Seventy Mile Bush - September 1885

Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc.

Seventy-Mile Bush - 1885

Hawkes Bay Herald, 2 September 1885 4(1). Additional notes in "[ ]".

SIR- You very seldom in your valuable columns have any news of moment from the Seventy-Mile Bush. I was glad to the report in your paper of the action taken by the gentlemen of this district interested in the timber trade, as I am sure that if the Railway Department put on payment for sidings, as they propose, I do not know what they will eventually do for trade, as the timber industry of this district depends entirely on facilities for transportation, and I am sure the freights are high enough now to pay the Railway Department well. There is some talk of a private company starting a line of tramway branch, loop or otherwise, through the Norsewood district, which at first looks impossible, but when considered carefully and the population taken into consideration, does not seem so unreasonable as at first sight. [Note: Still, it did not happen]

The Danevirke [sic] settlement seems to go ahead pretty well. Buildings are going up, which speaks well for the district, but a good railway station, such as the one at Tahoraite, is badly wanted. [Note: Later they shifted the larger under-used Tahoraite Station to Dannevirke and Dannevirke's tiny one to Tahoraite.]

I see that the Government are moving to the Spit the house where Mr Carr, engineer, used to reside at Kopua. I should think that when it is taken to pieces and transported to the Spit and re-erected it will not be worth much. Timber being so easily procurable at the Spit, they could have built a new house for very little more than the expense of shifting the old one, and it would have been a much superior building in every way; but the ways of the Government are wonderful!

The railway from Tahoraite to Woodville is progressing very slowly. I rode along there the other day. You can see where they have started in various places along the road, but the amount of work done does not seem much, as none of the large cuttings (which I think should have been started first) have been touched. I was told by some that the contractors do not seem be able to cope with even the small difficulties they have to contend with. It may be through inexperience. I hear, also, that they have paid off their engineer, who has been with them from the start of the job, because of, I believe, they have got a man for less money. They gave him a first-class testimonial when he was leaving, so it was evidently through no fault of his. It seems strange that a job of that magnitude will not allow them to even pay their engineer a fair salary. something must be wrong when men take work so low that they have to grind down even their own engineer.

The bishop of Waiapu preached at Makotuku, Ormondville and Norsewood last Sunday, and had splendid congregations in all three places.

I hear that Mr Horace Baker, Commissioner of Crown lands, and Mr W. Armstrong, of Norsewood, secretary of the Tautane Small Farm Settlement, are going through the Tautane block to pick out a site for the settlement. Several of the association have been out previously, but I am told they chose a part some 2000 or 3000 feet about sea level, up on the ranges somewhere, which the Government do not think suitable for small farms. - I am, etc., AN OBSERVER AND TRAVELLER.