THE NORTH TRUNK RAILWAY

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1712, 16 June 1884, Page 2

THE NORTH TRUNK RAILWAY

SON MR. MITCHELSON'S REPORT. By sonic means of oilier, flu Now Zealand. Herald baa managed to obtain a summary of Mr Mitcbelaon'a repoft on i lie route for I lie North Island I Trunk Railway. It whs undorsiooit thatjno informalioii would be given as to the tenor of the report until it was laid' before Parliament, and the Herald has probably obtained it through the inability of one of the Mimstara. ■ Id keep a. eecrot. .According to iho information supplied to the northern journal Mr Mitchelson wilj ask Parliament to sanotjon a double line, or father a line having a large loop'with the double portion, converging into a single line at the north 'end at! Te Kuiti, flnd.at the souihcfn end at Mirtou. ! '.The. western of the two lines will re»ily.ohl/j go as. far. as .Stratford, near Egmimt, but tho. completion of ! tlie*ip(>p will be effected by the line jilreadf'constructed. The vepoit emphatically condemns what is known as the. coastal route, the Minister being of opinion that a-coast route and a trunk line are contra dictions in terms, a trunk line implying opening up inland country, If Farha:menti J Will not sanction- the' double line, the cost of which is estimated- at 12,422,000, the report is in favor of one line from Te Awamutu lo Stratford, the route of which in thus described :—lt will start from Te Awamuiu and run to To Uira, about tour miles north of Te Kui i, tind 25 miles from To Awamutu, From To Uira it runs to Mukunitl, a place uot shown on most maps,'which is 55 miles Bou'.h of Te Awamutu, then keeping to chmitward of the high Mokau oountry, and running about midway between Lake Taupo and the. West Coast, The line foliows the direction of the Tuhua Valley until where the Wanganui River turns suddenly to tlie south east, from whore, the railway lino will cimtinuo aouih-westwi«rd till it debouches ot Stratford at the back of Mount the line therefore will practically run through'the' whole, length of the: King Country, but from the Upper Mokau instead of tending to the Weit Coast, and so to Waitar'a, it takes a-ceu:i'al direction, and runs parallel to the line formed by tho western corner of Taupo, Tongariro, and Ruapehu, and as nearly as may be lnlf way between that line and the coast .lino. This iiue will pass through some very fine level country, and will tap the coal country from Makaui.i southwards, It will be 148 miles lon*, and cost i' 1,022,000. In the event of the oastern line being authorised, the proposition is that it sljall Btart.from Ifartpn, follow the course of tlje Rang! ike} for neirly forty miles to wher§ jt.tuj-ns off sharp to the -east;, From that point tliq line would make a sweep, and, then run almost due west to Murimutu. From then northwards lo Tuhua, and therro up along the Oogaruhe Hiyer, through the Te Taraka i Plain till it joined the other line at Te Kuiti, ruhnius! at one point wii bin twenty miles of the other line at Ohura. This line would be ahout 210 miles long, and the es'iinated cost is L' 1,400.000. It would open up an wnirm 'lis area of inaguinoeiit luid—in fam, along nearly the whole len»ih of tiiu line tho land is of the behest clans, iiijd at iiiijuy points the railway would'!ap vast districts, In his report Mr Mitchnlson lays equal stress on the urgenoy of both hues, and will strongly advooite tho making of both as being amply justified from tl]e land it it would open up, Although the (jouble projeot would lovolve an outlay of two and a half millions, Mr Michelsoo is convinced that the hugely enhanced value it would (jive to vast areas of land would 'folly justify it.