THE OHURA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 268, 22 April 1915, Page 7

THE OHURA.

.PROGRESS OF THE RAILWAY. A VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. Some interesting impressions gathered on the route of the railway connecting Stratford with the Main Trunk line were given to a News reporter yesterday l>y Mr. F. Rollett, agricultural editor of tne Auckland Weekly News, who is now in New Plymouth, after having toured the district from Okahukura (the point where the new leaves the Main Trunk) to Stratford.

Mr. Rollett said that the Auckland people were beginning to realise that tin; Government was not moving so fast in pushing the railway on from the Main Trunk end as they should do, and one of the purposes of Mr. Rollett's visit was to see what was being done. Auckland people, he said, derived mor* direct communication with Tannaki, and felt the absence of a good highway between the two provinces, so that the progress of the railway was of particular interest to Auckland. Looking at the present position of the railway, Mr. Rollett considers that the most unsatisfactory feature is that the grants which the Government has made are much too small. The present position at the Main Trunk end is that the permanent way has been prepared from Okahukura to Matiere, a distance of some fourteen miles, but the railway lias only been completed for a mile or two outside Ohakukura, for the reason'that there is an uncompleted tunnel near Okahukura. This tunnel, Mr. Ro'.lett believes, supplies the key to the whole problem, for so long as the tunnel remains uncompleted general progress must be held up. The tunnel provides a big task, and after a certain amount of work was done operations were suspended. Another start had, however, been made on the tunnel in the past few days, but Mr. Rollett emphasises that special efforts must be made to complete the tunnel, for until this is done the scheme cannot progress. Mr. Rollett is most enthusiastic over the potentialities of the country to be opened by the railway. " I know the South Island very well," said Mr. Rollett, "but I do not know any part of it, not already supplied with an. ample railway system, which can compare in any way whatever with the possibilities in the country over the whole route of this railway." , Describing the country tapped by the railway from the Main' Trunk end, Mr. Rollett said its early stages passed through comparatively poor land, though it is land which can be turned into good sheep country. Then the line drops down into the watershed of the Ohura River, and the land rapidly improves, changing into first-class papa country, which makes good fattening and dairying land. The very fact that dairy factories have already been established at one or two places shows that the country is good for dairying. This country in past years has won a high reputation for the fat stock it has sent out. This class of country extends practically from Matiere right through to Stratford and for a considerable distance the country is easy. Settlement is rapidly progressing everywhere.

Mr. Rollett said there seemed to be no engineering difficulties until the Tangarakau district is reached. It was expected at first that considerable difficulties would be met with here, but a better route had been decided upon, and it was anticipated that the railway works would not be anything like co serious as had been thought.