HELL GATE—GENERAL NEWTON'S TRIUMPH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 5 January 1877, Page 14

HELL GATE— GENERAL NEWTON'S TRIUMPH.

The immense blast, -without precedent in its vastness, by which about three acres of gneiss, one of the hardest kinds of rock, were shattered, was accomplished on Sunday, September 24th, at ten minutes before three o'clock. So far as known twenty-four hours after the blast, the success of the undertaking has been complete. It was accomplished, also, not only without any serious accident but without any damage whatever, even to the breaking of window glass, in the buildings nearest to Hallett's Point. It has been a great triumph of engineering, and John A. Newton, of the United States Engineers, and Brevet Major-General in the Kegular Army, deserves all the ovations and bravos that the public has accorded him. General Newton, who has for seven years been engaged in this great work, has acquired, in a singular degree, both the affection and the respect of the large body of men that have been engaged under his command. He inspired them, also, with the confidence he expressed as to the success of tfce work j which the result seems fully to have justified. Among prudent men, who professed no professional fitness for forming an opinon, there was a prevailing apprehension that the vast work attempted would end either in failure or in sundry local disasters. General Newton's assurances to the contrary have been fully justified, and the honor and the gratitude of the public for his unceasing care of details, as well as for his correct professional judgment, are rightly lavished upon him. As an old and tried soldier, General Newton from first to last bore the air of quiet and assured confidence. But, as it was an affair without precedent as to magnitude, and, like all other things untried, might have unknown concomitants, we reckon he was, as he ought to have been, very deeply solicitous. As he kneeled before the Altar at Mass, that morning, we feel sure that he commended the labor in which he had so long, and so conscientiously been engaged to Him without whose Providence neither the ordinary laws of nature, nor the most cunning designs and works of men, can come to a profitable result. A great many other prayers were offered before our Catholic Altars that morning for a prosperous ending of this great work. It was a beautiful and poetic act in General Newton, in place of himself touching the button that lit the flame, that he caused it to be touched by the finger of his infant daughter Mary, whose hand was guided to it by her mother. It was the suggestion of a great soul. It is the theme for a grand poem. — 'N.Y. Freeman.'