PIONEERS DRIVE A TUNNEL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 153, 29 June 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

PIONEERS DRIVE A TUNNEL

June 29, 1867 Thirteen hundred feet down in the bowels of the earth, fifty met were seated round a banquet table. Rock wajls pressed closely in upon them, and oi the solid roof played leaping shadows from oil lamps. it was one of the most unusua social occasions in the history of New Zealand. The diners were workmen engaged in driving the tunnel connecting Chrjstchurcl with its port of Lyttelton, and they held the banquet to entertain the Superintendent o the Province, Mr. W. S. Moorhouse.

THE first thing that must strike anyone -who gives any thought to the story behind the Lyttelton tunnel must be the so small a community in undertaking such a ccstly and diftjcult work. The decision was made only nine years after the' settlement had been founded. Christchurch and Lyttelton combined had a population of only a few hundred, yet these pioneers cheerfully decided to raise nearly a quarter of a million pound? to pay for the tunnel which would make railway connection between port and city possible. The idea of a tunnel was, born even before Canterbury was founded. An exact model of the hills between Lyttelton and the plains was prepared and discussed with civil engineers in England before the Pilgrims left. Probably the Pilgrims themselves began to think the tunnel was a fine idea after struggling up the steep ill behind Lyttelton on their long trudge to Cbristchureh. This elimb up the Bridle Path was an ordeal. Men, women and children, their legs unaccustomed to exercise after dreary months cooped up en small ships, trailed up the pathway, all earrving luggage, or even articles of the furniture they had brought from" the old land across the seas.

How wonderful the idea of a tunnel underneath the hill must hava appeared to them, hut it was a dream that must have seemed a long way short of coming true. At this time, in the "fifties, there was not even a railway in New Zealand, let alone something as costly and difficult to construct as one of the longest tunnels in the world. It is, however, hy attempting the impossible that great deeds are done. Among the early colonists was one of these courageous, farseeing men who never shrink from any task, however difficult. This was William Sefton Moorhouse, later' elected by his fellow settlers u Superintendent of the Canterbury Province. In those days, as it is hardly necessary to mention, all the ?rovinees had their own governments, known as Provincial Councils. t was while addressipg this body, only eight years after the arriva} of the Pilgrims, that Mr. Moorliouse first mentioned in public his ambition to see a tunnel driven through the Port Hills.

There was an immediate uproar. Those wjio -wished to see Christcburch grow prosperous were loud in their praises of Jklr, Moorhouse (or his wisdom, Ranged against them were the fainthearted, who said that so small a settlement could never find the money for this tremendous undertaking; or, if it did, would neglect all else to pay for it. N#xt stain in the tunnel movement forms an interesting link with the earnest days of railways. Inquiries were rue do in England, and the officials acting for Canterbury went to ask for advice from the most famous of all railway engineers, Robert Stephenson, builder of the best-known railway engine in the world, the "Rocket. Following all these inquiries, an English Arm offered tc build the tunnel for £235,000, on the condition that they should first lie allowed' to inspect the country through which the tunnel was to be driven. This firm sent out an engineer, who immediately said that the work could not be done at the price. This was a sad blow, but Mr. Moorhouse. who had just succeeded in borrowing the money for the work, was not beaten. "AM right," he said, "we will build the tunnel ourselves." So he called the Provincial Council together and suggested that the tunnel should be constructed by Christchureh workmen under the direction of the province's own engineer. The council adopted this proposal by one vote, but Mr. Moorhouse preferred to have the people

more united on such an important matter, and did not accept a vote carried by so narrow a margin. Again Mr. Moorhouse was called upon. Would he find a contractor to build the tunnel, and also raise the extra money required. Off he went to A ustra ii*- where he found both the men and the money. Mr. Moorhouse came home * popular hero, and was given a. rousing reception at Lyttelton and another at Christehurch. All ■was arranged, and on a cold, wet winters day in 1861, Mr. Moorhouse cut the first sod of the excavation at Heathccte. It was a great day that not even the driving rain could spoil. There was a procession, soldiers, the Superintendent in his carriage, a banquet, and. of course, plenty of those long and rather dull speeches that our ancestors used to sit through on every public occasion. Steadily, year by year, the work went on. The tunnelling was being done from both ends, and, in the minds of the interested public, there was always the awful thought: "Suppose there has been a mistake in the measurements and the two tunnels miss each other in the middle." They need not have worried. There was no mistake, and on the Queen's Birthday in 1867 a thrill of excitement ran through the town. The "Lyttelton Times'' brought out a special edition to tell Canterbury that the final wall was pierced, and workmen at the Heathcote end were calling through a small hole to their companions at the

Shortly after this there' was held the tyjnquet to which brief reference was made at the beginning of this article. Once again Mr. Moorhouse was the guest of honour as he and the men who had dug the hole in the hill feasted where to-day electric locomotives thunder along with their trains of carriages and tracks laden with the wealth of Canterbury.