STRATFORD RAILWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 11 November 1914, Page 6

STRATFORD RAILWAY.

CUTTING OCT OHURA. PUBLIC -MEETING PROTESTS. Oliura, Wednesday. Persistent rumors from evidently wellinformed sources have of late circulated through the Oliura district that the. Oka-hukara-Stratford line now under construction to Matiere, and .which the Premier promised the Oliura settlers would be in Oliura in four years from May, 1912, is to be deviated along the Turoto road to Tororima, thus cutting out the Ohura township. A meeting o! settlers and residents was held in the Town Hall on .Monday evening to consider this matter, and correspondence received from the department referring thereto. It was resolved that the following telegram be sent to the Premier: "A representative meeting of ratepayers and 'settlers of the Oliura district was held last night to consider correspondence received from the Minister of Public Works re Stratford-Okahukara rail.way, when the following resolution was .carried: 'That the Premier be asked to satisfy the people's minds regarding the .coming of.the railway to and through the Ohura township. In the opinion of the meeting it would be a gross injustice to the district generally, and the township particularly, if .the line is diverted so as to miss the township of Oliura.' It was further decided that the exact route of the railway to and from the Oliura township can be safely left in the department's hands."

Sections in the township were sold by the Government at abnormal prices, anil under keen competition, on the strength of the promise that the surveyed route through the township would be adhered to, a site for a station having even been selected. The now route will place the township at a distance of about three miles from the nearest point of the railway line. „