REPORT OF THE RAILWAY ENGINEER
ON THE BLUFF HARBOR AND
INVERCARGILL RAILWAY.

Railway Engineer’s Office,
Invercargill, January 18th, 1866.

To His Honor the Superintendent.

Sir,—In accordance with your request,
I have the honor of reporting on the
works for the Bluff Harbor and Inver-
cargill Railway under the following heads:—

1. Difficult Nature of the Ground
   over which this Railway had to
   be Constructed.

2. Intended Character of the Railway
   Works.

3. Reasons for Preparing Contracts
   ...on Estimates for a Minimum of
   Specific Works.

4. Works of Construction to be
   Executed within the Province.

5. Supply of Permanent Way and
   Rolling Stock including Freight
   and Landing Charges for the
   same.

6. Contracts, Estimates, Tenders, and
   Expenditure for Specific Works
   to be Executed within the
   Province.

7. Suspension of Works.

8. Present State of the Railways.

9. Estimated Cost of Completion.

10. Rolling Stock &c.

11. General Summary.

I.—DIFFICULT NATURE OF THE GROUND
OVER WHICH THIS RAILWAY HAD
TO BE CONSTRUCTED.

The total length of the Railway and
Branch to the Mokomoko (Stanley) is 17
miles and thirty chains, and of this length
7 miles and 26 chains are over swamp,
which for 3 miles and 75 chains of its
length was of such a character that it was
frequently impracticable to walk over it
and at no time previous to its drainage
could any Levels be taken over it,
—consequently the levels had to be con-
ected by continuing them round the
Beach from the good ground on either
side of this portion of the swamp.
A “dotted line” had to be shown on
the Longitudinal Section, describing the
“approximate surface as too swampy to
be levelled over.”

Over such ground it was altogether
impossible to estimate accurately the
amount of drainage which would be
required to secure the necessary crust to
carry the Railway over the bog, or what
amount of settlement would be caused
by the drainage and the superincumbent
weight to be applied.

Of the remaining 10 miles and 4 chains
of the Railway, 3 miles and 58 chains in
length had to be constructed across the
several Bays of the Bluff Harbor and the
one of the New River estuary, in all of
which Bays the works had to be
protected from the action of the sea at
high tide during gales of wind.

The nature of the ground over which
the Railway had to be constructed may
therefore be described as of a very
difficult character necessitating the exe-
cution of considerable Drainage Works,
and the exercise of great caution not to
break through the crust when formed.

II.—INTENDED CHARACTER OF THE RAIL-
WAY WORKS.

Over ground such as that described it
was determined by the Provincial
Government to construct the Rail-
way of 4’-8½” gauge in the cheapest pos-
sible manner consistent with obtaining a
good workable Railway, for a speed not
exceeding that of 20 miles an hour, and in
accordance with this determination the
works were designed for a minimum of
expenditure, and were such as would be
absolutely necessary under the most
favorable circumstances.

III.—REASONS FOR PREPARING CON-
TRACTS ON ESTIMATES FOR A MINI-
MUM OF SPECIFIC WORKS.

Contracts for the completion of the
Railways could have been prepared either
by the lump sum for all the works
designed, to include all others that
might during the progress of the works
prove necessary, or by Scheduled work at
fixed prices, and it was optional to
prepare contracts for the completion of
the Railway by either of the following
specifications:—

1st. By the lump sum for all the
works designed, including in the sum
tendered the execution of every other
work that might during the progress of
the works, prove necessary.