THE WAIRARAPA TRAMWAY.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 54, 13 January 1868, Page 3

THE WAIRARAPA TRAMWAY.

(From the “ Wellington Independent, Jan. 4.) Communication with the Wairarapa is a subject which has engaged the attention of the Wellington public, from the earliest days of the colony down to the present time. It is now a topic of absorbing intrest, even though a good macadamized road exists from here to the.plains of the Wairarapa; but this road, for 15 or 16. miles, runs over two ranges of hills which offer serious impediments to rapid and cheap locomotion. Wool and butter will alone pay the great cost of transit. Other produce of a heavy and cheaper kind, such as timber, grain, and potatoes is debarred from reaching the Wellington market. Before being laid down in grass nearly the whole of •the arable land would yield a crop or two of grain, and where laid down in grass for 6 or 7 years it will require ploughing tip again and will then yield still better crops. Thus a system of rotation of crops would be pursued ; but what encouragement has the farmer to grow crops which he knows he cannot profitably send them to market. It is no argument to say “ Ah! hut the Wairarapa does not now even produce a sufficient quantity of wheat for its own consumption.” The reason of this is that the Wairarapa farmer is afraid to grow largely and thereby overstock his own market and run the risk of leaving surplus produce to rot in his stacks because carriage is so expensive as to forbid it being sent into Wellington. It is a well-known Tact that railways or tram-waj-s create traffic, and the Wairarapa is so large, and its population is increasing so fast as to warrant an agitation for a more rapid and cheaper mode of transit than exists at present. Mr Tiffin officially reported (January 16th, 1844) that the distance of a road, by Lowry Bay, from the Hutt to the mouth of the Wairarapa Valley would he 28 miles, and that the only obstacle would he the Waiwetu range. He also states that at first sight it appears almost impossible that a road can be made from the Lowrj r Bay swamp (the Wai-nui-o-mata swamp we presume he means) to the Wairarapa without crossing a single hill. Such, however, is the case, and in order that our readers may form an idea of the total and the various distances by this route —from Wellington to Masterton—we subjoin the following table; — if. CH. From Wellington to the Korokoro Stream 5 20 Korokoro stream to the centre of the Hutt Bridge 2 22 Centre of Hutt bridge to foot of Wai-nui-o-mata road ... 1 50 Foot of Wai-mii-o-mata road over the hill to valley , 2 34 Through the valley to the Coast ... 12 40 From the Coast to the Lake 14 40 From the Lake to Featheraton ... 22 0 From Featherston to Greytown ... .7 50 From Greytown to-Carterton ... 4 40 From Carterton to Masterton 0 CO Total 82 36 N.B. —The starting point in Wellington is from Dr Featherstoifs house. By the above line our readers will see that for the whole distance, 82J miles from Wellington to Masterton, there is only 2 miles 34 chains of hill road, and that is over a very low saddle separating the Hutt valley from the pretty valley of the Wai-nui-o-mata. They will likewise observe that the distance from Wellington to the entrance of the valley of the Wairarapa, at the lake, is only 381-miles, or 2.) miles less than from Wellington to Featherston —the present entrance to to the valley. It is true that by the Wai-nui-o-mata line the distance from here to Featherston is 824 miles, hut the difference between the two lines, namely 194 nul es , i« through a good country by the. sides of the lakes across the waters* of "which the traffic of the whole of large and fertile district that the lower valley would be drawn with the greatest ease. The distance the Wai-nui-o-mata line would have to pass through unavailable laud —where it takes the coast—would be 14 miles, nearly the same mileage as over the “barriers" of Mungaroa and Rimutaka ranges. This line would tap the trade of the Hutt at its base, it would pass for twelve miles through the narrow, hut fertile valley of the Wai-nui-o-mata; it would traverse the sea, coast for 14 miles; it would proceed up the widest part of the Wairarapa to Featherston for 22 miles, and pass on through four rising townships for 20 miles more. It is well known that railways on level lines can be canstructed at half the price of those taken over hills, and the saying in wear and tear in ! rolling stock is very .great.

We feel that cheaper and quicker communication with the interior of this Province is of the first importance to WelWe hail all feasible projects to accomplish this with pleasure; and we feel convinced that should Captain Smith's line, recently explored, be fould wanting, that we must not let the matter drop. We must turn our attention to other routes, the first of which is the Wai-nui-o-mata line which should stand highest in the estimation of those conversant with the subject. U N il desperandum” is our motto, and we are encouraged to make it so ; when we look back to about 15 years ago and recollect, that an English companv sent out a small steamer, the Nelson, and people said it would not pay, and it did not pay and so we sent it back again to England, and gave up steam services in despair of ever seeing them again. Put governments and croakers would not see_ the future of 20,000 English settlers planted in a country of great extent, natural richness, and we are glad to see a fleet ot powerful steamers plying on our coasts and entering our harbors, increasing trade and diffusing plenty wherever they go. We have had our battle l of steam navigation companies; we have now to fight for railwaycompanies. They may not come this year, nor next year, nor the year after, but come they will to this and every province in New Zealand, as sure as we now pen these lines. Then let us prepase the way for them. We entreat the Provincial Government to give this vital question their earnest consideration. It will do us no good to say, we have no money. The government has a staff of surveyors. Let it select the best line, properly survey it, and leave the rest to tune and the good sense and the energies of the settlers in this Province. This done, they will not fail to point out that it is to English capital, with a guaranteed interest of 6 per cent., that we must look for the accomplishment of this great, important, and profitable .work.