MAIN TRUNK LINE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6225, 3 June 1907, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK LINE

BETWEEN -THE RAIL-HEADS. BISHOP AY ALLIS’S VISIT. Bishop AVallis’s mission to the , workers on the Main Trunkline must be regarded ae rather a novelty for a bishop. Leaving Taihapo at 2.30 last Tuesday week. Bishop Wallis reached Waiouru before sunset, and roughed it there for the night. "It was raining hard during all my visit,” he said, somewhat regretfully, to a “Times” reporter, "so T did not get a single glimpse of any of the mountains. But X got good services for divine worship from the mourn tho billiard loom at Waiouru, in the school room at Ohakune next day, and at Eaurimu.

“Part of tlie journey was flone on the Ballast train of the Public Works Department. , By this I travelled as faint Raugitawa, a place three miles from Ohakune. and thence we were driven first to Ohakune, afterwards to Eaetihi, and last of all to Kaurimu. My best services wore at Eaurimu. We had a “social" on tho Saturday night,, which was very largely attended, and on Sunday we had three services—holy communion at 8 a.m., children's service and baptism in the afternoon, and evening ser-. vice, which wa; crowded. “The things, that struck me most during the. trip ve-e the big viaduct at Makatoke, which r'knrncd was expected to.be finished about February next, and tho splendid spiral at Eaurimu, where there are four lines one above another. Biding over the top line, you can look down and sec three other lines beneath you. The lino is constructed in that spiral zigzag fashion because the train has to mbunt 200 feet in a very small area. I know of only one other place like it—in Switzerland, on the St. Gbthard line. I went through both tunnels near Eaurimu. It is expected the work there will he finished by the end of this year. From Eaurimu I proceeded to Taumarunni, where I made the launch trip down the Wanganui r river, ihe part of the lino that is expected to take longest to finish is a strip of seven miles Between Horopito and Ohakune. That will be left to t hr last. “The whole tone of the men at Bau-rim-u struck me as very good indeed. They ‘ have a reading room, which is well-filled or. week days, and they use it for services on Su,fuays. The game of 'two-up* seems*tc rcerci > a fascination for a ©mall minority. It is played quite openly. I saw some of the games in progress. But tho bulk of the men ap.pear to possess very fin© characters. The Rev. Mr Bickerby, curate for the Rev. Mr Clarkson, of Taihape, is in charge of the Anglican Church work in the district, and Mr Weller assists him-as a layman. At Raurimu 1 formed a lot of friendships. What I am trying to do is to get two tents or marquees—one 191* Waiouru and the other for Horopito—m which the men may-have games and reading, and divine service. In each of those places the men have subscribed toward the cost, snd I hope to obtain a subsidy from the Government as further assistance/* • * - . The Bishop is enamoured of the country he traversed, and remarked that lie hoped to have ca«ise to visit it again before long., ;