The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1908. A GREAT NATIONAL WORK

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13191, 11 August 1908, Page 6

The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1908. A GREAT NATIONAL WORK

i In'tho excitement attendant upon tho • ■'• .1 .arrival of the American fleet, but little A public attention, has been given to what • 'is really a most notable event in the ...' • jhistory of the colony, namely, tho linkling up of Auckland and Wellington by . frail. Tho story of tho undertaking, I from the tim© it was first proposed by I Sir Julius Vogel in 1870, as part of his 1 great Public WoTks policy, until tho ' s beginning of thia week, when tls> first • train safely made tho journey from '* Wellington to Auckland, illustrates- in a . f very special manner tho different pleases f through which the North Island has I passed. In 1870 tho railway was only J a- dream of the future. Ite route I traversed largo stretches of Maori coun- / try fenced off by the "Aukati."' which ■j at that time a European might cross f only at the peril of his life. In the / . Public Works Statement of 1878, tho f Hon. James Mneandrew, among a munf . ' bor of ambitions projects, sketched- out a plan for joining Auckland with Wellington by way of Taranaki. The railway running southward from Auckland had then reached Ohaupo, a few miles .<' beyond the junction for Rotorua, Tho Wellington and Mauaivatu Railway was not then in existence, and of the Wellington—New Plymouth line only the portion between Foxton and Waitotara had been constructed. Mr Maoatfdrow's scheme was to make a Taflvray between. Wellington ami the New Ply- " ' nionth lino tefpfagjowood, and to con- -<?£• '---vtßct th».J&&?£ 'with . the Auckland-

would havo made the distance between tho two cities 476 miles, as against -12(i by the present route. But the Grey Government, by its recklessness, hud already brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy, and for some years severe retrenchment had- to be tho order of tho day. And there

was another reason why no progress was mado with the. work. Tho people of Auckland fought strenuously for the route via New Plymouth, believing that if the central routo were adopted "Wellington would get a good deal of tho trade which in the other case would como to AucKiand. Tho Wellington people naturally favoured the central route, as, indeed, did most people who looked at tho question apart from local prejudice, and purely from the economical point of view. Tho natural result of this battle of the routes was that for sonic time neither was proceeded with. In ISS4 the Hon. E. Mitehelson, then for Public "Works, and himself an Auckland man. went over the three alternative routes and prepared a report which showed decided advantages in favonr of tho central route. In September of tho same year a Parliamentary Committee, consisting of seven South Island members, was set up to take evidence and report, and they recommended the central route from Marton to To Awamutu as the best. This is tho line which has now been completed.

To look back at tho report of the ceremony of turning tho first sod, which took place on the loth April, 18S5, is to get a most interesting and instructive glance into our past history. It took place at the "confiscation line," at the southern bank of the- Puniu Biver, and was performed by tho present Chief Justice, then tho Hon. Kobert Stout, rrimo Minister of the colony, assisted by the Xgatimaniopoto chiefs Wahanui and Kcwi. The presence of the latter was of the utmost importance as showing that the opposition of tho King natives had at length Decn overcome. Wahanui was "do facto," if not "do jure,"' tho Grand Vizier of the Maori King. 1-lewi was tho hero of the- great fight at Orakau, to which eloquent reference was mado by Sir Robert Stout in his speech. "We stand here," lie β-aid " almost in view of wha/i I mignt term the classic srround of the Maori war. Not far from hero is, as you all ioqow, what might r, e termed tho Maori Thcrmopylte, which future historians tfill point to as a battle that was, considering its circumstances, perhaps tho grandest fought botweon any two racee. Thebravery, as often happens ir. many battles, was not all on ono side. Wo stand on that ground, and when we thirk of what took place in this month somo twenty years ago, when the battle of Orakau was fought; when wo think of the bravo words uttered from ice Maori pa on that occasion—bravo words that there was to be practically no end to the fighting; and, when wi> think now of whait wo hsvo accomplished, and when we hay* ■here that brave chieftain, tba-t brave warrior •who then led his tribe at Crakau, and wo Isaje' tho representative of the Government to lako part in a work of this kind, I think wo will all sco that we have made some advance in our colonial history, and that it has been truly a sign of progress to-day. I think wb should remember, iv doing a work of this kind, to contrast it with the ckl days, the days of tho pat.t tho evil days in which we thought the co'.cny wae to bo conquered* by war. to be conquered by bloodshed. Bui we know that pcaco has her conquests far more renowned than those of war, a#d that it is by works of fMs character—works which arc- not to. set toco against raco, nor peoples against people, but to unite thorn together as one people—it is by works of this class thai Na.fur« is conquered and made subservient to war."

Rewi; wo are told, was visibly affected, and the onlookers, seeing him there in European costume as a friend of the European Government, - with his little daughter by his side, could not help contrasting it the time referred to by the Premier. ' Then he -was a fighting general, in sole charge of 250 brave bufc badly-armed natives. - Without water and with very little food in their pa, closely pressed by 600 British eoHiers armed with the most approved weapons of the day, they successfully defied all attempts to take the pa by assault, and Rewi, jumoing on tho parapet, defied his enemies and.shouted that tJiey would fight on. "for ever, for "over, and for ever." The North Island Main Trunk railway is more than a steel band oi communication between two flourishing and progressive cities. It is a memorial of the fusion of the two races, and brings with it a promise of great future prosperity in which every, part of the Dominion is bound to share.