STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 40, 17 October 1913, Page 3

STRATFORD MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

The Taranaki Herald, in an editorial, i«^ate3'.--J->In lf aii effort to put an end to the wrangle, as it calls it, that has arisen over the construction of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway, the Taumarumu Press urges quite sensibly that it should not be left to newspapers or oven local bodies to try and pull the Ministers this way and that in favor of local" or individual interests. But in explaining how the "wrangle" has arisen our contemporary falls into an error, due to want of knowledge of the exact position of aft'ai'rsy when it state* that "the line having I readied Whaiigamomona,- had come :to; the end of its immediate, usefulness) to settlement', and very heavy expenditure would have 'to be 'incurred; for a lengthened period before 1 it could be. of jfuVther 'service to 'the 'man .on the landi" : The actual facts- 'arej that the i lifn{v>iis approaching; 1 completion ,to Kohnrutahiv live rrtile*R beybiid' Whan-, gamm.ona; and l a 'conirtict has beeh Jet for stat'ib'nl buildings there 1 . ! kt| this, point'-it 'wifl serve a large -number of settlers, and it would be shortsighted in the extreme to curtail expenditure 'Until the line- is open- to thrtfc point. The construction work-is well forward as far as Htirimoana, two miles from' Kohuratahi, wliere the Tahora saddle iis erit'o'tiriter'ed. <J 'Here* 'tlieW.'are j twoi tunnels''with' a 'very g{o 'filling ibeii-f weeii' tlVeni; which will taUe'nearly twoi year's 'H'fr Vdmpletel" One I ''tunnel''i j; ..air ready''p'iV>rred'aiid ; the 'other'is''well advanced';" 'Beyond that.. j.sj.faii'ly easy construction to Tahora township, Whaiigamomona, and when the,, line ie finished*"To this,point it will serve a large .area .pf.settled' country at the upper ,HHid of the Moki "nßoad, and also be, about .fifteen miles of Tatu., ...Tahora_ can be.; reached, we should, say, easily by the. end of 1915, and the line will then be extremely useful,to the Ohura country. At the northern end the.Okahu tunnel:will block progr.es* for three years, tliough when it is completed the construction AYQrk-,,ican be pushed on rapidly to Ohura. '.That'tunnel will cost £IOO,000, and until it approaches completion any further heavy expenditure on this side of it would be premature , and np.help to settlement. There is no suggestion in .Taranaici that urgent work at the other end shall be delayed, .but;.it,.is held,here that construction, as. far'as Tahora is more urgent and will serve,, settlement more effectively and -rapidly than construction between ,Qkahu. and Ma.tiere or Ohura, wh.ich, if .completed, .would necessarily lie idle,until ' \ he Okahu tunnel is finished^ajwiit 11 the; m& of 1916. Nothing said at this end had npt, : j%.Auckland Railway league 4iJ,'gpf should 1)«' stopped beyond;Whaiigamomona, where, as we luiye already explained, there is a length, of five miles almost complete and a further three miles well advanced, including the tunnelling of the Tahora saddle.