THE NARROW GUAGE.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 745, 3 December 1870, Page 2

THE NARROW GUAGE.

The following extract from a private letter received by a gentleman in Wellington, from the Hon. E. Dillon Bell, has been published by the " Independent." After illustrating that " colonising work must be organised to be successful" he proceeds:—

Of course a very powerful agent will be found in this new system of Narrow Guage Railway. I have just been to see the Efestiniog line, which you have heard so much of, and of which we write officially about. I can only say that no description can give the least idea of it. You see a toy; it is a giant in its power. Nothing looks so absurd, after thundering along the great railways to the North and being dazed by the size of the engines, the length of the trains, and the ceaseless rush and whirl through tunnels, over embankments, along cuttings, and across bridges—as the little Efestiniog line with its tiny engine and train, alongside of which a man looms enormous. "5 ou get in, wondering what next; presently you begin running up a steep hill at the race of 15 miles an hour, following the contour of the ground. Tou come to a sharp curve, turning round, you see the tail carriages of the train coming round the last sweep. You are in the middle of what seems all but a circle of little carriages, the engine looking ridiculously small, the long line of trucks behind being just big enough to bold a bale of wool. You are running along a line of 1 foot inches guage, and while on one side the hill is a few inches from your feet, for the Irish jaunting-car projects over the rails, and you can't help fancying you are going to have your brains dashed out by the riding, as soon as you turn to the other side you see only a precipitous descent of the hill, with nothing between you and the slide down. Presently you look at the distant hills, the stream shining silvery in the valley

below, the ferns close enough to pluck, the trees on your right and left; why, this is New Zealand! The illusion is wonderful. I never saw any one struck with a novel scene as Knowles was, who accompanied mo. Heaps of travellers who know the Alps by heart have never seen this quiet Ffestiniog Vale, and of course the New Zealander who comes home must do his Rhine and his Lucerne; hut if you want him to be reminded of his country, send him to the Ffestiniog Eailway. But apart from the surprises of the scene, the cool calculation of the adaptability to our wants soon comes. Ido not hesitate to confess that, after reading what I could and talking to people who knew, the surprise I felt was as if I had never heard of a cheap railway. All I can say is that after seeing this one I have ceased to consider there is any difficulty in New Zealand. As for the Wairarapa road, the Horokiwi, the Waikouati, and dozens of others where we have made expensive metalled lines because we knew not of possible railways there, it certainly will not be long before these are abandoned in favor pf_ the narrow gauge railway. The Ffestiniog line once seen, all sense of difficulty or trouble absolutely vanishes; and although I am no engineer, and am quite incompetent to decide whether Fairlie's Bogie engines or Fox's Norway engines are the best, it is satisfactory—perfectly satisfactory —to have been on a line which for seven years has done what I have seen at Ffestiniog. Featherstou's visit to the Norwegian lines with the 3fb 6in guage will be very interesting to you ; and when you take the impressions we have each received and weigh them together, you will realise as well as we do ourselves that an'entirely new era is open, and that the " Railways of the Future," to use the title of the " Times " Essays, will give New Zealand a place she never dreamt of getting by any other means. Whenever the time comes that you shall be able to spend money on New Zealand railways, you need entertain no sort of doubt that here, already done and in full work, are exactly the patterns we want, suited precisely to the country in which we live, and possessing the elements of advantage most precious to us. This is the evidence before our eyes of the fact, and the men are here too. I dont want to be sanguine, but I am quite certain in my own mind ; and I only regret I did not see for myself in time to write before the Assembly met.