North Island Main Trunk Railway. THE OPENING.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 2, 1 December 1908, Page 56

North Island Main Trunk Railway. THE OPENING.

After twenty-three years the Northern Main Trunk line was completed on Novem-

Before driving the spike, the Prime Minister was glad to see the presence of the Minister of Public Works at the writing on the line of the word "Finis," to which he had contributed the main part. It is to the energy and ability of Mr HallJones that the success of the more rapid prosecution of this great work since 1899 is due. In 1906 he promised the end in two years, and with the aid of his capable undersecretary, Mr Blow, and the engineers of the department, from the chief downwards, he kept his word. Progress

crated? The answer to that question was supplied at the completion ceremony in two parts: one by the chairman of the Auckland Northern Railway League, the other by the head of the kindred Wellington institution. The answer is that there was a sudden appearance of railway leagues converging from opposite quarters. This converging was a good thing. How good a thing may be seen in the speeches of the banquet which preceded the trip in Wellington. These speeches all struck the note of unity which is the special mission

ber 6th. Authorised by Parliament in 1884, begun by Sir Robert Stout, Prime Minister, who cut the first sod in 1885, and completed by his successor, Sir J. G. Ward, who drove the last spike in 1908, this line now rounds off the railway system of the North Island. The last ceremony was performed by the Prime Minister, not by the Governor, as was the case with the Manawatu railway, when Sir W. Jervois handled the hammer. It was a new departure which the outgo ingMinister of Public Works, Mr Hall-Jones, justified by the plea that as the Prime Minister of one period had cut the first sod, it was but right that the Prime Minister of another period should drive the last spike. Which was accordingly done, as may be surmised from one of our illustrations, faithfully taken for us on the spot. The omens were bad for those who believe in such things. It rained, and the train from the South managed to run off the rails a little bit. But the trip proceeded to conclusion, as ordained, and no one was one penny the worse for the omens

said he would, and Progress is glad. 1 herefore. No testimonial was ever better deserved than the little gold locomotive presented to the Minister the other day by the Wellington Industrial Association. Why was the progress of the work aeeel-

of the Main Trunk Line. Forty years ago, when Auckland ceded pride of place and Wellington became the capital of the future Dominion, parochialism reigned over both places m its most objectionable form. As communication bettered, the parochial giant became a dwarf. Later, the railways advancing reduced the parochial feeling still more, and when the day came for the driving of the last spike, there arose from all sides hymns of praise of the unity of broad ideas long deferred now come within grasping distance. These were emphatically corroborated by the meeting of the two Railway Leagues at the completion ceremony. The meaning of which is that with the last spike Mas buried the parochial hatchet so long and so obstinately flourished to their mutual disadvantage by the two great, growing rival cities of the North Island of this Dominion. Their future is assured by the completion of this railway. It will be the grand future that always awaits the reestablishment of good understanding between "friends long parted, grown singlehearted."