The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 799, 31 July 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1877.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious o political ' •# #. #.. . » # Here shall the Presi the Pkoplb's right maintain, Uaawecl by influence and unbribed by ga'u

question of the Thames Valley rajlway>,is.- an. important one to both and Waikato. ■ The iSS^^a§ed s . a supply 'of agricultural produce and an oatlot for various articles' 1 of merchandise in .return, and the other would be benefitted by .a second market in which to dispose of its yearly increasing supply of meat and grain and dairy produce. There is a good market for the G-rahamstown storekeeper at. one end, and for the Waikato settler at the other, only seventy miles apart, but Nature has placed an aukati between them that nothing but a railway will break. -In 1873 Mr. Sirhps6n*s report of a flying survey of the line was-.laid l before the Assembly, but the then Minister for Public Works in his Statement of that year said that he would not ask for a vote to construct the line till the. route of the main-'line*fwhich then had inly been laid off as far-as Ngaruawahia) had been fixed. That objection no longer exists, and therefore, if, but for it, the work was then considered a fit and proper one for the Government to undertake, now there can be no reason, on its merits, for further delaying it?./The only possible' reason that be urged is that of cost. The entire length of line from Grahamstown to the Waikato, according to Mr Simpson's survey, is fifty-nine, and a-half miles. The Thames people, we observe, many of them, afraid lest the undertaking as a whole should be shelved by the Government, are desirous of urging that, for the present only, the construction of the Thames end ot the line should be undertaken. To do this would be a most palpable and egregious error. Whatever of engineering..difficulty exists upon the line is to be found in the twenty-nine and a-half miles between Grahamstown and Ouiahu, 6n the Thames River. The thirty miles between Hamilton and Dinahu can be completed for a sum of £3OOO per mile ; the cost of the sixty miles as a i whole would equal the average cost of New Zealand railways, namely, £6,000 per mile; po that, while half the line could be constructed for £90,000, the cost of the whole sixty miles would be some £300,000. If, however, by first undertaking the construction of the more costly end of the line, the advantage, even to Grahamstown,, would be greater, we could see some reason in the argument, But it isnot so. Grahamstown would find no market for .'.its.' timber as it would do if communication were opened with—Waikato, and a railway from Grahamstown to Omahu would scarcely open.up a supply of the agricultural- and farm produce which the Grahamstown people require. It would, indeed, simply exchange river for rail communication, as far as it went, without connecting the Goldfields with the Waikato' market. And ' this is just where the argument in favour of beginning at the Waikato end of the line tells. If the whole line cannot be constructed, then let us have that half which is not only the least costly to construct but which does, what the other does not, namely, bridges over the whole distance between the two districts, to connect which, is the object of us all. The river Thames is navigable as far as Omahu, and the line of 30 miles from Hamilton to Omahu would complete a system of steam communication between the Goldfields and the Waikato district. Manifestly, thea, and we speak in the interests of the Thames fully as much as. of Waikato, the end to be commenced upon is that which,-* when the railway is half finished, will bring Grahamstown into direct steam communication with Waikato, and not that end which, leaving" Waikato altogether cut off, wifl connect' the Goldfields with .as yet comparatively unsettled and non producing districts.

As .we-have, said, there is good water comnmnciation between Omaha on the Thames and Shortland, quite as good, indeed, as we in Wuikato have had between these settlements arid the railway at Mercer. To take Mr Simpson's report on the navigation of the Thames lively we find that from, Kopu, at the Thames, the channel is good uniil the first shore', iibove Pimn is reached, when there is. a depth there at low water, of 2£ feet,' with a rise of tide of 7 feet; that there are three more such shallows, with a rise of tide receptively pf 0 ; Q f w\ 4lt.

Above Ohinemuri there is no shallower depth than 2| feet, and Mr Simpson summarises this portion of ■ the report *.witji ,the remarks that "The Thames troni Grohamstowu to the firsts rapids near Te Avoha • (Oraahu), is admirably adapted for steamers of 2|- feet draft, the ,ciivrent not being, rapid (two knots) "and...the cien tly easy." Tlie.'• proposed*, railway, the report goes: on tosay } would cross the river about five miles below , these first rapids so that a steamer ot ordinary speed would would reach this point from Shortland in five hours. " A barge," says Mr Simpson, " with steam crane would be the best means of clearing the snags, eel pas <fec, and J estimate the cost (exclusive of the barge) at £9OO. This would be for the whole distance up to Matamata (Firth's run)." For our own part we 'could wish to see the work as a whole urged upon the Assembly, and should never for a moment have raised the the question of less being done, but if we can have-but half, then . in, ■ the . interests of both districts and of the colony at large there can be no doubt as .to which end of the line should be' the first commenced.