Of Benefit to Auckland.

The advantages offered by the Stratford Main Trunk from an Auckland view-point are to be found not only in the increased market for coal and timber, but also in the more extensive use of all merchandise in an area which can be fully settled and developed only through the use of railway transport. If good metalled roads are constructed at right-angles to the railway at certain points on the line, it is undoubtedly true that the back-country will develop extensively. For Taranaki business which must be transacted in either Auckland or Wellington, the latter city will be the loser to the formers' advantage, because all the improved transport facilities in the newly-developed area will lead toward the nearer centre. For passengers, too, the Stratford line will provide a useful stand-by for rapid through-transit in the event of mishap on the Central Main Trunk. From a scenic view-point the new railway will rival, if not excel, the older route, especially in the Tangarakau and Central Taranaki areas. For many miles the rails thread their way through a Forest Reserve of giant rimus and totaras, greater than those in the Egmont National Park. There they stand in towering majesty calmly overshadowing the neat new track with its modern artistic steel-work and gentle curves. In the Mangaone and Mangatete valleys particularly, the rail-traveller will view a wealth and variety of shrub and fern growth even more prolific than that in the nearby Tangarakau Gorge.