EKETAHUN-WOODVILLE LINE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3878, 5 August 1891, Page 2

EKETAHUN-WOODVILLE LINE.

Meeting at Maneatain'fca.

• At a meeting of settlers at Manga- > tainoka on Saturday, it was resolved - that the following petition be pre- ■ sented to Parliament through Mr » Hogg, M.H.R : » To the Hon K. Seddon, Minister for Public Works,! '■ S^.— Having seen by the public newspapers that you intend obtaining authority from Parliament for the 1 formation of the railway, a distance of ten miles from Eketahuna, in the direction of Woodville, we beg most respectfully to request that you may take into your favorable consideration the desirability of substituting for this length the length between Man gatdinoka and Woodville for the following reasons :

Ist. A large sum of money from the Publio Works fund amounting to fully £45,000 has already been spent on this part of the line, and this sum is at the present moment bringing absolutely no return whatever, while a comparatively small additional outlay would at once render it, in some measure at least, immediately reproductive. 3nd. The sum you propose to spend would do simply no good expended at tbe Eketahuna end, except as a part of tbe whole work —it would pass through bush and stop where there was nothing but bush for miles around. Brd. The carrying business on the road between Pahiatua and Woodville at present necessitates no lass than eight coaches per diem. •J* e » £ Asides a 75? considerable amount of trafi> jn | necessitating an almost continuous stream of heavy vehicles of all descriptions to do the work. Hence of tbe two routes, each being a part of tbe same great work, the one section would lead to, comparatively speaking, nowhera, while the other would connect two densely populated centres. In the one case no return worth mentioning would be received until tbe piece that we wish to be

formed first shall be completed, and in the other a piece will be finished that will yielda handsome immediate return, 4th. If you will cause inquiries to be made you will find that portions of the bridge over the Manawatu River . are actually going to decay for the want of a little attention. Were the proposed section completed a most valuable property—property that has cost fully £BO,OOO would be saved from going to wreck and ruin simply because it is under the control of no public body whose business it is to effect small repairs as they are needed. sth. Your petitioners feel assured that by doing this section of the work instead of the Eketahuna section you will commend yourself to every business man in the colony for the reasons already pointed out, namely : (a) it is completing a work already half finished; (b) It will at once yield a good revenue, and (c) will save from ruin a most costly structure.