produce of which will find its way to the nearest market or port of shipment, and it is needless to say that that is by this railway to Invercargill and the Bluff. Nor will the harbour of Fortrose be much used by coasting craft, as it has never been considered a safe port of entrance or departure by coasters. The bridging of the Mataura will be a work of some magnitude, as also will be the embankments over the low-lying flats on each side of the river, which are broad and liable to flood. Beyond this there is no expensive work or difficulty of any kind. When completed, the Seaward Bush railway will give an upward step to the commerce of Invercargill and the Bluff. Timpany Bros, are still working their sawmill on the banks of the rivei, some distance below the proposed site of the railway bridge. Their output of timber is punted down the Mataura from the sawmill to Fortrose — nearly twelve miles —• where it is sold to the settlers in the locality, and the surplus shipped to Dunedin, etc. The farmers in the Oteramika district have been delayed with their ploughing throug'h the continued moist weather. Like most of the Southland farmers they are larg’ely going in for sheep. Some of the oldest settlers in the South are to be found in this locality, -who are now bringing their farms into good production. Messrs Kerr, Nicholson, Drake, Henderson, Cocks and a few

others may well be ranked with the “ old idendity.” At Waimatua the N.Z. Pine Company’s sawmill is working. The bush in this locality has the appearance of getting thia. Owing to the measles epidemic the attendance at the Tisbury school is much reduced, and if not “kep at ome atatering,” the youngsters are kept at home a-suffering, Aug. 15.