DROVE COMMERCE TRAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 510, 13 November 1928, Page 10

DROVE COMMERCE TRAIN

(Fr-nm Vfst.rday’s Edition)

PRESIDENT’S EXPERIENCE FUTURE OF THE NORTH Though he enjoyed the sensation of controlling 80 tons of pulsating steel when he drove the Commerce Train, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. H. T. Merritt, shut his eyes and tried to imagine he was jomewherfc else when the locomotive . ntered a tunnel. He confessed this at the Rotary Club’s luncheon yesterday. The idea'of the trip, lie said, had been suggestedby Mr. Collins, secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce. Offi- < cers of the Railway Department had . gone out of their way to make the trip a great success. . .. One of the sights of the journey was Arapuni, which seemed to be the most magnificent spectacle of moving waters in the world. Mr. Merritt's own ; opinion was that the dam was perfectly safe, and after an investigation ho £ot an impression that not even an earthquake would shift it. Mr. Furkert had pointed out that no one paid much attention to the man who said the world was coming to ah end. In the engineer's opinion, the* prophet of the fall of Arapuni was in much the same position as the other one. FUTURE OF NORTH The tremendous hospitality received all along the route, and the excellent service of the railway people, had made the trip one of the most pleasant he had ever hah* “After touring the North I felt that one of these days it is going to carry the greatest population of any part of New Zealand/’ he said. • There was no doubt that closer settlement was necessary; some farms were falling back simply because the holders were unable to cultivate all the land. Mr. Merritt said he saw very little evidence of the “bankrupt- farmer” he had-been hearing so much about, and he did not suppose the 'number of failures was greater in the country than in the city. There, seemed to be greater signs of distress in the city than in the country.