TAUPO-TOTARA PETITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 19, 14 September 1912, Page 3

TAUPO-TOTARA PETITION.

FURTHER EVIDENCE. (Per Press Association.) Wellington, September 13. Further evidence was heard to-day regarding the Taupo-Totara Timber Company's petition to Parliament. Mr R. Aston, Government Agricultural Chemist, read a statement supplementing the information given by him last year. He said experiments had been made on scrub-covered land and also on old forest land, which showed thai good top-dressing of basic slag "had a very beneficial effect in increasing the quality of the pasture. All elements of fertility were present in the soil save one, nitrogen, and this could be secured from the air by the growth of leguminous plants encouraged by the use of basic slag. Mr James Fulton, civil engineer,

I who laid off the Manawatu lino nd Tau!po Totara Compny's lino, said the I rails used on the latter line wore 301 b j stool rails, a-nd the line was more elor.o- ---! ly sleepered than any other in New ! Zealand. Witness most emphatically ' held the opinion that light railways ' should precede the construction of those : of ordinary standard. The Taupo- \ Totara Company's line was fit for p: ! *- : senger traffic, but it would be well to ! widen some of the cuttings. An »•▼- [ penditure of £SOOO would be all ti,:.' j was required to put the line in thurought order for passenger traffic, ilie main requirement in a light line vas ; suitable rolling stock. The distance : from I'utatuni to Taupo (65 miles) could be traversed in four hours, and ! he saw no objection to the curves m , the Company's line. j Mr G. W. Russell, M.P., was the ! next witness. He said he proposed to j give evidence purely in the interests ;of settlement, He gave it as Ins opinion that there was some hug<^ country in the Taupo district which could, not be settled without access to the lake. It is known that he was interested in a l/lock of land about 23 miles from Taupo, and the matter which finally decided him to enter .x: the settlement scheme was information that the railway line From Moki to Taupo had been surveyed.