MATIERE RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 120, 23 May 1922, Page 7

MATIERE RAILWAY.

GROWTH OF KING COUNTRY. A REMARKABLE DISTRICT. i The most striking fact in connection with the growth of settlement and of the development of the King Country is the swiftness of the march of progress. Undoubtedly the key that unlocked the door of thie rich and important' district : was the Main Trunk railway. Less than fifteen years have passed eince the first through trains ran between Wellington and Auckland. Sixteen years ago the railheads were at Baurimu and Waiouru respectively, and between the two there \ stia seemed a great gulf to be connected. ! The hard worn of the following two i years, however, caw the last of the! natural difficulties overcome, and the I great undertaking became an accomplish- j ment of which New Zealand wae justly i proud. SETTLERS' HARDSHIPS. ! The completion of the Main Trunk line coincided with the commencement of settlement in the Ohura. County and the southern portion of Waitomo County in I earnest. The main roads into the two ] districts, the Ohura and the Te Kuiti, to Awakino Road were made as 12ft and 14ft roade, but the network of district \ and access roade mostly existed on the Lands Department maps. Within a few ! years the large areas of Crown land in the Aria, Paraheka, Waitewhena, Waikaka, Otangiwai, Tokirima, and Tatu distriete were settled, and, no roade existing, the first urgent need waajjfor access of some sort as quickly as possible. For several years the work carried out by the Public Works Department wae largely the construction of 6ft tracks. ! Since then the widening of these tracks to druy roads, and llie bridging ot the streams and rivers has been steadily programing.- Some are now well-metalled roads, but still there ie a vast amount of work to lie done. Some of the roads have not a yard of metal on them, and in parts the difficulty of obtaining metal has been a severe handicap. This is notably the case with the road between Okahukura and Ohura. During the winter months this road is nothing more nor less than a quagmire, and a journey between 'these two towns is a veritable nightmare. Vehicles sink axle-deep in the soft clay and papa, and on occasion it takes a team ol bullocks to extricate them. These are the conditions which settlers in the regions of Ohura and Matiere have had to contend with during the last twenty years. The importance to them, therefore, of the new railway line—a line which runs side by side with the Okahuikura-Matiere-Ohura Road— cannot be over-estimated. Roading metal will roll into Mahirakau, Tuhua. and Matiere in truck loads, and within a few 1 years a vast improvement in the condition of the roade will be seen. The town of Matiere itself will undergo a transformation, and the sea of mud which now forms its main street will at long last take concrete shape. Never again will the inhabitants of this important little town suffer the oft-heard reproach that they "never clean their boots."

THE FIRST SURVEY. The Main Trunk to Stratford connection was first surveyed about thirty-two years ago, under the supervision of Mr. K. \V. Holmes, late Engineer-iu-C'hief of the Public Works Department, at a time when the controversy over the Central versus Taranaki route for the Main Trunk line was looming large. There the matter remained, as far as the Main Trunk end was concerned till 1911, when detailed survey operations resulted in the junction being fixed at Okahukura, i seven miles north of Taumarunui. i\t the Taranaki end of this railway, work has been "in hand for many years, and construction has been completed as Tahora, 47 miles from Stratford and about 31 miles by railway route from •Matiere. THE MATIERE STRETCH. The first township of any size reached after leaving the Main i'runk line at Okahukura is Matiere, a distance of 10 miles*from the junction, and the Department has concentrated its efforts on the completion of this stretch. The heavy natuTe of the work of course rendered progress slow. The cuttings on this section were exceptionally numerous and unusually deep. The pioneer work in connection with these cuttings was one of the chief difficulties encountered. Besides the Okahukura tunnel, 76 chains long, through the dividing range between Ongarue and Ohura valleys there are four other tunnels on this section of a total length of 24 chains. Three of these tunnels were lined with bricks produced at the Department's brickworks at Tulnia, a distance of three miles from Matiere. These bricks were made from a mixture of papa and clay by the "semi-dry"' process and burned in a small tw ene-chamber continuous kiln.

THE OKAHUKURiA TUNNEL. The building of the large tunnel was begun by a contractor but was completed by the Public Works Department under the co-operative system. Good progress was made in the face of considerable difficulties, the chief of which was the acute shortage of labour, owing to the absorption of such a large proportion of thp able manhood of the Dominion on military duty during the war. After the war, however, progress became a little more rapid, and the tunnel was finally completed in December, 1920. BRIDGING DIFFICULTIES.

The bridging on the Matiere section consisted of one crossing of the Ongarue River and four crossings of the Ohura River. The Ongarue River bridge is a combined road and railway bridge, the roadway being carried on the bottom chords and the railway on the top chords. Tlie piers, which are of reinforced concrete, were constructed by the Department, andi the superstructure is of steel.

