THE THROUGH EXPRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 198, 19 August 1908, Page 9

THE THROUGH EXPRESS.

STATEMENT BY MR. HALL-JONES. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter. WELLINGTON, Monday. '•"Will the North Island Main Trunk railway be available for ordinary traffic on Ist November!" asked a "Star" representative of the Minister for Railways to-day. "Yes, I think so,*' replied the Hon. Hall-Jones. "Not that the line will be completed; there will be a great deal to do after that date, but the line will be safe for the ordinary traffic of the Working Railways Department. Before then I hope first of all to reduce the length of the coach journey by running trains on to Horopito. The coach journey then will only be about five and a half miles, instead of as now, some fifteen or sixteen miles. The next step will be to enable the Public Works Department to run a train over the gap. so that there will be no coach journey at all. This 7 anticipate will be early in October. That seems to mc a fitting time to celebrate the opening of the pnssenjrer service between Wellington and Av-ekland. "Our chief work at present," continued the minister, "is the very larpe amount of ballasting to be done. We have a big plant there—locomotives, wagons, etc. The best of our ballast pomes from Ohekune, a scoria pit, which is being rapidly opened out. We have other ballast pits at Mananui, npar Taumarunui, and at Waiouru. The latter is nearly worked out, but with tho conveniences we have for working the ballnst I think my programme will be carried out. The work to be done after the Ist November will be considerable. There is a great deal of detail work to be done; buildings will probably be the largest, item. We have had considerable difficulty in the heart of fcbe timber country in obtaining the timber necessary for buildings; that which comes to hand at the present time in its green state is unfit for immediate use.