THE WANGANUI-MANAWATU LINE v. WELLINGTON-FEATHERSTON LINE OF RAILWAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 123, 1 April 1879, Page 2

THE WANGANUI-MANAWATU LINE v. WELLINGTON-FEATHERSTON LINE OF RAILWAY.

To Ik Editor of the Wairahapa daily

Mastci'ton, March 29.

Silt,—Your West Coast contemporaries indulge in such an amount of senseless cackling about their railway and its monthly returns that those who do not go into tho subject feel bound to believe that the Wellington-Feathorston line cannot hold a candle to it—and all this because the expenditure to receipts, not for the four weeks, but for the twelve months ending February 8, compare in favor of the West Coast by G6'o3 to our 67 'O7. First of all let me point out that the Wan-gamii-Manawatu lino has a length of 8G miles, while ours has only 45 open for traffic. The former is therefore double the length, all but four miles. Yet the receipts for the four weeks last published show greatly in favor of our line, being £3,12818s to our neighbors' £2,953 7s Gd, leaving a difference of £165 7s 6d. Turning to the average receipts per mile for the past twelve months we find the difference still more apparent. The Wan-ganui-Manawatu line shows £37112s 4d, while the Wellington-Featlierston is credited with £770 4i, being more than double the preceding amount. It must not be forgotten that the former line is completed, while only about two-thirds of the latter are open for traffic, the most important section having been opened only about three months before the Bth February. The completed section of our line pro Ted the most expensive in construction of all the railways in the Colony, as it crosses a large tract of mountainous country, while that on the West Coast cost less than the average. So also in the working, for ordinary engines do the work of the latter, while hero it was found necessary to construct a portion of the lino with a gradient of 1 in 15 with a centre rail, and keep two special engines for it, engines of, extra power being also employed for the remainder of the line, These facts fully account for the proportionately high rate of expenditure. Our neighbors should wait till our line is completed before they make comparisons; they would then find themselves minus even the one little point of which they have just made so much,—l am, Ac,, J. Martin Rockei,.