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Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1912, Page 15

BUILDING.A.RAILWAY

about every mile of the railway, but the advocates of the through line won the day. The Main Trunk was pushed forward by the contractors until it reached the frontier of vhe King Country at Te Awamutu, 100 miles from Auckland. Regular traffic to this point was opened in July, 1880, at a time when theie was no Wellington and Manawatu line in existence at all. The only railway at this tnd was the Hutfc Valley and Wairarapa line. FAR-SEEING OPTIMISM. Looking forward ever with the farseeing optimism characteristic of New Zealand, leading men even then put forward the idea of the construction of a through line to connect Auckland and Wellington. In the Public Works Statement of 1881 there was the following passage: — "Unsui'veyed intervals of 120 miles on the west a,ud 160 miles on the east .separate the extremity of the Waikato line at Te Awamutu from Waitara and Napier respectively. The Government will lose no opportunity which may present itself of obtaining such information with regard to the intervening country as will enable tho best mode of completing this line to be determined." As there is no reference in this to a possible Central route, it may be taken then that the Government had in mind either an East or West Coast line. This is borne out by some anticipatory maps of the time. PRELIMINARY SURVEYS. Before proceeding to investigate the merits of the rival routes, the Government of the day had to get trial surveys made, and before the surveyors could do their work, permission had to be obtained from the Maori chiefs for them to go through the dreaded King Coun try, a true Native Reserve in those days. It took a good deal of persuasion and other things to facilitate tho onward march of the survey, as the "forerunner of the railway and civilisation. Finally, however/ after some strange experiences recorded elsewhere, the way was cleared. In 1882 the North Island Main Trunk Railway Loan Act was passed, which authorised the raising of £1,000,000 for the construction of the North Inland Main Trunk Railway. The Act 6aid nothing a 6 to the route. The surveyors had first to spy out possible, routes. Accordingly lines were roughly surveyed to connect with Stratford in Taranaki on the. west, Hastings on the east, and with Marton on the South, the latter being known as the Central route. RIVAL ROUTES CONSIDERED. In 1884 the preliminary surveys were completed, and a Parliamentary Committee consisting of seven members, Messrs. Fergus, Fulton, Gore, Larxiach, Montgomery, "White, and the Hon. E. Richardson, all representing South .Island constituencies, carefully investigated the merits of the rival routes. The report

of the- committee states that it had held nineteen meetings, and had examined thhty-four witnesses, and had arrived at the following resolution: — "That in the opinion of this committee the best route for the North Is- , laud Main Trunk Railway is that from Marton via Murimotu to Te Awamutu." This resolution was approved by six out of the ee\en members, Mr. Mont- j gomery dissenting, and afterwards endorsed by the House of Representatives. In the Railways Authorisation Act of the same year the construction of the railway by the Central route was formally sanctioned by both Houses of Parliament. SIR JULIUS VOGEL'S FORECAST. VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES. It is interesting to note, in view of what happened later, the fervent declaration of Sir Julius Vogel in his statement of finance delivered on 16th September of tho same year, 1884. "We adhere," said the Prime Minister, " to the opinion | that the North Island Main Trunk Railway is of supreme importance, and must be proceeded with as rapidly as possible. . . . We must make our railways as we are able to do, without undue pressure. We must look forward to the time when the colonists will no longer dread additions to the population in the shape of suitable immigration. The North Island Main Trunk Railway must be pushed forward with every possible expedition. It will open to the colony a new world ; it will be as though it wa6 increasing by one-third our territory." Whatever may be said of Sir Julius "Vogd's finance, he was certainly a very far-seeing man, and to him the railways of New Zealand owe a great deal. NEARLY TWENTY YEARS LATER. This was in 1884. It is a sad commentary on the vanity of human wishes and the futility of politicians' prophecies that nearly twenty years later — in 1903, to be precise, the battle of tho routes was still proceeding. So little progress had been made in the construction of tho line that it was still possible to deviate to the West without serious lo£s on any advance works on the Central route. Auckland to the very last continued to battle for the western route via Stratford, which would enable the northern city to tap Taranaki and its back country The merits of the respective routes were set forth in the press of the time. Ongarue wa6,then tho terminus for ordinary traffic' on the northern section of the line, and from Ongarue the deviation would stall for Stratford across country. The distance between Eltham and Ongarue Junction was given at 103 miles 6 chains, and the distance from Auckland to Wellington by this route 177 miles 5 chains. The distance be-

was only about four miles distant from the battlefield of Orakau, where Rewi had distinguished himself so conspicuously. This day, now a man getting on in years, the Maori chief, wearing a black velvet coat and a tall hat, stood before the gathering as a friend of the Europeans — his old hatred of the race gone, as was often the case with the beet of the Maoris when they had been beaten in fair fight, for a better feeling of brotherly companionship. As it were to bury the hatchet, the old chief Wahanui, at the request of the Natives, dug tho first three eoctb, which were wheeled some . distance by the Premier and deposited on the ground. Not much of them remained, for the^ spectators carried most of them away as a memento of the occasion. PART PLAYED BY THE MAORIS. In the course of a tactful speech, Sir Robert Stout addressed' some words of good advice to the Maoris, 'exhorting them to cultivate their lands, educate their children, • and refrain from the use of strong drink. Wahanui replied on I behalf of the Native race in a peaceful' and dignified oration, approving the restrictions on the tale of liquor in the Natives' country, and, with characteristic Maori eloquence, urged that the clear water of the Punui should be the boundary line across which liquor should not be carried. The Natives requested that a section of the line should be reserved for construction by them, and this was granted. About six miles of construction were carried out entirely by Maoris on a. system of piece-work — the forerunner of the co-operative works system. It may be mentioned that many Maoris •were employed on the subsequent construction of the railway, and the work done by them was to the entire satisfaction of the authorities.