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The Audit Office, Wellington, N.Z., 7th June, 1928.
I hereby certify that after investigation of the publisher's lists and other records the average circulation of the New Zealand Railways Magazine for the 12 months ended May, 1928, is in excess of 20,000 copies per month during the whole of that period.
Controller and Auditor-General.
The tendency of modern times is to make travel increasingly attractive by making it luxurious. Work and travel do not go well together. Excepting for those directly engaged in the actual work of transport the time spent in travel is regarded as a time of ease and relaxation. Everything that can be done to make the flitting from place to place pleasing to the senses and emotions meets with immediate approval and brings business to the enterprise that has the courage to introduce progressive ideas to this end. And how fertile has the research of scientists and the genius of inventors been, in these recent years, in finding ways to make travel a source and purveyor of pure delight! By rail, road, sea, and air a constant competition is going on to find and supply just those things that will make the vehicle and accessories of travel irresistibly attractive.
In this connection, and following upon a series of recent progressive developments throughout the system, the decision of the General Manager to place parlour cars on two of the principal passenger runs in the Dominion will be assured of full support from the public.
The popularity of the parlour car specially fitted up for use on the Commerce Train which toured the Auckland province early this summer, was most marked. While other parts of the train had their ups and downs in the matter of occupation, the parlour car was the one vehicle which was always full—some times to overflowing. The reason for this was obvious. The car had a broad utility value—apart from the facilities it afforded for social intercourse—not found in the ordinary cars, comfortable though these were. The numerous tables were convenient for writing, games or refreshments; comfortable “occasional” chairs and settees made group or private conference easy; the books and magazines supplied gave that desirable, unrestricted, carefree atmosphere best described by the term “home-like,” and this result was augmented by the artistry and skill evident in the fittings, colour scheme and general arrangement of the car.
The decision now made to place similar cars on the Auckland-Rotorua and Christchurch-Greymouth Expresses will doubtless make an appeal to the average traveller similar to that made upon the members of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. The fact that a small additional charge is to be made will prove no deterrent to those who, like the patrons who keep the De Luxe cars on the Wellington-Auckland night Limited filled to capacity
But the feature of modern travel that must receive increasing attention in future is safety, and in this the Railways more than hold their own. Speaking in November last, Mr. E. W. Beatty, chairman and presdient of the Canadian Pacific Railway drew attention to the fact that two million passengers were carried in 1927 for each passenger fatally injured, compared with one passenger killed for each half-million passengers carried in 1912. New Zealand's railway figures shew an even better result, with no passengers fatally injured among the 26 millions carried in each of the years 1927 and 1928. Mr. Beatty also remarked on the fact that railway accidents of all kinds show a decrease, with the exception of those due to automobiles. With a fuller understanding of the facts regarding their safety compared with competing forms of transport, and the additional comforts and luxuries that the railways are able to provide, it is clear that modern travel must swing back increasingly to the railways for all distance travelling by land.
Our columns are at all times open to helpful discussion of Railway problems. It is with pleasure, therefore, that we publish the following letter from one of New Zealand's captains of industry and commerce, Mr. A. G. Lunn, (past-president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce), giving a typical business man's viewpoint regarding the Railways as a commercial concern.
7/1/29.
To the Editor, “N.Z. Railways Magazine,” Wellington.
Dear Sir,—
It may be of interest to your readers to have the views of some business men in regard to the management of the New Zealand Railways.
Hitherto various forms of management havebeen in operation with varying degrees of success, but all have been subject to political influence, and this influence has not always been to the public interest nor an aid to the economical administration of the Railways.
Branch lines have been built which should not have been built, or at least should have been delayed for many years; with the results that the loss entailed has been accumulating until, with the proper reorganisation of Railway accountancy, these deficits have had to be recognized and shown as losses to be made good by contributions from the Consolidated Fund.
It is questionable whether sufficient allowance for depreciation of stock (rolling and other) has been made in the past, and whether necessary provision has been made for replacements.
There can be no doubt that whatever drawbacks have existed previously (the losses for which may have been sunk in the capitalized figures of the Railways) the time has arrived for a strict and businesslike administration of the service. No longer is the Railway a monopoly, with huge capital into which may be sunk the cost of errors of political lines and lack of business-like conduct to await the day of awakening to the fact that we have an interest bill which cannot be met by the Railway earnings. The competition of motor transport is becoming acute; and to save this—the largest business in New Zealand—from disaster, the Railways must be freed from political influence and kept in the hands of a capable manager, whose duty will be to see that it is run as an efficient public service, and that it meets the interest cost (if no more) of the capital involved. I firmly believe that on this basis economies amounting to hundreds of thousands might be effected, and when effected the man who could do it would be worth not £3500 per annum but £10,000 per annum. Give such a man the confidence and support of the men in the service and the public, and we should be on the road to success and should hear less of the foolish controversy, in Parliament and out, as to whether £3,500 is too much to pay for a good man.
Business men with less than one-hundredth part of the capital invested in our railways pay higher salaries than this because it is recognized that brains, initiative, organizing powers, and character are of higher value, and are the only means to success in the conduct of Big Business.
The Department has on its roll many men of great ability and energy, and under sympathetic and able management they would no doubt assist in the more economical and efficient running of the Railways.
The first locomotive was made by a Frenchman, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, in 1769, and was designed to run on ordinary roads. It had two single acting cylinders, the pistons acting alternately on the single front wheel. It carried four people and its speed was 3 to 4 miles an hour. Owing to its small boiler capacity it would run but 12 or 15 minutes without stopping to get up steam. Cugnot made several successful trials on the streets of Paris with his second locomotive, but, when turning a corner one day at a speed of 3 miles an hour, the engine upset with a crash. It was then considered dangerous and was locked up in the Arsenal.
(From “The Development of the Locomotive” published by The Central Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, U.S.A.)
Now that the peak period of passenger traffic is past I wish to express thanks to all the staff concerned in train operating for the very efficient way in which they performed their work. Once again have we come through a Christmas and New Year period without any personal accident of a fatal nature to our passengers, while carrying an increased number of long distance passengers. But for the bad weather experienced throughout the Dominion on two of our principal big event traffic days (Boxing Day and New Year's Day) it is clear that a distinct increase in the gross passenger revenue for the excursion period would have been recorded. As it is, the decrease of approximately £5,000 in passenger revenue is less than was anticipated in the conditions prevailing.
I look forward to a further improvement in the revenue figures during the remaining months of the financial year, partly because of the promise of additional tourist business developing from overseas sources, and partly because of the lateness of the season generally, throwing a concentration of delayed seasonal goods traffic into January, February and March.
On the expenditure side there has been a considerable increase recorded to date, largely due to the interest needed to meet the £6,000,000 increase in capital cost of open lines, and the expense inevitable in connection with the change over period in the Workshops. The current year cannot be regarded as normal in the latter respect and I hope that we shall be able to shew better results from Workshops operations in the near future.
Traffic Fluctuations.
Railway operating revenue for the four weekly accounting period ended 10th December, 1928, increased by £5,000, a substantial increase of £14,500 in goods and miscellaneous revenue being offset by decreases in passenger earnings. The number of passengers carried was practically the same as last year owing to the popularity of the Department's season ticket concessions.
Cattle and calf traffic continues to shew large increases. A heavy decrease in sheep traffic in the North Island was offset by increases in the South Island.
Timber traffic shewed a slight improvement which was confined to the South Island.
The tonnage of goods carried was greater by 16,000 tons, the principal contributing factors being grain (700 tons), fodder (1,000 tons), cheese (4,200 tons), wool (2,200 tons), agricultural lime (3,700 tons), firewood and posts (900 tons), cement (600 tons), artificial manures (6,400 tons), and road metal (6,000 tons). Decreases were recorded in butter (700 tons), coal (11,200 tons) and ships' cargo on port lines (7,700 tons).
Operating Statistics.
The operating statistics continue to shew higher average train speeds combined with a heavier train loading—resulting in a very substantial increase in the gross and net ton miles of traffic conveyed per train hour. The average wagon load improved slightly.
Locomotive performance in engine mileage per engine in steam per day was considerably better than last year, the increase for the Dominion being 5.94 per cent.
General Manager.
Every human molecule, unless he be the victim of dry-rot in the emotional uplift or borer in the ego, must have experienced, at some time, the great primeval urge to pack his “boy-proof” and trek over the bulge of the horizon.
These poignant words by the wellknown poet and traveller, Buzzoff, aptly illustrate the mental metamorphosis known in less scientific language as “the call of the open throttle.” It is an emotional reaction common to all classes of society, from the landed to the stranded gentry of the world; else, what is it that prompts ladies whose blood is genealogically blue, to defy the Great Unknown with only a lip - stick and a tinted bodyguard? What is it that causes the superannuated colonel's trigger - finger to itch so excruciatingly that he needs must hasten off into the impenetrable jungles of Foozledum-land intent on sine die, and project himself thither by foot, rail and motor. Curiosity—the irresistible accelerator of man's progression—which goads him on to obscure parts of the globe to see (for instance) if it is really true that the popple-bird flies upside down to keep the sun out of its eyes, and to test the truth of the allegation concerning the hypnotic power of the black-bottom bustard in Central Syncopatia.
As evidence of the above great truths, let us quote the titles of some of the travel books we have not read:—
There is, in truth, a time in the lives of all men when they can no longer resist the call of the bowser; when the inner meaning of a Honolulu bathing suit and an ice-cream cone is suddenly revealed to them; when January pokes a freckled nose round the office door and emits vocal vibrations which resemble the gurgling cry of the surfbather, the hiss of a boiling billy, the purring of “double, balloons,” the crackling of sunburn, and the whang of the niblick, all combined in a love lyric.
For January, the brightest and best of Time's twelve daughters, is a good sport, and her second name is Holid'ys. She carries a kick in every corpuscle and a jazz melody under her kit. She whisks you away to bush, beach and bach, where Sol's violet rays accelerate your blood-pressure and rebuild your depleted tissues, making Coue-ism and monkey-glands look as dilapidated as a crate of eggs in a motor smash.
What prompted Stephenson to squander his beauty-sleep in devising a means of fitting wheels on a kettle? Why did that renowned exponent of the infernal-combustion mode of transport create his famous bounding bedstead?
Why—because these pioneers of celerity recognised that the human horizon was controlled by the limitations of man's pedals, and by prefixing “heels” with a W they made wheels for the weary.