The task of completing the five bridges between Okahukura and Matiere presented many obstacles. Difficulty was experienced in obtaining the steel* work and also in "getting it manufactured at a reasonable figure. The manufacture of the steel work for the four smaller bridges has actually been completed at the Public Works Department's own shops at Tauranga. Unfortunately the erection of the steel work has been held up by other factors too, notably the delay in the arrival of hardwood timber for some of the permanent piers. The transport difficulties peculiar to the district have also had a hampering effect! on the work. Owing to the dearth of metal roads only a small part of the year in these parts is suitable for the transport of shingle and cement for the concrete piers. Therefore it was felt that, if the Matiere district -was to be given any relief during the forthcoming winter it would be essential to erect temporary bridges over the four remaining crossings. The Department has its own gang of bridge carpenters, and these men previously were engaged on the Whangamomona section of the Stratford Main

'Trunk railway, where they erected 14 I bridges over the Whangamomona stream and its tributaries. These men have a very praiseworthy performance to their credit on the Matiere-Okahukura line. j They commenced work on the first of ! the temporary bridges for taking the engine at the beginning of February, and at the end of March had completed the last bridge. They are now pushing : ahead rapidly with the permanent ■ bridges, which, in the couTse of time, , will take the place of the temporary i structures erected alongside them. ' i THE FINISHING TOUCHES. There is plenty of work ahead of the I 100 men set present employed on the , line by the Department. In addition to ] I the completion of the four permanent , bridge 3 there is a considerable stretch jof ballasting to do. and one of the tun- | ' I nels has yet to be lined. At the llatiere , ist'i'ion yard the bulk of the earthwork , j has yet to be done, as well as platehaving in connecting the main line and -sidings, the metalling of approaches and ] roads, and the erection of permanent station building's and general finishing touches to the work. • P.W.D. TRAIN 5-ERVR K. ; . Until the bridges have been completed J iJ as permanent structures and the line is , ready to hand over to the Railway > Department the Public Works Depart- , I 1 ment proposes to run a train service ; between Okahukiira and Matierc on Fri- ; da 3's and Saturdays. Trains will e»n'jnect with the train which leaves Tau-i i marunui at 10.20 a.m. on Fridays and I - Saturdays, and with the train leaving j -at 4 p.m. on Saturdays. On these days i - a train will aleo leave Matiere at 4.15 j • p.m.. and will connect at Okaluikura with j ' the train from the North which reaches ' Taumarunui at 7 p.m. It would be cxi tremely inconvenient for the Depart- • J ment to promise a much better pro- j ' gramme, as the line will require to bo ■ ! broken at the bridges occasionally a< j • the work proceeds. There will, however, j 1 always be a train through on the days j - I previously mentioned. At the same time. • the public can, at their own iuconveni- ' erce, travel on the ballast trains on 1 other days, but these, of course, will not • run at regular intervals, and will not 1 alwa\n run as far as Matiere. I WORKMEN'S HITS. ,- The men engaged on the work on • this line have for some considerable time i been housed in the P.W.I), huts which i were erected at Okaluikura. These were j I provided under the improved housing i'conditions which the present Minister of 1 j Public Works granted to workers on ; ; railway construction works. These huts ilean be conveniently shifted where they • are required a* the work proceeds. There i is also a small settlement of these huts ■* at Tulnia. and the location of the 1 dwellings will probably not be altered 1 until the line is well on towards (Jhura. ' ENGINEERS IN I HAROE. j Mr. A. J. Baker was in charge of eont stnictioii and eiirvcy work on the east 1• < mi of the line from June. 1911, and in ti February. 1914. he took charge of the r Taumarunui Public Works Department - as Resident Engineer. His was the task - of supervising the heavy pioneer worft. r and. despite the eetback caused by tinwar, remarkable progress wae made in tunnelling, track cutting, and in the construction of the" big bridge over the " Ongarue River at Okahukura. Mr. Dinnie ' took over from Mr. Baker, but was in • charge for only a ibrief period. Vie was f succeeded by Mr. .Tells, who also made - only a brief stay in the district. Finally 1 Mr* P. Keller took over the work in 1 July. l! 120. and to him has fallen the dis- '■ tinetion of seeing this important and 1 difficult work completed. Only thee • who have been over the line can have 1 any idea of the engineering difficulties ' that have been overcome. It can be fc said without exaggeration that it has j I been one of the most difficult lines to I construct in the Dominion. J The present Minister of Public Works, ihe Hon. J. G. Coates, has played a most 1 important part in the pushing through of this line. He traversed the route of the line about eighteen months ago by 1 motor car. and came to the conclusion t i that in the intersts of the settlers in 9 .'the Ohura district it was paramount -'that the line should bo pushed on from !i ' the east end. Despite strenuous opposieltion from the Stratford end of the line i- !he stuck to his conviction, and the n! result is seen to-day in the completion s of this most important link in n lino k I which will some day contribute largely s' to the coffers of ( the Treasury.