STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 65, 25 March 1913, Page 5

STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK.

WHAT OHURA WANTS

Settlers in the Ohura district, at the Taumarunui end, are agitating for greater expedition being made with work on the Stratford-Okahukura railway at their end. According to a correspondent of .an Auckland paper “merely a handful of men are engaged, and that all the work of excavating and filling that has been done could have been carried out in three months by a decent-sized gang.” Further, he says: “A service road has been constructed from Okahukura to the 11-mile peg on the Ohura main road, and the line has been surveyed as far as Matiere. Nothing else has been done, or is being done, and how long the railway will bo in reaching Ohura at this rate I may leave to your imagination. When I ' took up my land ten years ago, I was assured personally by the Commissioner cf Crown Lands that the railway line would be pushed through in from three to five years. Again, when after years of agitation the line was started from the northern end, we were assured that two or three years would see the line at Ohura, and more settlers were persuaded to take up land. Thus have two successive Governments failed in their pledges. Wo wish the Auckland executive to bestir itself on our behalf, and offer this reason : The line from Stratford has reached Whangamomona. From there northwards the survey has not been fixed, as the engineers are striving to find a road

avoiding the terribly- excessive cost of construction that would be necessary in connection with the Tangarakau Gorge. Wo .wish, while this survey is proceeding, that all the money and all the men bo transferred to the northern end, which would then stand a fair chance of being constructeo within reasonable time, for if we are to go on as at present, leaving both ends practically hung up, it will be a serious matter for the present settlers of Ohura.”

The writer of the letter above quoted has been slightly previous in his summary of the position of the Strat-ford-Main Trunk • line. Possibly, however, ho was unaware that a contract had been let for the construction of a mile and a half of railway, which will complete the line from Okahukara junction to the four-mile peg. This section includes a seventylive chain tunnel, with fairly heavy earthwork. Ohura, therefore, has little to complain of, especially when it is remembered that a good service

road lias been constructed by the Department, connecting the Okalmkural junction with the Ohura main road.' The statement that the work has been hung up at both ends is, of course, incorrect. Work has been proceeding steadily at the Stratford end, and the train will be running into Whan-, gamomona in a few days time. Forma-j lion work has been carried well on towards- the Tangarakau Gorge, and news of the trial survey cf the pro-1 posed deviation to avoid the difficulties' of the Gorge is expected this week. The correspondent is probably not concerned with the question as to which end of the lino is being proceeded with the more rapidly, but it is apparent that, with this big contract at the northern end, the Auckland merchants who are waiting to tap the Ohura country are not being badly treated.