MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13475, 27 June 1907, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY.

AUCKLAND MEMBERS' TRIP.

. . A FAVOURABLE REPORT. [BV TELEGRAPH.-— own CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Wednesday. - A party of Auckland members of the Hous sj of Representatives, consisting of Messrs - Massey, Lang, Kidd, Mander, Greensladc 3 Poole, and Poland, who journeyed overlain i by way of the Main Trunk railway route r arrived here this evening, shortly after 1' - o'clock, by the Manawatu express, whicl had been delayed for ueany three hours b; t a slip at Turakina. The party, which lef - Auckland on Monday morning, - proceede< i as far as Taumarunui that day. Yesterday 1 morning a .start was made at 6.50 in th - Public Works' ballast train, which caniei 3 the party to Raurimu, the present railheai : on- the northern end of the works. ■Th f ground being frozen hard the party took th opportunity of walking over the hill wher , the spiral is now in course of formation. Froi - Raurimu the members journeyed by coach ti ; Ohakune, and thence to Rangitawa, the sou , them railhead. The Public Works' trail » was then taken to Waiouru, where a hal - was made for the night. To-day the jour l ney to Wellington was completed, the onh delay being the detention at Marion, occa sioned by"the slip at Turakina. . : . .Mr. Massey, whom I saw to-night, afte: his arrival, states that the party had a ven enjoyable trip, the pleasure of which, Ik ' says, was largely contributed to by Mr Louch, the engineer in charge at the north em end of the works, who made things a: comfortable as possible for the party', am showed them every thing, worth seeing. A 1 Makatotc the 'workshop of Messrs. "Aiider son (who are constructing the viaduct) wa.< inspected. This viaduct is expected. to b« completed about the end of the year. Ques tioned as to the state of the service road Mr. Massey said that it was in very gooc order. It is metalled nearly the whole dis tance, and where not metalled is coveret. with pumice, thus making a good road foi light traffic. ■ " What is your idea of the progress being made?" ■ . ' " Good progress, 'o far as could be judged, is being made at both ends. I cannot speak as an expert/but I should say that the rail work will be finished about the middle of next year. The people on the works estimate that by about March next there will be only about six miles of rail left to be completed. About 2000 men in all are employed on the works." "Do you think the line will be completed by the end of next year?" "I think so,'. replied Mr. Massey. "The only question is whether the viaducts will be completed; in time."• "'.,. ",; .....: ,: ' . Mr. Massey speaks enthusiastically' of the prospects of the line, and the nature of the country which it traverses. .He considers that the line will be largely patronised by tourists, whilst the land is, on the whole, of very good quality. . " The land has been spoken of as a desert, but we saw no sign of it. The poorest country is the Waimarino Plains, and even that is fairly good sheep country, while the bush land,' when cleared, will be very good indeed." Speaking of the timber in the Waimarino forest, Mr. Massey said this contained ; hundreds of millions of feet, and he added that Mr. Mander, an expert.in such, matters, was of opinion " that the timber was sufficient to satisfy the needs of the colony for a century. "It is a wonderful forest—simply marvellous," he added. -