There was a period when the horse was man's noble friend and ally, when he was cared for
even as the “flying five” and the “epileptic eight” are to-day. In tropical climates he even wore a straw bonnet. To-day he functions beneath a metal bonnet and is called horsepower. Ay, verily, the noble quadruped has been potted,
The mental association of horses and holidays takes me back twenty years along the track of time, to the days—before horsepower superseded horse flesh—of the coach and five-horse team. The journey—from Waitara to Awakino—was an Odyssey through one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand, over a mountain billowing with greenery, across a writhing band of quicksilver which revealed itself as a river, along a twisting road bounded in many places by lofty ramparts of split and rifted papa and splashed by the bright green of young flax and topped by overhanging fern-palms and foliage, which, to the uplifted gaze, conveyed the impression of a hanging forest. We skirted the brinks of cliffs, where, below, the Tasman rollers pounded at the rocks and retreated with long troughs, creamy with swaying lacework. To-day, the motor crashes over this road, but it is a poor vehicle from which to assimilate the glory of Nature. I must admit that the coach-horses of twenty years ago were hardly models of equine perfection; they were for the most part, hammerheaded, razor - backed, ribby prads but they certainly caused the road to recede beneath their hocks in commendable fashion. Their steady gait suggested that they had been wound up, like mechanical toys, before the journey.
We were a mixed freight when we boarded the coach at half-past seven in the morning. Those present included a lady schoolteacher, a bush contractor, a station cook, a shearer, and a commercial traveller. It is on record that no journey has ever been made, either on foot, wheel or wing, without a commercial traveller being among those present.
The last alcoholic oasis before entering the thirsty King Country is Urenui. Here every male passenger was imbued with the spirit which has made it possible for a camel to place sufficient moisture in cold storage to last it across the desert.
“To beer or not to beer,” does not apply here; everyone “beers.”
If there had ever been any metal on the road which winds over Mount Messenger it had long since disappeared beneath the mud, which reached almost to the taunted swingletrees. The incline and the mud combined to make the ascent a cruel one for the horses, and the male passengers were ordered to walk to the top. The only footpath was a comparatively hard strip on the extreme edge of the road (about a foot in width), from which we could look down on to the tops of the trees in the gullies below. It was here that we lost the station cook. When he boarded the coach at Waitara the neck of a whisky bottle had obtruded itself from his pocket, and during the journey the whisky had been transferred from the bottle to the interior of the cook. In the process of absorption he had become something of a burden, the delusion that he was Bob Fitzsimmons and Gentleman Jim Corbett combined, gaining strength with the bottle's exhaustion.
It was not until we congregated at the top of the mountain that he was missed.
”'E'll ‘ave to walk, blarst ‘im,” snorted the “coachey,” and we skidded down the other side of the mountain without him. He arrived two days later with dry fern in his hair and a generous portion of New Zealand on his clothes.
It was after we had crossed the mountain that the schoolteacher came into prominence. Her dress-basket eluded its lashings and bounded on to the road, where it burst asunder and scattered its contents in a most immodest manner. The shearer and the C.T. illustrated the fact that the age of chivalry is not dead, but it was an embarrassing time for all concerned. Sufficient it is to say that those were the days when ladies really Did wear clothes, and the schoolteacher possessed at least “two of Everything.”
There were in those days two methods of crossing the Mokau River, but most people preferred to cross on the punt as there was no bridge. There is something attractive—especially to a Scot—in crossing
umph Darky, r-r-r-r-umph Bess,” only the leader marched off and left the rest of the team standing. “Coachey” was jerked off his box and came to rest with a hand on the rump of each of the “polers.” Only a bullock would be equal to translating what “coachey” said.
By the time we neared Awakino, where the road literally hangs on the edge of the cliffs, I was the sole survivor of the original freight. We had dropped the others off at different points along the road.
Here “coachey” met a friend, and handed over the ribbons while he retired to the interior of the coach for refreshment and repose. The friend had imbibed just sufficiently deeply to incite him to the belief that he was the incarnation of Desperado Dick, the daredevil driver of the Rockies, for he cursed the team into a gallop, and defied the laws of gravity along the edge of the cliff. We were seldom on two wheels at once, and never on four. I gazed passionately, straight down into the Tasman, and felt the wild waves already closing over my ears. As far as Daredevil Dick was concerned the road was perfectly straight, flat and smooth. He refused to believe otherwise, and contemptuously ignored the existence of bends, hills and holes. The experience was akin to a combination of logrolling, riding the air-pockets, and “asking father's consent.”
Eventually, thanks to the Power which looks after, infants and “drunks,” we reached our destination in one piece.
So much for such excursions and alarms. While on the subject of holid'ys let's touch on “picnics.”
Who was it who invented the picnic? Was it Julius Caesar when he arranged his first personally-conducted daylight excursion to the shores of Britain, and ate a pickled gherkin under the cliffs of Dover, or was it Noah, who established Henley-on-the-Mount? We know, of course, who was responsible for the national picnic confection which consists of two layers of sand and a piece of mustard held together by two slices of bread, and commonly known as the sandwich. History avers that this quick-lunch accessory was the morbid conception of a noble gentleman who, driven to desperation by the continual toughness of the meat, ordered it to be placed between shock absorbers. Ignoring historical inaccuracies, it remains a fact that picnics without sandwiches would not be picnics.
Apart from the attraction of straining billy-tea through the front teeth, hunting the ham in the sandwich provides the greatest fun at a picnic, and adds the necessary leavening of competition, without which any human gathering is null and void.
Do you remember those old-fashioned picnics in which we participated in our tender youth, when father pushed the pram o'er hill and dale, and mother carried the fruit in a string kit for all the world to see, and a dog flew at Willie and had to be chased by father with a stick; when father
How we all trailed home at sundown like a routed army, with father in the van doggedly pushing the pram, with his shoulders hunched over the handles. How Willie snivelled the whole way home because he had cut his toe and had to carry his boot. How desirable home looked when at last it hove in sight, and how father boiled all the pippies in the big iron pot, and we fell asleep over our plates and had to be carried to bed?
Ah, but those were the days—before the “dodgems” made the centre of the road the direct route to the mortuary. But why resort to retrospection, which is the sleeping partner of Old Age.
January will always be January, and Holid'ys Bear no Date-Stamp.
Over the Christmas and New Year holidays two very important events took place in the Workshops Reorganisation Scheme. These two events were, firstly, the definite closing down of the old shops and offices at Newmarket and Petone, and secondly, the occupancy of the new workshops at Otahuhu and Lower Hutt.
Otahuhu had been partly occupied for about a month prior to the end of the year, but the holiday change-over was the real “milestone” in the progress of the work.
“Moving in” is, however, not the finish. The task ahead now is to complete the detailed equipment of each department in each shop as quickly as possible, that the desired results may be attained.
This work is progressing steadily, and now that each departmental foreman is taking up his allotted duties, the job will be considerably lightened. It is unnecessary for me to ask everybody to do his best in this connection, for I know it is being done.
The new surroundings seem to have produced smiles and good feeling, and all that is left to be said is that I appreciate the way in which the whole staff has organised and carried out the movement without a hitch, and without any serious! interruption of the work of the Railways.
As before mentioned, the “moving in” is not the finish. There is still a quantity of new machinery to arrive from England, and the closing down of the old shops makes it possible to move certain machinery and power equipment that could not be moved until the loco work and the rolling stock work were definitely separated into the new shops.
This “milestone” in our railway shops' history is not only a physical one—it represents more than just new shops, new methods and monetary propositions. It represents a change in working conditions, hygienic conditions, and community development that all who worked in the old shops have been forced to appreciate since their first hour's work in the new buildings.
I express the hope that all concerned will truly appreciate the change and keep their particular part of the shop clean by taking a pride in being tidy and careful with all tools, equipment, and work in their section. By so doing the men will benefit the Department and themselves.
Here, at Rotorua, nearly a thousand feet above the sea, the sky pageant is often a picture to remember. There was a late afternoon when one rambled along the pumice shore between the Utu-hina River and Te Koutu. The light westerly breeze died away as the sun declined; the Lake lay still and smooth in long calm breadths, steely blue, and pearlshell tinting, yonder a shadowing of the dark clouds that hung low in the warm atmosphere. Sounds carried a long way—the jump of trout and splash of ducks and gulls, the frog baritone and bass, and here and there a throaty contralto. For half an hour before setting over Mount Ngongotaha's shoulder the sun threw glints of gold across the far shore of the lake. Then we had the spectacle of the bluff headland of Owha-tiura and its tall trees standing out in a fiery glow against the background of indigo; Owhata Hill, too, a rounded mount of yellow dazzle; behind it the black-blue mass of cloud-hatted Whakapounga-kau. Mokoia Island lay dark and ghostly, an isle of portent; not a gleam of light illuminated its grave silence. There were green and opal and turquoise in the lake—shades of calm and breath-lessness. A gentle lap of waters on the pumice sands, then a pause of utter quiet.
The sun shone out its last moments above the fairy mountain, Ngongotaha. The heights lay black against the brilliance; the outlines so sharp that the tall trees were bristles on its summit, the Tuahu-o-te-Atua, where the gods dwelt of old. Then the heavenly blue looked through the clouds on the flanks of the sunset blaze. The sky cleared more and more in that direction until the north and west quadrant was all blue and white and gold. Cirrus clouds in a thousand little flecks like feathers softly curled against the blue; in the north there was a perfect pinion, wind-rifted on its edges, against it was a celestial fern-frond that turned to burning gold. There was a little wind up aloft there, for yellow-tinged clouds, like the sulphurous vapours that rise from White Island, drifted away eastward. A dark belly of a cloud impended over Moerangi Mountain. If it touched the ranges we might look for a rain burst. A blue airship, a mile long, swam over Whakapoungakau as if meditating some bomb dropping.
The eastern cumuli heightened by contrast the heavenly glory of the west. The sunward sky was speckled like the shining cuckoo; myriads of cloudlets white flecked Rangi's blue curve of dome; again it was the tawatawa sky of the Maori, mottled like the mackerel. Fair-weather sky that, we knew; the thunder clouds in the east were all part of Nature's grand film of make-believe.
Travelling at an average speed of 13 miles per hour, all the freight trains in the United States move an average distance of about 1,675,000 miles. This is equivalent to 70 trains going around the earth daily.
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A contract has recently been placed with Messrs. A. and T. Burt, Ltd., for the complete installation of Plenum heating and ventilating plants in the Railway Workshops at Hutt Valley, Otahuhu, Hillside, and Addington.
The contractors will be responsible for the design and complete installation of this work. We understand this is the largest contract ever placed in New Zealand for ventilating plant, and its construction will cover a modern system of heating and ventilating almost new to this country.
It is now a recognised fact that an efficient heating and ventilating plant is a necessary adjunct to the complete equipment of a modern workshop. In practice, such plants become a valuable asset, as the output of the factory is considerably increased when proper working conditions are maintained.
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According to the “News Bulletin” prepared by the Commercial and Industrial Section of the Department of Markets, Canberra, the expenditure of tourists from the United States in Canada is about fifteen times as large as before the war. About 3,000,000 cars cross the line from the United States during the year, and 8,000 to 10,000 of these cars remain more than a month. Aside from the direct expenditure of these visitors, Canada also receives the less tangible benefit of having her problems better understood abroad, and in the long run there can be no doubt that such a number of visitors will tend to encourage immigration and the inflow of foreign capital for industrial enterprises. Catering for those who vacation in the Rockies, along the lakes and rivers of Central Canada or at the seashore, is becoming an industry of no small importance.
