OPENING CEREMONY FOR MAIN TRUNK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 439, 17 October 1908, Page 3

OPENING CEREMONY FOR MAIN TRUNK.

The precise date for “driving the last spike” in official token of the completion of the Main Trunk Railway has not yet been fixed, but it will probably be Tuesday. October 27th, which would give time for the Ministers, members of Parliament, and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, who will take part in the ceremony, to attend a subsequent function in Auckland, and'be back in Welligton by the week-end. The ceremony will probably take place at Makatote, which is, approximately, where the rails met. The two-days’ “through” service will commence on Monday, November 2. The celebration at this end of the line will probably take the form of a luncheon, to be given by the Chamber of Commerce. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones has promised to attend, and the Prime Minister and all the other Ministers will be invited. Members of the Chamber and others will then proceed to Makatote and Auckland for the subsequent functions. It is understood that the final arrangements will be made this week.

Our Auckland correspondent telegraphs that ftbe mailer of fitting celebrations will be considered by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce very soon. The delay in the inauguration of the “through” express service robs the occasion of a good deal of interest, but the arrival of the first regular train is expected to be accompanied by a demonstration. A proposal has been made in some quarters that monster excursions should be arranged between Auckland and Wellington, the excursionists from one city being conveyed to the other with a days stop over at each end, but this is hardly likely to meet with so much favour as the idea of excursions from both cities to meet half-way, where a fitting celebration would be held, in addition to functions of the two cities.—Dominion.