MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 59, 28 February 1908, Page 3

MIDLAND RAILWAY.

A START MADE. Per Press Association. Christehurch, Last Xiglit. A start in connection with the'.Midlaud railway tunnel has been made with the erection of the power house at the termination of the Holt's creek pipe line. It will b e a maSsive modern building, and will contain some of the most up-to-date machinery of its class to be found in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Murdoch McLean, who, ii will be remembered, was sent Home some time ago in search of the necessary machinery and appliances, has secured in the Old Land what is deemed the highest class of plant. A jwnt of it will be coming to hand shortly, and the balance is due with Mr. McLean, who leaves London for New Zealand on March fit.li. On the pipe lin e timber and debris have been disposed of, and the work now, in consequence of the amount of solid rock to be blasted, progresses much more slowly than formerly. The survey of the supply for the Bealy end is practically completed, and it has been found that the drive here to bring the water through will be 18 chains "in length. The tunnel face changes little from day io day. It still comprises large rock and gravel. The first accident of any moment happened la=t Saturday evening on the Holt's creek pine line. ' A large blast had been fired, and the men were returning to work, and wcrec limbing up the hillside, fully 30 feet away from the shot, when some tons of rock that had by the concussion lieeome loosened tumbled down, striking a ledge of rock. The mass burst into a thousand pieces, the fragments (lying in all directions among the men. A man named Owen Kelly fared the worst, being struck on the head, back and foot. His foot was rather severely crushed, and his head badly cut about. He was attended to on the ground by his mates, and then carried down to the river-bed. where he was conveyed in a cart to the station ami on to the Creymouth Hospital Tin-*' other men were more >„ r 1,,.5, i knocked about, but not seriously y\ t--1-eanvillc had its lir.sf fire last, week One of the huts built to accommodate the workers was totally destroyed with its contents. The Road Department is erecting a bridge over the Otira river up to the gorge. The first pile „f u, P horse, bridge lower down the stream is being driven to-day The co-operative workers are busy with the big bank at Government creek. the finishing of the cutting near the P.nllesloii. awHlic c.nstruclion of the groins to protect w..rkalrcady completed.