In the midst of the season when there is the greatest influx of visitors to Canada, it is of interest to record that the 1927 tourist season was exceedingly profitable for Canada. The Highways Branch of the Department of Railways has estimated that during 1927 such visitors spent about 275,000,000 dollars in Canada as compared with 200,000,000 dollars in 1926, and 140,000,000 dollars in 1924. The expenditures in 1928 are expected to show a proportionate increase.
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The establishment of the Suggestions and Inventions Committee, in June, 1925, was a notable step forward in the history of the railways. Since the establishment of the committee more than 4,000 suggestions have been sent forward by members of the staff and public, and many of these suggestions have been adopted for the general betterment of the service. Encouraged by the knowledge that their ideas would receive the full consideration of a committee of experts, the railway staff throughout New Zealand has submitted suggestions freely, and suggestions are coming in from the public in ever-increasing numbers.
The following is a review of the work of the committee up to 11th September, 1928:—Number of suggestions received, 4,172; number recommended for adoption, 362; commendations, 274; monetary awards, 80; aggregate sum paid out, £634 7s.
With a view to facilitating the preparation and despatch of suggestions, the committee recently decided to have suitably printed forms prepared on which the suggester's idea may be readily outlined. The cards, when completed, will be deposited in special “Suggestion Boxes” which are to be provided for use at the principal stations and workshops.
In his present contribution our special London Correspondent tells us of the snow ploughs and steam heating devices now in use on the large railway systems of the Homeland during the months of winter. His article also deals with the electrification schemes in progress, the safety of British railways and the place of the railway employee in the service of mankind.
While New Zealand railwaymen are revelling in the season's sunshine, railway employees in Britain are facing the very worst weather conditions of the year. Here in the Old Country, for the engineer and operating man, winter's tasks out on the line are of anything but an enviable nature, and severe snowstorms frequently seriously disorganise traffic working and bring numerous operating troubles in their wake.
There are many features of winter railway working in Britain which present considerable interest to railway employees in other lands. Apart from the special calls made upon one and all in connection with the handling of Christmas and New Year passenger and parcels business, there is a fund of interest associated with the working of such equipment as snow ploughs, steam heating of passenger carriages, and the like. The operation of the snow ploughs, which are employed for clearing the exposed tracks of the north-going lines, is a winter's task of the first importance. Although it is in Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and other continental lands that the largest type of snow plough is employed, machines of formidable dimensions and immense power are to be found at work in Britain during this season. These vary from relatively small ploughs affixed to the front of a locomotive, to enormous steel ploughs resembling a battleship's prow (in miniature), which, thanks to the driving force of half-a-dozen powerful locomotives coupled up behind the plough, cut through the deep snow drifts with ease.
A typical snow plough employed in Britain is that of the London, Midland and Scottish line. This is 33ft. long and weighs approximately 26 tons. The plough has been built upon the framework of a discarded double-bogie tender, and has at the front a straight scoop just clearing the rail level, with a blunt nose rising to the height of the plough. The rear half of the plough bogie carries a reinforced van equipped with seating and cooking facilities for the accommodation of the crew. It is on the exposed routes in north-west England that these snow-ploughs are very frequently employed, and, more especially, on the old “Midland” route to Scotland, where the train crosses the lofty Pennine Mountains and many miles of extremely elevated and exposed track.
At this season of the year steam-heating of passenger carriages is common throughout Europe, and in Britain there are few cosier spots in winter time than a corner seat in one of the “crack” expresses. Here, steam heating is accomplished by employing steam from the locomotive. The steam is taken from the boiler at full pressure and
The heater in the carriages consists of a metal tube some five inches in diameter and varying in length according to the size of the carriage. Inside the heater is a cane rod, one end of which is fixed, the other end impinging upon a ball-valve which controls the admission of steam to the heater. Becoming hot, the heater expands slightly, but the length of the cane rod remaining unaffected by the change in temperature, the ball-valve is thus allowed to rest on to its seating, preventing the admission of any additional steam. As the heater cools it contracts, and the cane rod, being constant in length, forces the valve off its seat and automatically steam is again allowed to enter. Provided inside the carriage is a regulator enabling the passenger to adjust the degree of heat to his liking.
In the London area considerable activity has recently been recorded by the electrification of the Southern Railway. Now comes a move to provide extended electric services in the city of Manchester, the largest home centre outside the metropolis. The tracks concerned are the joint lines of the London, Midland and Scottish, and London and Northern systems, between Victoria station, Manchester, and the suburban resort of Altrincham, nine miles distant. Work has already begun on this important electrification, the overhead system being supplied with current at 1,500 volts, direct current. The change-over from steam to electricity will enable the train service to be speeded up appreciably, and, to a considerable degree, the competition of the road carrier for the heavy suburban business to be met. A “regular interval” departure service is to be introduced, and entirely new passenger carriages of the compartment type, with side doors, are to be utilised.
Manchester already possesses an important electrified system of the L.M. and S. Line, between Victoria Station and Bury. Some 28 ¼ miles of single track are involved, electrification being first embarked upon in 1914, on the protected third-rail direct current system at a voltage of 1,200. All trains are controlled on the multiple unit system, standard trains consisting of two motor cars and three trailers. The motor cars are equipped with two motor bogies, each of which supports two 200 h.p. 1,200 volt traction motors. These cars also contain the exhausters for brake operation. Shoe beams and shoes for picking up the current from the protected third rail are fitted on either
Safe travel is the first essential of railway operation. During the year 1927 the British railways maintained their admirable record for travel safety, and throughout the whole year only 27 passengers were killed and 518 injured in train accidents. The 1927 train accidents also involved the deaths of two railway employees and injuries to 117 employees of the Home lines. Of the 27 passengers killed, 25 deaths arose out of two mishaps of an exceptional nature. As regards level crossing accidents, Britain holds an enviable record compared with other European lands, and with the great railway systems of America. Forty-two persons were killed at level crossings in 1927. When it is borne in mind that of every 61 million passengers conveyed over the British lines only one person was killed in train accidents in 1927, the high degree of safety attained in this country is clearly apparent.
In certain recent train accidents the Government Inspecting Officer is of the opinion that the accidents would probably not have occurred had automatic signalling been employed. The position as regards automatic signalling in Britain is interesting. By degrees all the four group railways are introducing automatic equipment for signalling purposes, but, as yet, only a small proportion of their tracks are so equipped. Now and again there comes a call from outside sources for the introduction of legislation compelling the railways to utilise automatic signalling on all main lines. The Government experts, however, appreciating the steady progress being made in the extended utilisation of automatic signalling, and recognising the enormous expense that would be entailed by the railways through any legislation of this nature are unanimous in their opinion that, at the moment, there is no call for such drastic action.
Switzerland possesses one of the most successful and enterprising Government railway systems of Europe. Travellers from every land have spoken of the progressive policy which is invariably followed by the Berne railway authorities, and in the electrification field, especially, the Swiss transportation folk have set a lead for all the world to follow. The recently published report of the Swiss Federal Railways for 1927 makes an excellent showing, a net profit of about £200,000 having been secured for the twelve months.
Approximately 2,000 miles of track are owned by the Swiss Government lines. During 1927 the system handled 111,000,000 passengers, an increase of 8 per cent, over the previous year. Freight business rose by 6 per cent. from 16,800,000 tons in 1926
It is in the construction of railways in remote portions of the world that mankind's debt to the railway engineer is most emphasised. In a recent address read by Sir William Ellis to the engineering section of the British Association, tribute was paid to the wonderful work performed by railways as Civilisation's agents the world over. It might truthfully be said, remarked Sir William that the development of the potential wealth of any country depended mainly on the means of transport, both personal and industrial. Where railways are efficient and harbours well equipped prosperity is sure to be found. The comfort and safety of modern travel, stated Sir William, was one of the glories of modern civilisation. Railwaymen had every reason to be proud of their management of the complex organisation represented by the great railway systems all over the world. To-day one was much safer travelling in an express train than he was in crossing the streets of a large city. Railwaymen, normally, do not require any reminder of the importance of their task, but now and again it is pleasant to find appreciation of their labours coming from outside sources. There are many tasks on the line which may seem but very remotely concerned with mankind's progress, but the individual may rest assured that every tiny cog in the great railway machine serves a most essential purpose. In the conscientious execution, from day to day, of his own particular task, the railwayman is contributing in no uncertain fashion to the progress of civilisation.
Unquestionably safety work pays big dividends alike to employer and employee. The price is eternal vigilance on the part of all, stimulated by an intelligent educational campaign. With the establishment of suitable goals, each year slightly higher, desirable results are bound to be secured.
During recent months several New Zealand railwaymen have greatly distinguished themselves in various fields of sport, one of their number, Mr. A. J. Cleverley, having the high honour of participation in the Olympic Games. The reputation of members of our staff in these activities has been further enhanced by Mr. J. L. Black, whose achievement on the Balmacewan Golf Links, Dunedin, is the subject of the following article.
The New Zealand railwayman, Mr. J. L. Black, made golfing history in the New Zealand Championship Tournament held recently on the Balmacewan Links, Dunedin. Mr. Black (who is at present stationed at Frankton Junction) had, by consistent play, won his way through to a place in the final eight, in the contest for the Amateur Championship. As a result he was then called upon to meet Mr. C. B. Wight, the St. Clair Club's representative. The latter, who was acquainted with all the wiles of the Balmacewan course, was expected by many to spring a surprise upon the North Island representative. A good number of spectators assembled at the commencement of the contest in which increasing interest was manifested as it progressed.
From the very outset of the match Mr. Wight commenced to “burn up” the course in a most sensational manner. He holed out in par figures with monotonous regularity, and, despite all that Mr. Black could do (and the golf on his part was good throughout), he was soon trailing far in the rear. At the end of 18 holes Mr. Wight (who had gone round in 67, two strokes less than the uttermost par), was no less than 9 up. No golfer could have stood up to the storm more gallantly than did Mr. Black. He did not weaken; he did not break, but forced the situation with characteristic determination. At this stage the spectators (who were keenly excited), surged round Mr. Wight and showed their appreciation of his wonderful play by cheering him to the echo.
But what of Mr. Black? He was 9 down and completely forgotten. During the adjournment all present discussed the achievement—67—a new course record, though unofficial. The course was at full stretch for championship play. “A great round,” “a wonderful achievement” were typical of the exclamations heard on all sides. When the match was resumed the spectators strolled out in a leisurely manner to see Mr. Black finally annihilated. Surely the thrills were past! Mr. Wight could not possibly do another 67 and his opponent was 9 down. The first hole was halved in 5, 9 down with 17 to go.
