A BISHOP'S TOUR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8778, 8 June 1907, Page 7

A BISHOP'S TOUR.

A Wellington correspondent writes: —Bishop Wallis' expedition to the workers ou the North Island Main Trunk Line must be regarded as rather ju; novelty for a Bishop. Though ac.J»npauied everywhere by torrents of and shut out from a single "limpse of the mountains, he has brought back a favourable impression, and is already wishing for-some 1 cause to repeat the experience. From Taihape he enjoyed the thrill and smoke and excitement of a ride on a. ballast train as far as Rangitawa, three miles / from Ohakune, breaking the journey W Waiouru to hold a service and rough it for the night. Ohakuue, Baetihi and Raurimu were visited by driving, and services were held. A Saturday night "social"' at Raurimu was a great success, and a children's .-service the next day was made by baptisms, a strange ™uo in the midst of the wild group of weather-beaten men. canvas tents, wooden huts and manuka scenery. Though His Lordship was much impressed by the sterling character of the men of this pioneer community, he saw also some of their pastimes. They played "two-up" openly, unawed by the gaze of a Bishop. only a day's coaching from rail- ■ Kid to rail-head the route is beginning to have possibilities as a practicable route between Wellington and ~ud. The great Makatoke viaduct is likely to be finished by February, and the rest of the line towards Bau'rimu by the end of this year. His Lordship was greatly struck by the zigzag spiral line near Raurimu, where there is a tier of four lines to mount a rise of two hundred feet. "I have seen." he said to me, "only one | other place like it. That was on the .St. Gorhard line in Switzerland " j