GENERAL TELEGRAMS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 7 November 1908, Page 8

GENERAL TELEGRAMS

THE MAIN TRUNK LIN&.

[PBESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, November 6. The banquet to-night in connection with the opening of the Main Trunk railway was a brilliant function. The Mayor -congratulated the Minister for

Railways on the fact that a project that

had been talked of for a quarter of a 4 century had at last been completed. Sir Joseph Ward, in replying, commented on the fact that the two great cities in the North Island were meeting to celebrate the connection by railway, the greatest public work undertaken in the history of New Zealand. From Marton to Te Awamutu the line had cost £2,650,000, and the whole line to Auckland could not have cost under five millions. Considering the population of this country 'was still under a million, and considering that the railway vote did not exceed a million a year, and for a long time was not over seven hundred thousand, it was not to be wondered at that the Main

Trunk line had taken a long time to

' complete, but still for a country like this with so comparatively small a population, the railways made were really wonderful achievements.

NEGRO USES HIS TEETH.

AUCKLAND, November 6.

Robert Bands, an American negro, was charged at the Police, Courtvthis afternoon with assaulting Sidney Thomas Poole. Accused was cook on a coastal steamer, and the victim was a fireman on the same boat. Harris had gripped Poole in his arms and bitten a piece out of his cheek. Harris admitted that he had "used his teeth," but said that he. had done so in selfdefence, as he had been assailed from every side. Accused was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.