The spectators were not now so confident in the certainty of an early victory for Mr. Wight, for the play of his opponent was becoming, at every stroke, more audacious and successful. Truly excited the golfers gathered around the tenth green. No one spoke; the air was tense with excitement, as Black holed a delightful two, and won another hole back. He was now 5 down and 8 to go. The next was halved, and then Mr. Black, continuing his brilliant play, went on to win the next five holes on end to square the match at the thirty-fourth. Who would have thought it? Mr. Wight, however, held on to his game in a gallant manner; he, like Mr. Black in the morning, did not waver, but held on under the greatest strain a golf player can experience. The seventeenth and eighteenth were halved, or the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth of the match. Both players got away excellent drives to the thirty-seventh, and equally good seconds, and as Mr. Black was slightly nearer the pin, it was his opponent's turn to play. His ball rolled gallantly up to the hole, looked in, as it were, and then passed on for some six feet. It was now Mr. Black's turn, everything depended on this 20 yards shot. Carefully he sized up the situation, swung his putter, and sent forth a perfect shot, his ball resting finally a foot from its objective. Mr. Wight missed the return, and, Mr. Black, making no mistake, won the hole in 4 to 5, and, with it, the greatest match ever witnessed by any of those fortunate enough to be present. It was a truly wonderful victory. Words cannot describe the scene at the finish. Mr. Black was carried shoulder high by his admirers into the club house.
He eventually met T. H. Horton in the final, and, after a grim struggle, was defeated at the thirty-sixth hole. He had a great opportunity to add his name to the amateur title roll of honour, but crashed with his second shot at the last hole when the match was square. Of this mistake his opponent took full advantage.
Mr. Black for a number of years has played a prominent part in the N.Z. championship meetings. A few years ago he was runner-up in the “open,” and also, on another occasion, a finalist in the amateur. He has experienced a most successful season to date. He won the championship at the Miramar tournament last New Year, and, quite recently, also annexed the King Country and South Auckland championships. That he may yet win a national title is the wish of his fellow employees in the Railway Service.
A suggestion worked out by the Napier Chamber of Commerce and the Railway Department for an excursion tour into the new territory opened up on the North Island East Coast Railway from Napier, resulted in a wonderfully successful outing, 918 passengers being carried by one train.
The popularity of the trip, states the “Hawke's Bay Tribune,” exceeded the Department's most sanguine expectations. It had been anticipated that probably 500 persons would take advantage of the opportunity, but when the special train pulled out from Napier it carried nearly a thousand passengers.
Unquestionably the outing was of great educative value to the excursionists in giving them an idea of the great engineering feats achieved, and from the addresses made by various speakers, they learned that the Department was in earnest in prosecuting the work and desired the co-operation of all settlers.
The Railway Department is to be congratulated on the excellent manner in which the excursion was carried out.
Long before the departure of the train for Tutira the Napier railway station was thronged with excursionists, reminding one of the holiday season at its height. The Waipukurau train brought quite a number from Central Hawke's Bay, and, on arrival at Hastings, seven extra carriages had to be added to accommodate the contingent assembled at that station. With the arrival at Napier of such a crowded train, the large waiting crowd had visions of either having to stay behind or else stand for the journey. However, the Department was not caught napping. A further nine carriages were put on, and, without delay, the large crowd of 918 persons was on its way.
Many contented themselves with standing on the carriage platforms in order to obtain a better view of the country they were seeing for the first time. To most, the run along the beach to Eskdale was familiar, but once the train entered the hills the outlook was new, and absorbed the interest of all. With the exception of the Esk Valley, the outlook from a scenic point of view was not very attractive, although the old Kaiwaka homestead, settled far below in the hills on a nice flat, bounded by the winding Esk river, presented a most delightful scene.
Generally speaking, almost the only vegetation consists of fern and manuka. Much of the country showed no evidence of good soil, and the need of fertilisers was stressed later by speakers at Tutira. With the advent of the railway the possibilities of this country are improved.
For some considerable distance the line follows the winding Esk river. After the crossing, it quickly rises in a consistent grade to hundreds of feet above and overlooking the river. For the greater part, the track for the line has been carved out of the hillside, so that on one hand there is the face of a cutting, and on the other a sheer drop down to the river.
Undoubtedly the principal item of interest was the great steel viaduct at Waikoau. Crossing the river some 235 feet below, the great undertaking soon gave to the sightseers an idea of the magnitude of the work involved. The great steel girders, supported by massive towers set in heavy concrete foundations, were viewed with something like awe. Some idea was gained from this work of the other viaducts that are to be erected further along the route, two of which will be much larger structures.
Upon arrival at Tutira soon after 1 o'clock, the excursionists quickly scattered to have lunch. The Department very thoughtfully had provided an ample supply of hot water, which was greatly appreciated by all. Quite a number made off to have a hurried look at the beautiful Tutira lake, nestled among the hills about three-quarters of a mile away. It was unanimously agreed that an excursion arranged to that delightful lake would be a most popular movement.
Prior to commencing the return journey, opportunity was taken to address the gathering by various railway officials and other gentlemen.
Mr. A. E. Harston, chairman of the Napier Chamber of Commerce, stated that as a result of the courtesy and attention given to the matter by the railway officials, the trip had eventuated, and he offered the thanks of the Chamber of Commerce to the Railway Department for the opportunity given of seeing the great work undertaken. He also expressed pleasure at the spontaneous manner in which the public had responded.
Mr. H. M. Campbell, M.P., in most fitting remarks, stated that he agreed entirely with the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates when he said that it was impossible without railways to make light country such as Kaiwaka and Tutira pay. By means of the railway, cheaper fertilisers can be available, and by their application primary production is soon increased. The competition of motor traffic was causing some concern to the Railway Department, but he could assure settlers that the railways could supply their needs much more efficiently than could the motor lorries. Better means would be afforded by the railways of getting produce to the port, and he was satisfied that in time it would be a payable proposition. In conclusion, Mr. Campbell said that the trip would afford many townspeople some idea of the nature of the difficulties that the back country settlers had to contend with and of the struggle that had been made to overcome these difficulties.
Mr. T. Lambert, representing the Wairoa Chamber of Commerce, hoped that before long the “iron horse” would be seen daily on the Napier-Wairoa line. He was of the opinion that there was nothing on wheels to beat the railway engine. With cheap fertilisers the East Coast would double its production within fifteen years.
An apology for the unavoidable absence of Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of the Railways, was tendered by Mr. E. Casey, North Island Superintendent. As an old Napier boy he was pleased to participate with the Hawke's Bay people in having a look at the Napier-Cisborne line as far as Tutira, and to realise its great importance to the district. Speaking on the policy of the Railway Department he said that it was out to give service as cheaply as it could. Railways were not only a commercial proposition but also one of development, and if the Department's balance-sheet could only be credited with the increased land values and increased productivity brought about by the construction of the railways, the question of the failure of the Department to make the railways pay would never be raised. He wished settlers to remember that when they were dealing with the Railway Department they were dealing, with friends, and that when they used the trains they were the Department's guests. The Department were out to do their job well, and, to achieve that, it sought the co-operation of all. If there was anything that needed remedying the Department, if approached, would have it attended to. That was their idea of service. The Department hoped to increase the service, and dispense with any jarring note between themselves and their clients.
When it was realised, said Mr. Casey, that the Department had invested the huge sum of £51,000,000 and employed nearly 19,000 men, its value as a developmental asset would not be overlooked. The railway looked to the primary producer for revenue, and, after bringing cheap fertilisers to them, the Department wanted to bring back the products in return.
Mr. D. Rodie, commercial manager for the New Zealand Railways, stated that during his thirty-three years' connection with the Railway Department, he had seen much country opened up by the railway, and had seen how it had been improved by the application of cheap fertilisers and by providing adequate facilities for the carrying of stock. Speaking of the line beyond Tutira, he said that it was under construction practically all the way, and in two years he estimated that a further eighteen miles would be opened up. He urged settlers to make use of the Department's, commercial agent in the district, Mr. McNeil, who would be only too ready to give any advice and assistance sought after.
On behalf of the residents of Tutira, Mr. V. Barry, chairman of the Tutira Farmers' Union, extended a welcome to the excursionists. He expressed appreciation to the Department for the wonderful improvement that had been made to the country by the opening of the line. In five years the settlers' costs had been reduced by 500 per cent., and the land was able to take one and a half sheep per acre instead of a sheep to two acres as formerly. In another five years he expected that it would take three sheep per acre. He said that the relative merits of the railway and motor
Mr. J. H. Joll, representing the H.B. Farmers' Union, congratulated the Department on the great engineering work that had been achieved, and the way in which many difficulties had been overcome. The line had been wanted for many years, and he hoped that the country would develop rapidly as a result of being opened up.
Mr. Trevor Smith, Public Works Engineer, gave a most interesting survey of the construction work on this interesting section of railway.
In a letter to the General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, Mr. A. J. Hutchinson, Chairman of Trustees of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind (Auckland) refers, in the following appreciative terms, to the courtesy and kindness shewn by members of the staff to the boys of the Jubilee Institute Band which recently toured the Dominion:—
Box 87, Auckland,
Dear Mr. Sterling,— 14/12/28.
The boys returned (Jubilee Institute Band) on Saturday last after a most successful and profitable trip through New Zealand. Mr. Mackenzie (the Band Master) and Mr. Byers (House Master) since their return have mentioned over and over again the kindness and attention of the members of your staff, from stationmaster to the youngest junior. Every grade of officer they came in contact with made a special effort to help. The arrangements made were far more than we anticipated. At every meeting Mr. Mackenzie made mention of this fact. We are indeed grateful and thankful. It was a free job as far as the Railways were concerned, but it proved a great gift—cheerfully given.
Another thing that is well worth mentioning is that the porters, luggage men, etc., would not accept any tips. “We are all glad to help you,” they said.
When I wrote, as Chairman, and asked this favour, I did not contemplate that from one end of New Zealand to the other such kindness would be shewn. You have, in no small way, aided us to demonstrate the fact that the blind are not a hopeless, helpless lot, but a cheerful, happy body of capable boys and girls, men and women. Next time you are in Auckland, come out to the Institute. You will then realise just how much you have done, and that the blind are worthy of the service you have rendered them.
Again many thanks. Would you please, through your Magazine, convey to every member of the service our (the Board's and the Institute's) appreciation and thanks, and our best wishes for a happy Christmas and a successful New Year.—With kind regards, your's very sincerely,
A. J. Hutchinson, Chairman.
An example of effective modern publicity work is seen in the pamphlet “Top Dress for Top Values” recently issued by the New Zealand Railways to the farming community. The following appreciative review is reproduced from the “Evening Post,” Wellington.
As the Department of Railways has a chief who was first a railwayman, then a dairying director, and again a railwayman, it is perhaps not surprising that the Department is issuing some publicity to reinforce the propagandist efforts of a sister Department in favour of grass-land farming in general and of top-dressing in particular. In 1927–28 nearly 50,000 cows were added to the dairying industry—an achievement rendered possible only by the new grass-land farming, as explained in the “Evening Post's” Manawatu Show Supplement — and there is nothing like a practical association with dairying to make a business man realise how much latent spring resides in that industry. Its expansion in the next few years—and, of course, the progress of sheep farming, etc. — is the chief hope of redressing the evils of excessive mortgage. “If your farm has too much top-hamper of mortgage, a top-dressing of the soil will lighten the load,” says the Department's latest pamphlet.
