Railway to Serve Swamp and Pumice

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 596, 23 February 1929, Page 6

Railway to Serve Swamp and Pumice

ROTORUA-TAUPO LINE MINISTERS VIEW ROUTE

(From Our Own Correspondent) ROTORUA, Friday. Th© Rotorua-Taupo railway, the construction of which was authorised by the Reform Government, is receiving marked Ministerial attention just now, and there is a prospect that the line will be

carried on to Reporoa. The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, visited the locality y?sterday, the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, is there to-day, and the Minister of Native Affairs, Sir Apirana Ngata, will go down in March. A deputation of settlers waited on Mr. Ransom yesterday, seeking his sanction to the. completion of the line, which already is under construction eight and a-half miles from Rotorua. LAND LOCKED UP

The Minister was met about 10 miles from Rotorua by Mr. H. P. Ford, chairman of the Rotorua County Council, and shown the land through which the line is to go. Mr. C. H. Clinkard, M.P. for Rotorua, told the Minister that the land had so long remained in a backward condition owing to the fact that it had been locked up by the Thermal Springs Act, passed in th© time of Sir Harry Atkinson, and not repealed until about 25 years ago, that the idea had been to keep the area in its native state, and settlement there had accordingly lagged. The land was well watered. Mr. H. W. Atkinson, district engineer of the Public Works Department, Tauranga, overseer of th© construction work, said water was frequently encountered high up in the cuttings through which the line would run. The rainfall averages 50 inches a year. The party travelled across the Reporoa Plains to the soldiers’ settlement, where about 3b settlers have worked for eight or nine years—half on pumice land, and the remainder on swamp. Here Mr. Ransom inspected the land, and was informed of its productive potentialities. CHEAP MANURE FREIGHTS

With a view to securing cheaper manures, the Reporoa settlers were anxious that the 26 miles between their settlement and Rotorua should be bridged by railways. The Minister was told that manures cost £1 a ton to transport from Rotorua, or a total of 30s from Auckland. Until recent competition began among motor carriers, the freight was much higher. It was predicted by those in the party that, when the rail goes through, the freight on manure will come down to 3s a ton.

Another argument voiced in favour of the railway, particularly as far as Reporoa is concerned, was that it would provide readier transport of stock. Reporoa, it was said, was three days’ droving distance from Rotorua, and the droving charges amount in some cases to 4s 3d a head. The State forest was also pointed out as one of the brightest features of the district's future, and the Minister expressed himself as favourably impressed with its possibilities.

“As far as I can see,” he told the deputation, “there is nothing to prevent the lino going at least as far as Reporoa.”

The railway work has been proclaimed as far as the eight and a-half mile peg from Rotorua. The task is being undertaken in sections, several hut settlements being established on the route for the accommodation of the 180 men now engaged in the construction work. Nothing has been done a mile or two south of Rotorua, but rapid progress is being made from that point over a distance of about six miles.