The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1889. The Railway Extension.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3175, 9 April 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1889. The Railway Extension.

The opening of the section of railway between Mangaraahoe and Eketahuna should make a substantial addition to the value of everything marketable that is produced by the settlers in the Forty Mile Bush, and we are quite justified in assuming that the majority of the settlers will not be slow in availing themselves of their improved position. They have had many hardships to contend against, and not tbo least of these was that they had no market within a reasonable distance in wliioh thev could dispose of such products as aro most easily raised on country that has only recently been oleared of bush and settled. If they went in for dairying they found that they had to sond their butter to Masterton under a very exponsive system of carriage, and if a housewife took the pains to form a poultry yard, which, under ordinary oiroumstances, would have yielded her a return that would have met a considerable portion of her household exponses, she found herself faced with tho same difficulty, and had to sell what could not 'bo consumed on tho place at a considerable sacrifice. About the only thing that

was found to pay was live stock, because the surplus solectod for market could bo driven to its destination at very trifling expense As everybody knows, however, stockraising on a small scale does not pay, and tho settlers were therefore reduoel to very narrow straights, and many of them, no doubt, felt the pinoh of the financial shoo pretty severely, All this will now be greatlj altered. Masterton is now so woll established as a centre of population, that it is in a position to purchase everything marketable that oan bo sent down from the bush distriots -if not for local consumption, then

for export elsewhere, and we confidently expect that the quantity of local produce brought into it will be very materially increased by the opening of the now section of the lino. The tradespeople of Masterton will no doubt know how to appreciate this inoreasa of tnffic, and to make the best of it for the mutual advantage of their own township and that of Eketahuna, With regard to the latter place, we have no doubt that it has entered on a period of prosperity, which mvst, at the very worst, last till the railway line is carried further afield. By the timo that takos place, however, we expect to see butter and oheese factories at work in the neighborhood, and a considerable area of land so far cleared that they can produce cereals at a profit; and when the country has advanced so far as that, tho township will have little to fear from tho loss of tho through traffic.