That advice is being heeded by very many mortgagors. As long as there is a top-dressing margin of credit after the interest is paid, the owner of high-priced land may yet be able to get on speaking terms with his capital account. And some day even the railways may do the same, for their wagon is inevitably hitched, for weal or woe, to the cow and the sheep.
Another “super” maxim is, “Delay with top-dressing is the thief of profit.” On the other hand, “top-dressing your land will top-dress your family.” But this observation seems to go hardly deep enough.
Particulars are given of hugely increased returns from the use of lime and phosphates. These details cover all the classes of farming, and constitute valuable information. In fact, the pamphlet is Sterling value all through.
In a forenote the General Manager explains: “This little publication, which gives big proof of the profit assured by a proper top-dressing of land is not, of course, an indication that the Railway Department is taking over a function of the Department of Agriculture. It is merely a friendly serviceable reminder to the farmer that he will benefit himself as well as the country as a whole by taking advantage of the helpful information and advice given free by the State's agricultural experts. It is well-known that the main basis of New Zealand's prosperity may be stated in one phrase—grass-land farming. In the aggregate of 18,830,000 acres under cultivation last year, pastures comprised 16,680,000 acres (nearly 90 per cent. of the total). Live stock provide, on the average, about 95 per cent. of the Dominion's exports. …
“Reviews of the last dairying season have specially mentioned the importance of top-dressing in the surprisingly good returns from numerous farms.
Some good points are made in a contribution by the Director of Fields Division, Mr. A. H. Cockayne, who lays down the maxim, “Begin with the best land”:—
“It can be easily shown by reference to thousands of farmers that top-dressing pays, and that it is perhaps the greatest single factor of influence in the increase of New Zealand's production. Therefore it might appear, at first sight, to be advisable to urge all farmers to top-dress, without delay, the whole of their holdings. However, the fact that the majority of farmers have not enough ready money to enable them to carry out such advice clearly indicates that the ideal must be achieved in successive stages of development.
“The way to ensure eventually a sufficient top-dressing of the majority of the Dominion's sown grass lands is to so regulate the practice that a comparatively small initial outlay in manures will yield sufficient profit for the similar treatment of another section of the farm. Each acre that is so top-dressed should be viewed as the potentiality for the improvement of another acre.
“In the examination of any grass farm in New Zealand it can be clearly shown that certain areas are much more productive than others. There is a widespread belief that when a farmer begins to top-dress he should aim to improve his poorer pastures rather than those which, in his opinion, are quite satisfactory. If he has more than enough capital to top-dress all his best pastures, then the treatment of the poorer grass may be profitable, but unless he has such a surplus of money it can be definitely stated that on the vast majority of farms top-dressing should begin on the best grass lands and not on the worst.
“A little consideration shows the soundness of that view. If one assumes that the application of 2 cwt. of superphosphate to the acre will result in a 100 per cent, increase of grass growth, it is clear that a far greater profit will be secured by using that phosphate on the portion of the farm carrying two sheep to the acre than on the part which averages only half a sheep to the acre. In the one case 2 cwt. of phosphate means two additional sheep and in the other only half of an additional sheep.
“This proper understanding of the most advantageous top-dressing—beginning with the best land—must apply particularly to those areas where serious deterioration has set in. The recovery of that land to its former productiveness—and in many cases to a productiveness far above its former volume—will be achieved by the practical application of the basic top-dressing principle—treatment of the best land first. On every deteriorated farm in New Zealand there are areas—in every case the better grass land—which will show an immediate profit from top-dressing. These better parts must be treated first, in order to provide the funds necessary for the gradual regeneration of the whole holding. Failure, undoubtedly, will follow any attempt to deal with the worst areas first.
What is true of the deteriorated lands is true also of the average farm, for here, too, the largest initial return from top-dressing is derived from good grass land rather than from bad.”
“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilisation.”—Daniel Webster.
An interesting sight was witnessed in the early hours of Sunday morning, 28th October last, when a strange looking train, about which the only sign of life was the fussy locomotive snorting in front, came slowly out from Invercargill station and proceeded towards Kingston. Trucks of old boilers and other weird material, and, lastly, three old locomotives—stripped of their parts—dead giants of the past, going to their last resting place—formed the train, The destination was to be the bed of the Oreti River (about a mile from Lumsden, on the Mossburn branch), and the old engines were being deposited therein to prevent erosion.
The majority of railwaymen are sufficiently imaginative to see something significant and pathetic in the passing of these old engines, once the pride of the road, and the funereal pace of the wrecking train was in keeping with the occasion. After a halt for dinner at Lumsden 50 miles out, the big breakdown crane was added to the train, and the journey continued to the dumping place.
A temporary siding about half a mile in length, running from the Mossburn line to the edge of the Oreti River, led to the dump. This temporary siding, laid, with old material, upon the undulating surface of a paddock, was hardly up to the best main line standards, but, as a sample of fast and ingenious platelaying, was quite good.
Down to the riverside the big train was slowly backed. The old engines were shunted into position, the guard stepped clear, joined the ranks of the numerous spectators, and the wreckers took charge.
Assisted by Foreman of Works Mr. Miller and Mr. Jacobson, L.P.W., the District Engineer (Mr. Morey) directed operations.
Spectacular and interesting methods were employed to throw the engines into the river. A big, heavy hardwood lever was inserted under one side of the locomotive to be dumped, and the other end being made fast to the jib rope of the crane, a signal was given to the crane driver, and his machine chattered into action. Slowly the bulky locomotive commenced to tip over, and, as the angle increased, the derelict gained momentum, until with a rush and a mighty splash the once proud “iron horse” crashed to her final resting place.
The Waikato District takes its name from the great river alongside which, for many miles, the railway line runs on the section between Auckland and Hamilton. Miss Morton's pen pictures of this beautiful region are fully worthy of the subject. The Waikato, besides having a distinctive scenic charm, is the great wealth-producing area of the north, through the development of its dairying industry.
You'd better go by service-car,” they said, when I announced my trip to Rotorua. “The train journey is so tiring!”
I refused flatly to believe them. I never believe train journeys are tiring.
To me, train trips are always interesting, and full of pictures. I find even the Auckland-Papa-kura suburban run a panorama of charm and beauty when the tide isn't too far out at Westfield, and many a time have I risen in the cold white light of breaking day on the Main Trunk express, hung shivering around corridors and outside platforms, rather than miss the glory of sunrise on the three great mountains. One glimpse of Ruapehu, when that first radiant, rosy flush sweeps up the ice-blue glacier, and Parateta-tonga flares suddenly in the golden sky of sunrise, and neither smuts in the eye, nor frozen hands and feet, are of slightest consequence. And once I stood outside on the platform all the way from Ohakune to Waimarino on a winter night, rather than miss moonlight on Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe….
So you see how it was that we saw Waikato a few weeks ago, from the open window of the Rotorua express rather than from the interior of a service car, which never seems to me quite so friendly or intimate a thing as a train.
And when you, too, make this trip through the Waikato, see to it that you have with you that silent travelling companion who fills every hour, every mile of the train journey, with absorbing interest and entertainment, J. C. Cowan's fascinating little book, “The Romance of the Rail” (issued by the Railway Publicity Branch). Never before had I realised the historic importance and interest of those miles of green farmlands between Auckland and Ngaruawahia, now so prosperous, so calm and beautiful in the beauty of an early summer morning, yet once covered with heavy bush, scene of deadly encounters between Maori and Pakeha. Close beside the railway marches the Great South Road, leading on from one thriving township to another, in old time a dark and perilous way, where the treacherous Maori laid in ambush for the White Queen's soldiers; where settlers in the isolated districts of Papakura and Pukekohe fortifield their little Selwyn churches, and went daily in peril of their lives.
Still staunch and sound is the little grey church at Papakura, where as a child I counted
the dark roof-beams on drowsy Sabbath morns, and watched the sunbeams stealing in through the tiny diamond-paned windows. And for another reminder of those far-off days, we have the old grey stone walls that follow the line up and down, over fifty miles from Auckland into the heart of the Waikato, strong, enduring old walls built with laborious care and patience by the soldiers at the close of the Maori War, nearly seventy years ago. Covered with lichen, picturesque as no modern wall is picturesque, the old grey walls carry us back to the tragic years of bloodshed that laid so cruel a burden on this young and helpless country.
But no shadow of those years of travail lies on this lovely morning of blue-and-gold, the kind of morning that comes only in early November, mingling the transient beauty of late spring with the sparkling beauty and warmth of early summer.
The poplars have just put on their new robes of shining gold, so fine and delicate that they lie like a sheen on the blue of the hills and far green fields. The farmer is ploughing a long straight furrow, and the earth behind is a dark ribbon of chocolate trailing across the landscape, the green and gold landscape. Oh, the indescribable green of Waikato fields this sunny morning! A dazzling emerald, making a wonderful background for white lambs and woolly sheep, and herds of grazing cattle! And then the farmhouses, with little children swinging on the gate, waving as the express thunders by, the little rambling gardens, with flaring rhododendrons, sweet lilac and wisteria blooming by the front doors. The scent of pink and white apple blossom, golden acacia and hawthorn massed in snowy bloom, wafts in through our open window; blackbirds run swiftly through the crisp grass, and there are larks trilling valiantly high up in the blue sky… And those are just a few of the things you notice as you pass through the Waikato by train.
Now the fields are left behind for a while, and we are in the country of lagoons and marshes, that lovely, colourful strip of the Waikato that stretches a score of miles from Pokeno to Rangiriri. A menace to the farmer are the marshes when winter's floods submerge the countryside, but very lovely when the waters fall, and a carpet of green and bronze and gold is spread to the foot of the far blue hills. The swamp-grasses, mosses-and flowering rushes make a glowing mosaic of colour, fringed with white-starred, dwarf manuka, the foreground ablaze with golden dandelions and red sorrel. The young raupo blades stand up like tall green spears, and the smooth flax turns its shining, silver-backed leaves to the morning breeze.
Close beside us now is the Waikato River, suave and deep, running in shining reaches beneath the willow-fringed banks. What history was made here in the olden days of war, when the little turretted gun - boat, the “Pioneer,” churned its way up to Cameron's army, encamped on the river - bank, when the swift, silent canoes of the Maori glided through the shining waters to the plaintive music of the paddling-chant! Beneath the shadow of sacred Taupiri Mountain we pass, with the river wheeling round steep, bush-clad hillsides. The mining towns are left behind, we take our farewell of lordly Waikato at Hamilton, and speed down through the level miles of the Eureka swamp-land to the verdant plains of mid-Waikato.
Over in the east rises the rugged walls of the Kaimais, with the midday sun lighting their ridges with golden sheaves of light, indigo shadows sweeping across deep ravines and forest-clad slopes, and the silver mist of a waterfall rising like a thin column of smoke against a towering rock-wall.
