CHIEF ENGINEER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15273, 22 July 1920, Page 5

CHIEF ENGINEER.

RESIGNATION Of lb W* . HOLMES. Wellington, fhi s day. After 49 years' service to the State, Mr. R. W. Holmes, Chief Engineer of Public Works, has resigned under medical advice, as the work has become too strenuous in view of his delicate state of health. He will retire on superannuation when the Government can release him. Mr. Holmes has been associated with some most important public works in -the Dominion. Passengers who glide easily from Walmarino down into the valley 2000ft. below, when making the Main Trunk trip, possibly do not realise that surveyors, under the personal direction of the retiring chief engineer, spent seven years in that mountainous forest country before Mr. Holmes was able to hit up the notable engineering expedient oi the Raurimu spiral 1o overcome the very serious natural obstacles to the Main Trunk line, a sudden rise of 2000ft. extending across the route for many miles. Surveying was difficult owing to the impassable nature of the country, but eventually Mr. Holmes used a hilly spur for the spiral, with long approach gradients, thus surmounting the barrier by the easy grade of one in fifty. -Cuttings COft. deep and a bank 100ft. high, as well as several tunnels, were necessary, but this section of the line has given no trouble since it was opened. Mr. Holmes entered the iniblic service, as a cadet Jn the printing department . He was transferred to the. Public Works Department <i« draughtsman-, he eventually became engineer, and in 1872 wiis engaged in road, water race, railway, and harbor construction of the South Island. He had charge of the construction of the Wanganui line in 1879. He was responsible for locating a route from- Stratford southwards to Manutahi. Ho also located the railway from Mokau to Te Awamu'tu, with -*the exception of one section, and has been associated with the North Island Main Trunk construction and survey since 1884. locating its route from Taihape to Piriaka. Rising through various steps in the engineering brancn of the departiii-ant, he became engineer in chief in 1907, and this year also held the position, of Under-Secretary of the department. He was for two years a member of the Council of the English Institution of Civil Engineers. He was awarded the Telford premium for a paper on New Zealand wprK contributed . to the Society's transactions.— Parliamentary Reporter.