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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 9 (January 1, 1929)

The Building of the Main Trunk.—Pioneer Surveys of Maori Country

page 53

The Building of the Main Trunk.—Pioneer Surveys of Maori Country.

A contract was made with John Brogden and Sons in 1872 for the construction of the line from Auckland to Mercer. This first section of what was to become the North Island Main Trunk line was linked up with the Waikato River service, carried on by paddle-steamers, and for some years the combined rail and river route carried all the traffic to Ngaruawahia, Hamilton, Cambridge, and Alexandra.

It was proposed in some quarters that the river should carry all the traffic between Mercer and Ngaruawahia, and that the railway should be constructed from the latter point southward. However, the advocates of through railway communication carried their point.

In the “seventies” there was still considerable fear of a renewed Maori war, and the Government, besides maintaining a large force of Armed Constabulary, enrolled a body of Engineer Volunteer Militia to work on the railway construction line on the mid-Waikato section. This force, organised on military lines, worked very well, and also did sufficient drill to ensure its usefulness in soldiering emergency.

Legislation in 1882 authorised borrowing for the construction of the railway from Te Awamutu southward, and exploration for the most satisfactory routes was begun through the great Native-owned territory of the Rohepotae, as it presently came to be called. To the physical difficulties of a practically unknown region were added the strong objections of the Kingite Maoris to the pakeha advance into their country. The Government—through the Native Minister, the Hon. John Bryce, and his successor, the Hon. John Ballance—succeeded in arranging with the Native chiefs for a passage for the iron rail, and the Maoris made a free gift of a chain width of land along the whole route, and also of land for stations.

One of the many beautiful views from the Main Trunk Train.

One of the many beautiful views from the Main Trunk Train.

Preliminary surveys were made by several parties of engineers towards Taranaki and also through the heart of the Island via Taumarunui. Mr. Charles Wilson Hursthouse and others made reconnaissances of the suggested Waikato-Taranaki connection, and Mr. R. W. Holmes, Mr. Morgan Carkeek, and Mr. John Rochfort also carried out surveys. The pioneer of the central route—the present line through the Taumarunui-Ruapehu country—was Mr. Rochfort, who had already made his name as an explorer in the South Island; it was he who discovered the great Coalbrookdale coal-measures near Westport.

(To be continued.)