Through mile upon mile of rich pasture land we pass, with grazing cattle and sheep staring
Spring lingers in the Mamaku Hills; we catch a glint of her beauty in the clematis, gleaming like a cloud of stars caught in the tangle of the tree-tops. The little native clematis is in bloom too; it hangs in long festoons from the branches, and lightens the dark forest with its fairy beauty. At the top of the steep hill is Mamaku, home of the timber-milling industry for long years, with stumps of fallen giants still marking the line of the one village street.
Then down the steep incline to Tarukenga, through sheer rock cuttings, with perpendicular cliffs and bush-crowned crags and bluffs rising majestically beside the line. More clematis, patches of golden broom ablaze in the sunshine, then that exquisite first glimpse of Lake Rotorua, lying like a fairy lake of turquoise beyond the bracken-covered hills and green farm lands of the foreshore.
By the deep-shadowed groves of Rotorua Station we come to journey's end, well content to have come in the old way, down the shining rails, the way of unwritten romance, the way of prosperity and progress.
Mr. Thomas Dennis, late enginedriver N.Z. Railways, died on 6th December, at the Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, in his 79th year. Born in Jersey, Channel Islands, Mr. Dennis came to New Zealand In 1873, and joined the Otago Railway service (at Invercargill) in April, 1875, being appointed as a driver on 10th December, 1877.
He had six months firing on the broad (4ft. 8½in.) gauge engines on the Invercargill Railways (Bluff-Winton) before the conversion of those lines to the New Zealand standard gauge in December, 1875.
Mr. Dennis was transferred from Invercargill to Riverton on 1st July, 1879, and later from Riverton to the Wanganui district. He was afterwards stationed at Waitara, Auckland, Cambridge, Mercer, Dannevirke, Foxton, Wellington, Hastings, and Napier. Up to the time of his death Mr. Dennis was the oldest engine-driver in the Dominion. He retired, owing to ill-health, on 23rd July, 1908.
One of the most difficult tasks with which railway engineers have ever been confronted (and one of their greatest triumphs) was the construction of the railway across the Rimutaka Ranges. The story of this remarkable railway is told in the following article.
In the mountain regions between the capital city of New Zealand and the Wairarapa Plains, is a short connecting link of railway which is unique in the railway world. It has the distinction of being the only section of railway in the two hemispheres which is operated on the “Fell” centre rail system, with steam locomotives. This link in New Zealand's railway system is known as the “Rimutaka Incline,” and, because of the special locomotives and vans used to work trains over it, and the interesting features of the permanent way, it presents many points of interest to both the railway engineer and the ordinary traveller.
The length of the Incline is three miles. In that distance, the line rises from Cross Creek (the station at the foot of the Incline), no less than 971 feet to the station at the top, appropriately named the Summit. Curves of five chains radius are a predominating feature. The longest piece of straight track, about a quarter of a mile in length, has been facetiously dubbed “The Long Straight.” Three tunnels have been pierced, the length of the longest (situated at the end of the Summit yard) being 649 yards. The average grade is 1 in 15 (which can also be expressed as a 6½% grade, or 353 feet to the mile), and one or two short stretches have a grade of 1 in 11.
At times northerly winds sweep with hurricane force down the narrow gullies, and during the early days of operating the Incline, these winds constituted a real menace to the safe running of trains. A mishap caused directly by the wind, occurred in September, 1880, when three carriages were blown completely off the line where it crossed a deep narrow gully named, not inaptly, “Siberia.” On that occasion, even the heavy tool boxes, which were not bolted down, were blown off the engine. Describing the mishap, Mr. J. Hosie, the then fireman (now a retired driver), stated, so great was the force of the wind, that, except by crawling on his hands and knees, and hanging on to the centre rail for support, he was unable to traverse the rest of the way across the gully. Eventually, he reached the Summit and help was forthcoming. Since that mishap massive timber breakwinds have been erected at the more exposed positions on the Incline, and travel over this part of the system is now as safe as anywhere else in the Dominion.
The method of traction on mountain railways of other countries is mostly by some system of rack-rail. Herein the Rimutaka Incline differs, in that traffic is operated solely by adhesion. In between the usual parallel rails, at a height of some 6½ inches, is the centre rail. This is a double headed rail mounted on its side, on heavy longitudinal timbers; which, in turn, are securely fastened to brackets bolted to the ordinary transverse sleepers. The centre rail commences at the top end of the Cross Creek yard and has its termination some distance inside the south portal of the Summit tunnel. To assist the drivers in locating the latter end of the rail a gong is placed on the tunnel wall, twenty feet from the end of the centre rail. This gong is operated through treadle motion, by the wheels of passing vehicles.
The “Fell” locomotives, known to railway-men as class “H,” are used exclusively for this section of railway, These engines have a total weight of 39 tons. Their construction and operation are most interesting. In passing, it may be news to many, to learn that four of the “H” class engines had names painted on their tanks, viz., “Mt. Cook,” Mt. Tongariro,” “Mt. Egmont,” and “Mt. Conis.” It is a pity that the old custom of naming our locomotives has fallen into disuse.) These engines are carried on six wheels of a diameter of 32ins. The two leading pair of wheels are coupled, and the trailing wheels constitute a radial bogie, situated under the cab. The coupled wheels, which have outside bearings, are driven by cylinders 14in. diameter × 16in. stroke. The steam pressure is 1601bs. per sq. inch. Four of the locomotives have Stephenson valve gear, and two are fitted with Joy's patent valve gear, all of which are outside the frames.
At the base of the smokebox are placed the inside cylinders, 12in. diameter by 14in stroke, which actuate the centre engine. This portion of the engine's anatomy presents much out of the common. The inside cylinders drive on to two vertical axles, and these, in turn, are coupled to two other axles, by suitable rods and pinion wheels. These vertical axles work in axleboxes placed in the cross frames. Keyed to the lower ends are cast steel gripping wheels, having
It is, of course, very necessary that the speeds of the inside and outside engines should synchronise when hauling trains up the grade. The drivers are very expert at this.
Special four-wheeled brake vans are attached at the rear of all trains ascending the Incline, the number of vans to be attached varying according to the load. When trains descend the Incline the vans are placed at the front end of the trains, next to the engines. The special brake gear consists of four massive upright cantilever arms, pivoted on the floor of the van.
The lower ends, to which are bolted cast iron brake shoes, reach low enough to engage against the centre rail. The upper ends are forked, and work in guides on the sides of gun metal nuts, which, in turn, move in or out from the centre of horizontal shafts (screwed with right and left hand threads), running in suitable bearings. A large hand wheel is keyed to the centre of these screwed shafts, and, according to the direction in which the wheels are revolved, so the cantilever arms press the brake shoes against the centre rail, or move them away from it. So severe is the service demanded of this braking system that a set of blocks rarely lasts more than one trip down the Incline.
Let us watch the operation of a train about to negotiate the trip up the “hill.” The practice is for each “Fell” locomotive to be placed at the head of its respective load. When a train arrives at Cross Creek the train engine is detached and the leading “Fell” engine couples on and draws its load up to the commencement of the centre rail, against which the centre engine grip wheels are compressed. The
At the sound of the gong in the Summit tunnel, the pressure of the gripping wheels is released, the wheels are swung clear and the inside engine ceases operation. After arrival in the Summit yard the “Fell” engines and vans come off the train, which is then made up into one portion, and is ready to continue the journey to Wellington.
“Safety First” is rigidly enforced in the working of this part of the railway system. Immediately after the departure of a train up the Incline the points of a runaway siding at the bottom of the grade are opened and not again set for the main line until the whistle of a descending train is heard. Telephones are situated at a number of points on the Incline, so that in case of a breakdown to a vehicle, prompt notice can be given to the stations at the top or bottom of the Incline. Considering the natural difficulties encountered and the arduous nature of the work of operation, it is a tribute to the efficiency of the officials and men of this section that no serious mishaps have occurred on the Incline since 1880.
When a plumber makes a mistake he charges twice for it.
When a lawyer makes a mistake it's just what he wanted, because he has a chance to try the case all over again.
When a carpenter makes a mistake it's just what he expected, because chances are ten to one he never learned the trade.
When a doctor makes a mistake he buries it.
When a judge makes a mistake it becomes a law of the land.
When an electrician makes a mistake, he blames it on induction—nobody knows what that is.
When a preacher makes a mistake, nobody knows the difference.
But when an editor makes a mistake, Good Night!
A far reaching improvement upon the old method of weighing locomotives at Hillside Workshops has been introduced through the ingenuity of a member of the local staff. As described in the following article, locomotives can now be weighed in two hours instead of eight, as hitherto.
AMost important aspect of locomotive engineering is that associated with the weighing of locomotives before they are put into commission on the active service list. The object of weighing a locomotive is to ensure that each driving and bogie wheel of the great machine carries its proper share of weight. Unequal distribution of weight means loss of tractive power, and where sections of heavy country have to be negotiated this factor is of vital moment. The question may be asked: “How is a locomotive weighed?” It is weighed on specially designed weighing machines. These machines, though unimpressive in appearance and very simple in design, are, nevertheless, remarkably efficient, and register the weights of the respective parts of the locomotive with the greatest accuracy. In cases where a locomotive has undergone repairs of a nature likely to have caused a change in the weight distribution, the closest attention is paid to the weighing operation, adjustments and re-adjustments of the spring gear of the locomotive being made until the weights are correctly proportioned. The locomotive weighing machine embodies the principle of the lever, the machine being, in effect, but a series of levers.
By way of digression, it is interesting to observe that the principle of the lever dates from the very dawn of history. Levers were used by the ancient Egyptians in the construction of the Pyramids, and, right down the ages, they have been more or less intimately associated with mechanical contrivances.
Illustration No. 1 depicts the type of weighing, machine originally used by the Railway Department. This machine was of the straight-out suspension lever type with a graduated arm and weight, and was considered quite effective in its day. Modern developments, however, produced a more effective appliance, as shown in illustration No. 2. It will be seen at a glance that the machine featured in the latter illustration is much more efficient in design, giving greater scope and a finer and more accurate adjustment. It has, moreover, the important advantage of occupying less space when in position.
One of the main features of the new workshops scheme is the provision of ample working room. In the design and lay-out of the weighing pit of the new locomotive erecting shop at Hillside the importance of this factor has, therefore, been given full recognition.
Under the old conditions the handling, placing in position, setting up of the machines and weighing of the engines, was a laborious process. Owing to the lack of space it was necessary to store the weighing machines on shelves between the columns of the buildings, and they were lifted to and from these shelves by an appliance suspended from the overhead crane and then placed in position under the wheels of the engine to be weighed. The average time occupied in weighing an engine under these conditions was eight hours.
Much consideration was given to the matter of effecting an improvement on these cumbrous methods in the new shops, and, as the purchase and installation of a special weighbridge could only be done at prohibitive cost, ways and means of utilising the present machines were sought.
The problem was ingeniously solved by a member of the Hillside staff. A special pit was laid down and the necessary alterations to the weighing machines effected, with the very gratifying result that an engine can now be weighed in the new shops in two hours—a saving of six hours over the old method. Moreover, results are obtained equal in accuracy to the most elaborate weighbridge.
