THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 203

to carry out the suggestions of Mr. Adams,
and to supply the requisite materials for any
lines which may be needed, taking in payment
either cash or the Bonds of the Colony upon
such terms as might be agreed upon with the
parties interested. Or, I would arrange to
place the Bonds in this country in such a way
as to afford the desired accommodation and
facilities to any of the Colonial Provinces.

I naturally feel the delicacy of addressing
Your Excellency upon a subject which is
apparently one of so mercantile a character,
yet as it really is so intimately connected with
the welfare and prosperity of a Colony, I do
not hesitate to bring it before your notice.
J. E. GREEN.

To His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B.,
&c., &c., &c.
Governor of New Zealand.

Mr. W. Bridges Adams, of London, the
earliest advocate for the proportional adjust-
ment of power and weight to the require-
ments of local traffic on railways, has pro-
duced a system of rails, engines, and trains,
adapted for Branch lines and Colonies, at a
very small comparative cost. The rail is five
inches in depth, equal to that of the ordinary
English standard, but weighing only from 25
to 28 pounds per yard. It is fished at the
joints and secured by transverse trenails of hard
wood between longitudinal timbers of small
scantling, which give great vertical and hori-
zontal stiffness, and is trenailed down to cross ties
at intervals of nine feet. The guage of way is
three feet six inches, but may be wider if pre-
ferred. The engine is on four coupled wheels,
the total weight being eight tons, equally dis-
tributed. It is adapted for speeds of fifteen
to twenty miles per hour, and carries fuel and
water for that distance. It will be seen that
the engine being only one-fourth of the ordi-
nary modern weight, will not crush the rails,
which are one-third the ordinary weight,
the bearing surface of the timber sleepers on
the ground or ballast, is little less than the
ordinary area. It may be laid where needful
without ballast, will be perfectly efficient in
dry weather, and will be little liable to dis-
turbance in rain.

Holly Mount, Hampstead,
Near London, 25th February, 1862.

SIR,—I beg leave respectfully to call the
attention of Your Excellency to a fact be-
longing both to ancient and modern times,
that an uncivilized or semi-civilized country
can only be really subdued or civilized by the
process of opening up Roads. It was so that
the old Romans did in ages before Britain
began her career. It was by the same process
that rebellion was finally extinguished in the
Scottish Highlands, and there seems to be no
reason why New Zealand should be exempt
from the operation of the same law.

Viewing Roads as civilizers, I have for many
years turned my studies to the process of
cheapening their structure, and especially in
our Colonies. The result I have arrived at is,
that a simple light rail with a light engine is
the cheapest, the most easily constructed, and
the cheapest and most easily worked road,
being perfectly fitted for curving valley lines
in mountanious countries. I therefore beg
respectfully to offer to your attention the en-
closed statement and plan which was last year
forwarded to Ceylon by the Secretary for the
Colonial Office, and laid before the Govern-
ment there. It was published in the "Co-
lombo Overland Observer" in September,
1861, and was reprinted in similar terms, with
his own name attached, by Mr. Fitzgibbon the
Engineer to the Dun Mountain Copper Com-
pany in New Zealand, without acknowledg-
ment. I enclose a copy.

Should Your Excellency deem it desirable
to sanction this system in New Zealand, ten
miles of permanent way complete, with one
light locomotive and twenty vehicles can be
delivered in England free on board, for the
sum Thirteen thousand five hundred pounds,
or £1350 per mile.

Thoroughly responsible parties would under-
take this under my superintendence here.
I have, &c.,
WILLIAM BRIDGES ADAMS.

In economizing traction, it is important so to
construct the vehicles that they may be con-
vertible to various uses, as for example the
conveyance both of cotton bales and passen-
gers. It is also important that the weight of
the vehicles should not exceed one-half the
weight of the load. The vehicles on this
system weigh one ton and a quarter, and the
load is two tons and a half. Moveable seats
are provided so that the wagon becomes an
open carriage, capable also of being covered
in, and by a peculiar construction of springs, it
will carry a few passengers as easily as a heavy
load of goods, the power of the springs vary-
ing with the load, and saving the road from
damage. The axles run loose in their boxes,
and the wheels of the carriage run indepen-
dently on their axles. One carriage will carry
forty passengers. If required, first class
bodies can be applied on the same frames.

The engine and train are adapted to work
curves of three to four chains radius, and will
ascend slopes of one in twenty, with a gross
load of twenty tons, and one hundred and
sixty tons on the level. There may occa-
sionally be a need of passing up a steep slope,
but with their trains adapted to sharp curves
there is no difficulty in skirting hills, instead
of ascending them pursuing the valley lines.

Assuming a continuous gradient of one in
one hundred, the gross load will be sixty-five
tons. If merely short runs of one per hun-
dred, the load may be taken at one hundred
tons and the nett or paying load at sixty tons.

The same rails may be used for horse traction,
but in such case it will be needful to provide
a good road for the horses' feet. The same
engine, with its wheels set further apart, and
increased in diameter, can be applied for the

To His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B.,
&c., &c., &c.
Governor of New Zealand.