MAIN TRUNK RAILROAD

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 300, 13 September 1921, Page 9

MAIN TRUNK RAILROAD

AND A FAMOUS PAMPHLET REMINISCENCES OF SIXTY YEARS AGp PROPHECY PROVES ALMOST CORRECT As an accomplished fact, the Welling-ton-Auckland Main Trunk railway does not appeal in the least degree to the imagination of those who travel on it. They, take its distances, its tunnels,i7its gorges as a, matter of course, and tho only comment usually made is that the gauge is too narrow and the carriages too uncomfortable. They compare it unfavourably with Australian, English, and American railroads, and are usually very happy at the journey's end. Sixty years ago, things were very different. When a trip to Palmerston took three days or more, when it was about a day’s journey to where Trenthain now is, and a tiresome tramp or ride over the hills to Karori, people were not apt to take great blessings too lightly; and this is shown by tho ridicule that a Mr. Crawford received, when in 1861 he published a pamphlet entitled "Remarks on Railway Construction: To construct lines of tramway from Wellington to the Manawafu Gorge; from Manawatu to Napier through the Seventy-Mile Bush; from Wanganui towards Taranaki, and to complete the whole by a line to Taupo to meet one from Auckland, etc., etc." Hearty laughter shook the sides of most New Zealanders when the famous "Crawford Pamphlet" was made public; the man in the street spoke of 'it as he would of boats that would sail under the sea, and ships that would fly on nothingness. Statesmen in the Provincial Assemblies pooh-poohed it in the Houses and in the lobbies; the Governor thought it was a harmful production, as likely to excito the public mind; and the newspapers of the day gave it unmerciful criticism. Newspaper Comment. The Wellington "Independent” of Tuesday, June 11, 1861, had a great deal to say on Crawford and his "creation." In the course of an article tho editor said: The scheme is of so ambitious a nature that wo cannot look upon it in any light other than ns one of those day dreams in which men of leisure sometimes indulge. It is true that Mr. Crawford does not contemplate the whole work being undertaken at once; but he argues that "there is no reason why the feasibility of all of them should not be inquired into.” The "Independent” went bn to give what it considered were the reasons for the publication of the pamphlet. Evidently the author thought that Wellington was being left behind by tho other provinces. In natural'fertility of soil and ultimate resources, the country dependent on the port of Wellington was second to none and superior to many of the other provinces. Having a source of wealth in extensive timber districts, Wellington was bound to adopt measures for making that source of wealth available, which could only bo done by, providing means for its cheap transit to ,a place of shipment. But it was quite impossible to dream of railway construction for scores of v’eare to come. However, with all his bantering, the editor of the "Independent" admitted that Mr. Crawford’s scheme was well thought out,” as he states. He says: Wo are happy to hear that the physical condition of the country is not a barrier to the construction of railways. Mr. Crawford is a man who has looked about him well, and his opinion must he worth something. The Main Trtinjr line, or throat, into which tho other lines are to pour their traffic from Wellington to the Gorge, presents, we are expressly told, "no ongitieering difficulties of any consequence.”

He goes on to quote the pamphleteer:— Mr. Crawford, says-. "At the gorge of tho Manawatu tho line would en- * ter the Seventy-mile Bush, one of the most extensive forests of New Zealand. Here tho railway or tramway would at once be supplied with an article of commerce of a. bulky nature, in unlimited quantities, and much of it the finest description of New Zealand timber. The forest ■ being cleared by utilising its timber, instead of by the rude practice of burning, the inland country would be made open for farms, which, as the soil is of the best description, would spring up rapidly, nnd tho rail would thus be further supplied with agricultural and pastoral produce. Tho success of the trunk line would cause its extension on both sides to Wanganui and Napier, and the day may not be distant when Wellington and Auckland may meet by rail at Taupo’ 1

Tho editor concluded:—"Such are Mr. Crawford’s aspirations. May they bo successfully realised (?) but, if our head does not ache until they are, we anticipate our hair becoming grey and descending to Jhe grave in poaco. Into calculations of cost we have no desire to enter. If ever the time comes within our day or our grandchildren’s day (which is most unlikely), others more capable than we may do so; but in the meantime the province must content itself with pushing on such ordinary roads as the spread of population renders necessary and the means at our disposal enable us to make.” The Realisation. The above .editorial comment was penned sixty years ago. Mr. Crawford, the printer’s devil, the sub-editor (if there was one), and the mighty editor have been gone many years. The Crawford pamphlet—if it survived the fire—probably reposej with the dust of years upon it, in one of the many pigeon-holes of the Legislature. There is a railway now, not only to Auckland, but to all the other places mentioned; in every case, near to it, if not following, the route spoken of in the old-pamphlet. The Manawatu line is as predicted, with the exception of the coastal deviation; the Napier line is not very far off the dreamed-of- track; Wanganui has been linked up for many years. And tho lino from Auckland, merging into the line from Wellington —not literally, of course —meets not at Taupo, but at Wnimarino, on the other fide of the Jake. It is not far from Waimarino to Tokaanu, so that the oldtime dreamer was not far wrong.