In the construction of the new weighing apparatus at Hillside a shallow pit was excavated on each side of one of the steaming tracks which is set aside for weighing locomotives. Two rails, set in concrete parallel to the track, were installed in each of the shallow pits, and plate carriages were made to travel on these two sets of rails. Wheels were mounted on the base of each weighing machine. These wheels engaged on short runners affixed to the top of the plate carriages mentioned. Thus, by this arrangement, the weighing machines can be easily moved, parallel with the locomotive, to suit the different wheel centres of the various types of locomotives. The machines can also be moved in and out at right angles to the locomotive—under its wheels.
Great care was necessary in the installation of the weighing machines in order to obtain perfect alignment. Up to date, several engines have been weighed, and the new installation has proved highly efficient, handling time being reduced to a minimum, and vexatious delays altogether eliminated.
The installation of the new machines is a notable step forward in the equipment of the workshops for increased production, through which the Department and the Dominion generally must benefit.
The workman who never makes the opportunity to notice positions of the nearest fire extinguishers when he doesn't need them may not have a very good opportunity to do so when he suddenly does need them.
Do you remember the time when you were a new employee? Perhaps it was not so long ago, or possibly it was many years ago, but every worker was a new employee at one time. Didn't everything seem strange to you—the plant, the machinery, the men? Perhaps there was one man in the department who greeted you with a smile and who occasionally gave you a pointer or two on how to do your work more easily. At noon this same man took you to the lunch room and introduced you to some of the other boys. And at night he showed you the best way to get to the street.
You learned to like this man and looked to him for any information you needed about your work. If he told you the safe way to do a hazardous job you paid as much attention to it as if the safety inspector had told you about it.
In these days, when new men are constantly coming into the plant, every old employee has a great opportunity and duty to perform toward these men. Treat them as you would like to be treated if you were in their place. Show them how to “Make It Safe” and avoid getting hurt, and set a good example by being careful yourself.
It has been said that a new employee is as dangerous as an unguarded machine, for he is likely, through his lack of knowledge of his new surroundings, to injure others as well as himself. This is true until the new man has been made to realise the dangers of his work. The sooner you help him realise this, the sooner will you both be safe from accidents.
Give the new employee the glad hand and help him to “Make It Safe.”
When referring to the Westinghouse air brake, the point of view generally taken is that of stopping at the various stations, whereas the most important duties of this railway safety appliance are controlling trains safely down grades and inclines, and quick stopping in case of emergency.
We do not, I am afraid, always realise or appreciate the many excellencies of this brake, but take it as a matter of course that the engine-driver will be able to stop the train in a very short distance should it be necessary to do so.
In ordinary service running, a train attains a speed of 30 miles per hour a few minutes after starting, yet, the same train, travelling at 30 miles per hour, can be stopped by the air brake in a few seconds, and within a distance of three or four hundred feet. That this can be accomplished, even if the engine is in full steam, clearly demonstrates that the energy exerted by the air brake overcomes the energy exerted by the engine hauling the train.
When service or emergency applications of the air brake are being made, the air pressure increases gradually in the brake cylinder, and the power developed there depends upon the train pipe reductions.
With emergency and with full service air brake applications, the brake cylinder pressure rises gradually from zero to the maximum in about three seconds. This gradual application of the air brakes, and the flexibility of the compressed air during the whole retardation, tends to bring the entire train quietly and quickly to rest, and prevents any severe jar or shock, either to the passengers in the train or to the brake mechanism, when the train actually stops.
Were the train stopped suddenly when the air brakes were being first applied, the passengers, having adapted themselves to the train speed movement or velocity, would be thrown from their seats and hurled against some part of the car. The gradual stopping of the train prevents this, and, also, eliminates the skidding of the wheels.
Without any trouble, and with the minimum attention, the air brake performs its work quietly and efficiently, but no matter how efficient or simple any railway safety appliance may be, the perfect performance of its duties depends upon the man controlling it.
It is, therefore, necessary that every railway man should do his part faithfully and well, and to the best of his ability, whether he is in the workshops, the traffic department, or on the locomotives.
With the workshops men, when overhauling or repairing the air brake apparatus, the ambition should be to do good work only, realising the whole time that the safety of the railway travellers and the rolling stock depends largely upon the efficient working of the Westinghouse brake.
With reference to the proper testing of the air brakes on all departing trains at terminal and intermediate stations, where trains are made up, or where vehicles have been attached or detached, much responsibility rests on the men of the traffic department.
The engine-driver's responsibility concerns the safe running of trains down the grades and inclines, the smooth stopping of trains at the railway stations, and the quick stopping in emergency circumstances.
If the workshops, the traffic, and the locomotive staffs perform their several duties efficiently and well, the Westinghouse brake will always do its part in the direction of securing the safety of the travelling public, and in protecting the Department's trains from damage and possible disaster.
The custom (once followed in New Zealand) of christening locomotives with distinctive names, has much to commend it and is gaining in popular favour on the big railway systems overseas. The interesting names by which a number of our early locomotives were known are the subject of the following article—compiled from information received from Mr. H. Buxton, late Chief Traffic Manager of the N.Z.R.
The naming of the locomotive “Passchendaele,” pictured in the August number of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine,” recalls the fact that in the early days of our railways some of the locomotives had more or less appropriate names. It was stated by a recent writer that the English custom of giving names to the engines working the principal passenger trains had its origin in the naming of stage coaches. This is probably correct. However, the first stage coach which reached New Zealand (by way of America and Australia), did not bring with it any system of nomenclature, though it is interesting to note that, before the advent of tramways in the Dominion, the ‘buses plying in the streets of the cities had names.
The first locomotive imported into New Zealand was landed on 6th May, 1863, at Ferrymead Wharf (Heathcote), for the Lyttelton-Christchurch Railway, and was of the 5ft. 3in. gauge. It was named “Pilgrim” as a compliment to the Canterbury Pilgrims, the first settlers of the Canterbury Association. It does not appear that either the contractors who brought the engine from Melbourne (Australia), or the provincial Government who owned it, ever went to the expense of attaching a name plate or painting the name on the engine. During its career in New Zealand that historic locomotive was known as No. 1. Nine other locomotives of similar gauge imported subsequently were, likewise, designated by numbers only.
When the General Government (after the passing of the famous Public Works Act of 1870) commenced the construction of railways of the standard (3ft. 6in.) gauge, the engines for the Canterbury lines were, in like manner, known officially by numbers. The engines were not then classed as at present, but in some cases the letters NGB or NGT (as a description of the subsequent G and J classes), were painted on the buffers in addition to the distinguishing numbers. The photograph of the opening of the Waimate Branch, reproduced in a former issue of the Magazine (August, 1927), shows engine No. 13 of the (subsequent) old A class.
When (in anticipation of the completion of the South Island main lines), the Hurunui-Bluff section was placed under one management, the locomotive numbers in use up to that time were superseded by a general renumbering and classification—commencing from Invercargill. F1, F2, M3, M4, C5, D6, and so on, up to K97, the latter locomotive being stationed at Christchurch. This original numbering has not been preserved, as when the engines were sold or transferred to other sections, their numbers were allotted to others. In consequence of this re-allocation of numbers it is, unfortunately, not now possible to identify the old locomotives. (For example, on the South Island Main Lines, three different engines have had the number 51.)
In 1877 several engines were imported from America to run the proposed express trains. Two of these engines, K87 and K88 (the first imported), were named “Lincoln” and “Washington,” respectively. The builders of these engines (Rogers Locomotive Works), supplied the Department with six similar engines, but the latter were not named. About the same time four engines were imported for the Southland lines. Two of these (M89 and M90), were transferred to the Canterbury section, one being named “Mazeppa,” and the other “Corsair.” The class M engines, which were originally of the 0-6-0 type, were afterwards rebuilt (with a different wheel arrangement), so that they might run on the lighter lines. However, in the repainting of the engines their names were not retained. (These particular engines were subsequently running in the Hawke's Bay district.) It is understood the names of the original K class engines were picked out in nickel studs on the panels of the cab. If this be so, and the engines are still running with the original cabs, the names are probably still in existence.
Shortly after the importation of the engines referred to, the Rakaia and Ashburton Forks Railway Company imported two engines for their line—which is now known as the Methven Branch. These engines were also built by the Rogers Locomotive Works. They were somewhat similar in appearance to the class K type, but were double ended (and had a shorter tender) to enable them to run in either direction without turning. They were named “Stanley” and “Livingston.” When taken over by the Railway Department they were classed and numbered Q17 and Q51. They ran for a time on the main lines and were then broken
The first two engines in Otago (imported in 1872 for the Dunedin-Port Chalmers Railway) were named “Josephine” and “Rose.” The engine “Josephine,” after a checkered career in both Islands of New Zealand was sold to be broken up, but through the kindness of Messrs. Smellie Bros., of Burnside, it was rescued by the Railway Department and became the property of the Otago Early Settlers Association. This historic locomotive now stands near the Early Settlers Hall, adjacent to Dunedin Railway Station. The engine “Rose” had a short life and was dismantled at Hillside Shops. The engines “Josephine” and “Rose” were built by the Vulcan Foundry Co., Newton le Willows, for Slaughter Grunning & Co. (afterwards the Avonside Engine Co.), of Bristol. The “Josephine” was numbered E24 in Dunedin, which number, however, was altered to E175 when this pioneer engine was removed to Wanganui. The number of the engine “Rose” is not known.
On commencement of the construction of the Dunedin-Clutha line two engines (subsequently F11 and F13) were obtained from Neilson, of Glasgow. These engines were named “Rob Roy” and “Peveril,” respectively. Later engines for the Otago railways were named after characters of Sir Walter Scott's works, but unfortunately these cannot be identified. They were: “Pirate,” “Waverley,” “Meg. Merrilies,” “Edie Ochiltree,” “Roderick Dhu,” and others. A small Double Fairlie (B27) was christened “Lady Mordaunt” by the staff, but it is doubtful whether the name was officially recognised She was a dainty little engine with rounded tank tops and brass dome covers and handrails. The name was that of a lady whose charms attracted some attention in England about that time. This engine worked the trains on the Dunedin Peninsula and Ocean Beach Co's line, for some time, but was later transferred to Wanganui and was then numbered E165.
Two small engines, imported and erected in Dunedin by Conyers and Davidson, of the Otago Foundry, were named “Kiwi” and “Weka.” These were originally classed P, but their numbers are not recorded. The “Kiwi,” it is understood, was sold early. The “Weka” was sent to Wanganui and was sold to the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Co. When the Manawatu line was acquired by the Government the “Weka,” with the other rolling stock of the company, was taken over by the Railway Department.
