Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 5 (August 1, 1939)

[preamble]

The Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister of Railways, spoke under the handicap of approaching darkness, and he reduced his speech materially in order to ensure that the last of the day's functions, the unveiling of the memorial tablet to men who had lost their lives while working on the line, could be carried out while daylight still lingered. Mr. Sullivan spoke as follows:—

“It gives me very great pleasure to be here today on the occasion of the official opening of the Napier—Wairoa—Waikokopu portion of the Napier—Gisborne Railway.

“I regard this as an occasion of outstanding importance not only to Hawke's Bay but to the whole Dominion, because the direct benefits which the new line confers on the areas it serves cannot fail to have a stimulating effect upon the general trade and industry of the Dominion.

“It is a privilege to be present at a time when a whole Province rejoices, as Hawke's Bay is doing today, at the completion of a necessary work of major economic importance upon which high hopes have been placed through many long years; and I am particularly happy to be a member of the Government whose decisive action has resulted in the line being opened for traffic today—and not at some nebulous date in the dim and distant future, which seemed to be the destiny of the partly completed and partly destroyed railway prior to the present Government's accession to office.