EPITAPHS IN STEEL

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 7, Issue 15, 2 July 1937, Page 4

EPITAPHS IN STEEL

Once more Mr Semple’s instinct for words enabled him to say the memorable thing at Mohaka. After pointing out that the men employed on the- viaduct had broken all records for speed in New Zealand, because their efforts were recognised on their paysheets, he said that they had “written their own epitaphs in “steel.” The viaduct is so high, and so long that to look up at it from the bed of the river is almost terrifying, yet it has been finished well ahead of the estimated time, and without a single accident. It is a monument, not only to the engineers who designed it, but to the workmen who followed the design so diligently and accurately that we can all now commit our lives to their safe keeping. And we do not always remember the men. We admire the magicians who look at a giddy chasm and draw, lines on paper fnat will annihilate it; but we do not so often wonder at the honesty that converts pencil strokes into, buttresses of steel. Mr Semple has done it for us. He has not only said the memorable thing. He has seen the significant thing.