The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1916. RUSSIA'S PORTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1916. RUSSIA'S PORTS.

The": question whether Russia- will this winter be able to use her new ice-free port in the northern seas is still, it seems, in doubt, but the latest reliable news is that the Murman railway may be completed by the end of the year, Til® journal Engineering quotes at length from a statement made in a Norwegian newspaper by Mr. I. Lied, director ot a Uusso-Xorwegian shipping and Hading company, who has first-hand information on the condition of the line. The railway, which may be said to commence at Petrograd, is divided into five sections: — (1) Petrograd-Zwanka, 114 versts (7G miles), (old railway); (2) ZwanlcaiPetrosavodsk, 250 versts (170 miles), new railway, completed; (I) Kern-Kan--1 dalakseha-Murpan Port, 2G5 versts (177 ! miles), new railway, completed; altoi gether, 1305 versts (910 miles). Section 1 is a part of the State north railway system to the 'Ural. Section 2 is the new private, so-called, Olonetskaja railway, built with a view to the Miv.man traffic. Tliis section is entirely finished, as are also sections 3 and 5, although section 3, some eighty versts sruth of Kern, is not quite ready, but is expected to become so in a few weeks, or may, in fact, already be fully finished. Section 4 is the only portion of the railway not yet completed, but there is every reason . to believe, Mr. Lied says, that it will be ready about the end of the present year, when the whole line, Petrograd-Murman, consequently should be opened to traffic. Murman Port,"the terminus at Kola, lies ten versts to the north- of the small town of Kola, and, thanks to the I Gulf Stream, it is never closed by ice. , So far there have been constructed . wooden quays for thret large steamers, 1 and a crane of twenty-five tons capacity * has been installed. The inner port is , spacious and well protected, and more i than forty good-sized boats have been 5 anchored there at the same time. Bee sides, Kola Bay itself makes fin excellent harbor, from l£ooyds to 3fiooyds broad, with a depth of water cf 70ft.

Thp greatest difference between high aml low water is l'Jft, with comparatively little current. At low water the depth at the quay is 30ft. In spite of all conflicting reports, Engineering adds, tim -Miiriiian railway should be ready for gener;il trallie at the beginning of next year, and it is difficult to over-estimate the importance of this event. No country in the world with such possibilities as Russia is so unfavorably situated as regards outlets to the -ea. Archangel and other northern outlets are ice-bound a- considerable part of the year; the •same applies more or iess to Russia's ports on the Baltic. The Dardanelles are not linger Russia's control, and Vladivostok lias! thus been the only ice-free port at the disposal of Russia throughout the year. But Vladivostok is 0000 miles distant from Pe-trograd. No wonder that the approaching completion of the Murman railway is hailed with a feeling of relief and great satisfaction throughout Russia, The building of the Murman railway is a feat second only to that of the Siberian railway, more especially iu view of the rapidity with which the work has been pusW ahead under unfavorable circumstances. The length of the railway is not so tremendous, being 834 miles new line, but it passes through districts offering very serious and varied difficulties. To begin with, there were no roads along which men and materials eould be conveyed to the places where they were wanted. Everything had to be transported over long distances at a heavy cost. In some places the track ran through granite deposits, and in others through heavily timbered primeaval forest?, More difficult than either was the great distance of boggy country which had to be crossed. Over hundreds of miles the railway had to bo buiit on piles. There has also been a great deal of trouble with labor and engineers; many foreign contractors sent both engineers , and men to the railway from distant parts, but they often left again, so that the Russian Government bad to take up the work. Swarms of insects aJso tended to make the work difficult during the summer months, but all the troubles and obstacles have now been overcome.