MAIN TRUNK LINE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 279, 9 November 1931, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK LINE

OPENING CELEBRATIONS. TWENTY-THREE YEARS AGO Twenty three years ago on Friday last, on November 6, 1908, the official completion of the North Island Main Trunk railway was celebrated and the last, spike was driven at a spot nearly midway between tho two terminal cities. The place chosen was 19 chains north of tho Manganui-o-tc-ao viaduct and a short distance south of the Makatote viaduct. Official parties were brought there from Wellington and Auckland by special trains and tho Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, drove home ■ a special silver-plated spike. Tho ceremony marked the successful conclusion of a movement that had its origin about 40 years earlier. The railway was first proposed in the historic public works policy of Sir Julius Vogel, announced in 1870. The first part of the work from Auckland to Te Awamutu was carried out during the seventies. In 1882 the project began to receive serious attention, and surveys were completed two years later. The turning of the first sod by Sir Robert Stout, then Premier, was the occasion of an interesting ceremony at Te Awamutu on April 15, 1885. On the evening of November 6, 1908, tho successful completion of the line was celebrated at a banquet given in Auckland by the Chamber Commerce) and the Railway League, at which most of the leading public men of the North Island were present. The first regular service, which started three days later, provided for a two days’ journey between Auckland and Wellington, tho night being spent at Taumarunui. Trains left Auckland at 10 a.m. and reached Taumarunui at 6.50 p.in., leaving Taumarunui at 6 a.m. the next day and arriving at Wellington at 7.20 p.m. Tho trains from Wellington left at 7.50 a.m. and reach cd Auckland at 5 p.m. next day.