When Nature with a mighty seismic impulse formed a site for Wellington she left much for its future inhabitants to do, and for well nigh a century they have been doing it with a dogged determination.

She lured the first settlers into a magnificent harbour, but gave them only a meagre foothold between the hills and the sea. Three generations have now been consolidating and expanding that foothold. They have forced the ocean back foot by foot until several hundred acres have been reclaimed, and what was once sea and sandy beach is now great city blocks and streets teeming with traffic.

Nature, too, had ringed them in with a solid rampart of hills that had to be surmounted before the rich lands beyond could be reached. Thus to the westward one line of railway climbs by a steep sinuous track up a grade of 1 in 40 through a series of seven tunnels. To the eastward the other railway, after winding tortuously for six miles along the narrow shore of the harbour, and traversing a rich, populous river valley, climbs the Rimutaka Range and descends into the wide and fertile Wairarapa Plains by a centre-rail track on a grade of 1 in 15.

Up to 1908 the West Coast railway, to Longburn (83 miles) was owned and operated by the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company, the East Coast line to Napier being part of the Government system.

With the opening of the Main Trunk railway to Auckland (426 miles) in 1908, the Government took over the Manawatu line. With the unification of ownership in 1908 the separate passenger terminals at Thorndon and Lambton, three-quarters of a mile apart, were retained, and though schemes were immediately formulated for combining the two terminals they still remain separate entities in this year, 1929.

The Thorndon Reclamation.

Much planning has been done in the intervening years, and but for the Great War, Wellington might now have had a central railway station in keeping with the growth and business of the city. Still, the wheels of progress have not been altogether idle, and Father Neptune has been robbed of another 70 acres of his domain and held at bay with a sea-wall nearly a mile in length and costing a quarter of a million sterling.

The natural barriers already mentioned rendered such reclamation necessary for the provision of an adequate railway terminal in Wellington, a terminal that would efficiently serve both East and West Coast railways, and, most important of all, would handle expeditiously the heavy overseas and inter-island freight passing over Wellington's wharves.

Wellington has long been distinguished by a fine outer portal in its splendidly equipped wharves and waterfront stores, berths for the largest ships at any state of the tide, and lifting and transporting gear equal to anything in the world. In strong contrast the inner portal of the city has been shabby and inadequate to the last degree. It has been a poor introduction to the rich lands and scenic wonders that lie beyond it.

The public, no doubt, have been long suffering in regard to their railway station, but it is well to give an appreciative thought to the men who have had to carry out their duties under adverse page 26

The Chief Engineer Of Railways.
Mr. F. C. Widdop, M.Inst.C.E., whose name will always be identified with the planning of Wellington's new station.

conditions. It can be safely claimed that they have made every endeavour to make up in personal service what they have lacked in equipment.

Now the plans for a large up-to-date railway terminal at Wellington are practically complete, and Cabinet has given authority for the work to proceed forthwith.