NORTH AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18963, 10 March 1925, Page 12

NORTH AUCKLAND.

THE TRUNK RAILWAY. GROWTH IN TRAFFIC. WEALTH TO FEED THE LINE. No. HI. [nr our st'F.ciAi. coximissioxeb.] It is not so very long ago that, a Minister of .Public Works speaking in Parliament, declared that the North Auckland railway would not pay for the axle grease used on it, and within comparatively recent times men of some experience in railways, if not in agriculture, have asserted that it would never carry much traffic. This railway is not yet what business men would call "a going concern," for portions of it. are still in the hami.s of the Public Works Department, and through trains have only been run on it a little while, but I. fancy that the common opinion regarding ibis line will have to be modified, for the traffic it already carries is greatly exceeding expectations. and what. it. carries now is but a little of what it will carry in a year or two.

Some figures arc available regarding the North Auckland railway for the period of 14 months, ending October, 1924. The goods conveyed by it, during that, time amounted to 150,482 tons, and the number of passengers was 34,680. In addition to this, metal and other material carried for the Public. Department, totalled 124,000 tons.

The chief freight carried on this railway at the present time is live stock, and it will surprise many people to learn than an average of two stock trains petday run on it,, each consisting of about. 22 trucks filled with cattle, sheep, and pigs. Timber is next, in importance, great quantities of logs and sawn timber coming down to Auckland city, and places further south. Lime, cement, and coal arc also providing much freight, and the public are. only just learning to use the line, and there are still nearly two-thirds of the country so undeveloped that it produces no freight of any kind. Possibilities of the Line. It is almost certain that in the near future this North Auckland line will carry immense quantities of early vegetables and fruit, and early lambs; all the North Island from Auckland to Wellington offers a direct market for these products, and there is the South Island as well. The warm volcanic soils of the North can grow three crops of potatoes in the year. Many districts can raise peaches and other fruits well before Christmas, and fatten lambs, poultry, and other kinds of live, stock for the festive season. There are good opportunities for enterprising small farmers in this class of work, and great scope for increased production.

If ono takes a rough .survey of the North Auckland railway, it will l>e seen that it runs through very interesting country, and taps a number of important places. No other railway in New Zealand traverses similar country. Its first section goes westward over the Tamaki Isthmus with the Wait em at a Harbour, bordering it to the north, and the Manukau to the south. From New Lynn it winds along the foot of the picturesque Titirangi and W aitakerci ranges, just heading the tidal creeks which come in from the Waitemata. Almost as soon as one loses sight of the Waitemata the line dips down to the rich flats which border the southern estuaries of the Kaipara, and then it. crosses arm after arm of tilis great harbour, each waterway being a feeder of traffic until Maungaturoto is left behind, when it goes through aij extensive belt of fine limestone pastoral country, swinging eastward now into the shores of the Mangapai Estuary, a branch of the Whangarei Harbour. It passes through the, rapidly-growing town and seaport of Whangarei and northward over the great coal beds of Hikurangi, and the wide stretches of flat alluvial soils now being reclaimed for agriculture, across the. limestone downs about Towai, and into the valley of Kawakawa to terminate on the shores of the wonderful Bay .of Islands. A branch line diverges at Otira. and goes northwest through the rich and beautiful volcanic country Kaikohe. and is to reach the navigable waters of Hokianga at an early date Each one. of these harbours I have mentioned would be counted big even in a continent, and each one offers hundreds of miles of waterways to feed the railwav. *

Future of the North Auckland Line. 1 have travelled over the route of the North Auckland railway on many occasion.! when the ordinary hack was the only method of locomotion, and progress was slow and bad owiug to muddy roads, and accommodation and food were rough, but I have on weiy occasion been impressed by the possibilities of the country lor close sc ttlement and high production, and now, when 1 can travel in ease and comfort by railway or motor car. ( am more than ever " convinced that this railway will prove one of the most successful in the Dominion.

"Hut." many people will say, "ibis railway passes through so much poor land that it can never cany a great amount of freight." I can only answer in reply that nine-tenths of the land considered poor, is only poor in appearance. It ;s not so long ago when all that stretch of country between Auckland and Helens villc \vii,i' considered hopeless for farming purposes; to-day there are dairy farms ami orchards and vineyards doited all over the old worked out 1411111 fields, and they are multiplying yearly. Anyone, who likes to take the trouble can see pasture made out oi these so called poor lands which will vie with some oi the most valuable of Tarauaki or Wellingtons dairying country in productiveness, and orchards and vineyards yielding as much per acre as the richest fruit lands if Central Otago. It is true, that, even within 20 miles from Auckland city, nearly two-thirds of the country is still in the wilderness stage of scrub and fern, and this, oi course, gives a general impression of barrenness. Hut whoever this land has been worked intelligently, it has been made highly productive, and it, is only ;i question 01* time when all the ploughable lauds will be under intensive cultivation. and all the broken land will be under timber trees. Who would have dared prophesy, for instance, say .15 years ago, that the slow old Kaipara line between Auckland and Henderson would carrv more passengers yearly than almost any other section of railway in New Zealand. and yet such is the ea-e. today, and if the line were modernised, and that-lime-wasting turnback to Newmarket eliminated, it would, in spite of the growth oi motor traffic. stand supreme m New Zealand for passenger traffic.