NORTHWARD-BOUND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1934, Page 9

NORTHWARD-BOUND.

TWO THOUSAND MAORIS SPECIAL TRAINS NIGHTLY.

Special trains will be dispatched from Auckland for the north at 11.30 each night for the remainder of this week. taking Maoris to attend the celebrations at Waitangi. Upwards of 2000 Maoris will have passed through Auckland by Sunday. About "00 members of the Ngatiporou tribe, from the East Coast, passed through Auckland, arriving by the express from Taneatua at 0.20 p.m., and leaving for Opuri by the special train of seven cars at 11.30 p.m. On receipt of advice that the weather at the Bay of Islands would be too rough for launches to cross from Opua to Waitangi, the train was diverted to Kaikohe,' where it arrived early this morning. From Kaikohe the passengers wero taken to Waitangi by motorbuses.

To-night's special train will takeabout .550 Maoris, who will anivo by tlio ordinary express from Tancatua at

G. 20 p.m., and by a special train from Taneatua, six minutes later. Fourteen cars will be necessary for tlieir accommodation. Tlio largest ot the special trains to tlu- north will be that leaving to-morrow night, with 10 cars attached, to carry 700 .Maoris from Eotorua and the districts around Tongariro National Park. They will arrive by three trains, the ordinary trains from Taneatua and Frankton at (i.20 p.m. and 10.54 p.m. respectively, and by a special train from Frankton at 11.5 p.m. By r. special Main Trunk express, due at Auckland at 7.50 a.m. on Saturday, 450 Maoris are expected to arrive from southern districts. They will go north by Saturday night's special train at 11.30 p.m. As the notliern line is run oil the tablet system, the train-running branch at the Auckland station is finding the management of the special trains much more difficult there than it is on tins southern lines.