Relief to City Council.

“It is certainly an occasion which marks a great advance in the transport affecting this city,” said the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop). “It has solved for Wellington a problem which was causing us much concern, because obviously if we had had to replace the railway service here, it was going to involve the city in a very heavy expenditure indeed. We were glad to be able to join with the Department and the residents of the district to bring about this excellent solution of that problem. That area will now be served by a service as excellent as it is possible for a service to be. I congratulate the Minister of Railways on the service, and I wish it every success.”

“Besides being an important occasion for the residents of the district affected,” said Mr. C. H. Chapman, M.P., “it will be a partial solution of the acute housing problem in Wellington.”

Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P., in a reference to the early settlers, said: “If they went to the Upper Hutt they walked. If they went to Johnsonville they walked, along a bush track. If they were here to-day, how they would be astounded!” He congratulated the Railway Department on the progress it was making in so many directions.

Mr. L. G. Lowry, M.P., added to his congratulations of those benefiting and the English engineers, a word of praise for the local artificers, without whom the result would not have been possible. He also stressed the debt the community owed to the men on the

(Rly. Publicity photo.)
A flashlight photograph on the run to Johnsonville.

footboards of the earlier form of transport, to whose care they owed their safe travel over many years. The beautiful electric service would increase the population of the suburbs in the hills. The service before them represented the skill and ingenuity of man applied to raw materials. They could look forward to further progress in this country.