On completion of the line from Makikihi to Waitaki North, in February, 1877, the
In Southland the original lines (Bluff-Winton), were of 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge. There were three locomotives of the gauge mentioned which were sold on the conversion of the lines to the standard (3ft. 6in.) gauge. There were also, in Southland, three locomotives of the Davies pattern. These latter were intended to run on a wooden tramway between Invercargill and Makarewa. They were not a success. One of the Davies engines which was in commission for a time was named “Lady Barkly.” This engine was sold subsequently to a sawmiller, and was used to run the mill. (The name, “Lady Barkly,” is perpetuated in the siding of that name on the Kingston line, where the sawmill was situated.) So far as is known no other engine of the broad gauge type had a name. Replacing the “Lady Barkly” was a locally built engine (which ran on the tramway for a time), but there is no record of its having been named. The standard (3ft. 6in.) gauge engines of the M class were named “Werner,” “Manfred,” “Mazeppa,” and “Corsair.” The first two were numbered 3 and 4 respectively. The other two were transferred to Christchurch as previously mentioned.
On the North Island lines some names can be traced from photographs. The engine (class F) of the first train between Auckland and Onehunga was named “Ada,” after Mrs. Henderson, wife of the local representative of the contractors (Brogden and Sons). In Auckland there were also a Double Fairlie named “Snake,” and five other Class F engines, named “Ivanhoe,” “Marmion,” “Jeanie Deans,” “Lord of the Isles,” “Lady of the Lake.” On the Kaipara-Riverhead line there was a Class D engine named “Schnapper,” and on the Wellington section a class D engine named “Eel,” and a class C engine named “Belmont.” There were also two small locomotives built by E. W. Mills & Co. These were named “Wallaby” and “Opossum.” The “Wallaby” was sent to Wanganui where it was sold by the Railway Department to the Manawatu County Council for use on the Sandon
No doubt some of the older readers of the Magazine can further supplement the information herein set forth on engine names in New Zealand, and thus add to our knowledge of a very interesting subject.
As a holiday ground, few corners of Europe have sprung into greater favour in recent times than sun-steeped Algeria (writes our Special London Correspondent). Although situated on the continent of Africa, Algeria includes three Departments of France, viz.: Oran, Algiers and Constantine. Its 2,742 miles of railway track include some 672 miles of line owned and operated by the P.L.M. Company of France, and, wherever one journeys in this picturesque holiday territory, French influence is clearly apparent.
The headquarters of both the P.L.M. railway system serving Algiers, and the Algerian State Railways, are situated at Algiers, the capital of the country. The majority of the routes are single-track, and one terminal in the capital serves both railway undertakings of the land. Flat-bottomed rails, spiked to the sleepers, are utilised. Stations are few and far between, and platforms are as often as not, non-existent. The P.L.M. main line runs from Algiers to Oran, a distance of 264 miles. The State Railways main line goes from Algiers to Constantine and the Tunisian frontier, where connection is afforded with the Tunisian railway system. The locomotive stocks are of extremely varied character. Six-coupled engines with small driving wheels are employed for both passenger and freight train working, and generally coal bricks are employed as engine fuel in place of ordinary coal. Most of the passenger carriages are four or six-wheeled, and three classes of travel are provided, while sleeping cars and restaurant carriages of the International Sleeping Car Company are also employed on the trunk routes. A feature of the passenger carriages is the introduction of a platform at either end of the car, these platforms being exceptionally popular in the hot season. On the narrow-gauge lines of the interior the stations are many miles apart, and, whenever necessary, take the form of blockhouses for military use. At the same time, ambitious plans are under review for the linking up of the Algerian railways with the West Coast of Africa by way of the Sahara Desert. This would be a most difficult engineering task, but such a connection would prove of inestimable value in opening up the fruitful territory of West Africa, and bringing within speedy reach of the European markets the agricultural produce for which this corner of the globe is far-famed.
A Descriptive and Historical Story of the North Island Main Trunk Railway
Otaki is the most historical place on the coast. The rail-line keeps to the east side of the “pakeha-Maori” town. Here a large section of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe has lived for about a century, ever since the great fighting migration southward from the Waikato.
There are carved houses in the old settlements, and there is a partilarily interesting church, the old Maori whare kara-kia, called “Rangi-atea.” The name is a poem and a history in itself, for it embodies a memory of the ancient home of the race in the Eastern Pacific, Rangiatea is synonymous with Ra'iatea Island, near Tahiti; and the name was given to a sacred altar of the Tainui migration. The church, built nearly eighty years ago, has a European exterior, but the interior is Maori architecture adapted to church needs. Mastlike round totara pillars, 40ft. high, support the massive ridge pole. These whole tree trunks were cut at Ohau by Maori artisans and floated by river and sea to Otaki. The ridge pole and rafters are painted in Native scroll patterns. Opposite the church stands a monument to the great Rauparaha; he died here in 1849, and was buried on Kapiti Island.
There is a Maori college of historic association near “Rangiatea.” It dates back to the days of Bishop Octavius Hadfield, one-time Primate of New Zealand. Hadfield settled here in 1839 as a young missionary, and acquired great influence among the Maoris. The land for the Native school was given by the Ngati-Raukawa tribe. Selected boys from Rarotonga and other South Sea islands as well as Maoris are educated here.
Waikanae, “Mullet River,” the next station, is a pretty place, with its mingling of indigenous vegetation and exotic trees and flowers. The steep-wooded foothills of the Tararua Range rise close to the line.
Another pretty place on this part-wooded littoral between mountains and sea is Para-paraumu—a name, by the way, very much mangled in European pronunciation. Many Wellington people have summer-time bungalows and camps here.
Hereabouts, as the west coast is closely approached, the traveller has glimpses of a high hump-backed island looming blue over the nearer changing scenes of green pastures and native tree groves. At Paekakariki and thence to Pukerua there is an uninterrupted view of the island. This is famous Kapiti. once a Maori fortress isle, now a State sanctuary for native birds. The island, about six miles in length, with an average width of a mile and a half, has an area of about 5,000 acres, nearly half of which is covered by native forest.
One time a piratical cannibal stronghold of Te Rauparaha, later an early-days whaling station, Kapiti is the centre of a hundred dramatic stories. The summit (1,780ft) of the island is Titeremoana (a good name; it means “Look out over the Ocean”); it was the olden Maoris' sentry peak, where they watched for invading war-canoe fleets.
So on from Paekakariki, through a series of short tunnels in the rocky cliffs high above the surf-beaten rough shingle beach. “Pae-kakariki” means a perch or snare used for catching the green parakeet. The top of the steep range above was called of old Te Pae-o-te-rangi. “The Pillow of Heaven”—say, sky-top.
That rough country inland, the eastern masses of the forested Tararuas—Kapakapanui and Wainui and sister peaks—was the scene in 1846 of Te Rangihaeata's retreat northward, pursued by the Government forces after the Hutt and Porirua campaign.
The outer and inner shores of Porirua are storied ground. We pass through the seaside township of Plimmerton, a great holiday resort for the city and inland people. It was named after Mr. John Plimmer, one of Wellington's earliest pioneers. Here stood Taupo Village, where wily old Rauparaha, who had secretly been assisting his nephew, Te Rangihaeata, against the whites, was skilfully captured in 1846, under Governor Grey's direction. He was kept a prisoner for two years in British ships-of-war. The exact spot where Rauparaha was captured is quite close to the present railway station at Plimmerton. The Natives point out a little grassy space bordered by ngaio trees between the station and the beach as the place where Rauparaha's whare stood, and where he was surprised and seized at early dawn by a party of British bluejackets.
Out yonder is the long flat-topped island of Mana, one time an eyrie and retreat of warrior bands under Rangihaeata. Nowadays it is a sheep-run.
That quiet salt-water bay going far inland on our left is Paua-taha-nui (which has been corrupted to Pahautanui). It was the scene of lively skirmishing between Rangitaeata's war-canoes and bush-ambushed bands and the British naval patrol parties who manned H.M.S. “Calliope's” little gunboat.
On the green flat on our right, as we cross the sea-arm, sheep graze around the crumbling ruins of an old-time brick fort, built in the year of Wellington's one and only war. This was
Porirua Harbour, which we skirt on our right, was lively enough, too, in 1846, with all the martial business of defence and offence against a too-mobile foe. That little war, a kind of romantic dream to-day, was a serious enough matter when Wellington Town was but six years old, a forest wilderness in its rear and on its flanks.
Between Porirua and Wellington Harbour the route is parallel with the military road cut through the forest and over the range by the 58th Regiment and some friendly Maoris. A line of stockades protected this pioneer road. There was one, Elliott's Stockade, on the shore of Porirua, near the head of the harbour. There was another, Lieut. Leigh's post, on Tawa Flat, close to our line, and there was Lieut. Middleton's stockade higher up. The suburban hilltown of Johnsonville was originally a bush clearing, where a small blockhouse of rough slabs, loopholed for musket-fire, with a loft reached by a ladder, was built in 1846. The various stockades garrisoned by the 58th Regiment, the “Black Cuffs,” were built in this way: a trench was dug, and large split trees and small whole trees were set in close together and the earth firmly filled in around them. Firing apertures were cut in this bristling wall of timber. At Khandallah, on the Wellington-ward slopes, there was a small sentry-post, a position popularly called “Mount Misery.” This spot, Sentry-box Hill, now abbreviated to Box Hill, is near the west side of the line, at the little church, near Khandallah Station.
Now the sight of Port Nicholson's lake-like expanse, ringed about with steep hills, and houses and shipping, recalls us from the past. Kipling once saw Wellington and something of the back-country, as his poem, “The Flowers,” reminds us—
For miles the outer hills and gullies where the bush has been cut away are golden with gorse and with the broom that took the poet's eye.
Through the last short tunnels Wellington City opens out below, and on our right, with its miles of curving sea-front lined with wharves and shipping, and its houses climbing in tiers to the skyline 400ft. and 500ft. above the sea. A complete contrast this angular semi-mountainous landscape to Auckland's softly rounded beauty, yet a landscape of charm and variety that gains in interest as one explores the city and its surroundings. The first daylight view of Wellington from the railway is a quick revelation of the unusual in seaport scenery. Of a softer quality of beauty is the picture it makes on some calm summer night, when, from the glittering lights on the waters of Oriental Bay to the heights of Brooklyn and Kelburn, the successive terraces of the city are picked out in the lines of a thousand steadily blazing golden stars.
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.
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.)
“A tool is but the extension of a man's hand, and a machine is but a complex tool. And he that invents a tool augments the power of a man and the well-being of manking.”—Henry Ward Beecher.
“There is always room for improvement,” is an old adage and a true one. Its truth impresses one with particular force in these days of rapid progress, for seldom a day passes but does not witness the adoption of superior processes following upon the application of the scientific method. In the engineering industry especially, the introduction of modern methods and highly specialised machines, has simplified and increased production far beyond the expectation of the most ardent optimist of a short generation ago.
High speed steel of wonderful quality and capable of withstanding the most severe conditions met with in metal machining operations has, as a result of keen and scientific research work, been recently placed at the disposal of the employees in our workshops.
In order that advantage might be taken of the exceptionally efficient results obtained from the use of this steel (the initial cost of which is considerable), and as a means of prolonging its usefulness, a process known as tool tipping has been adopted, with great success at Hillside workshops.
After much experimenting, heavy low carbon shanks of low-priced material have been tipped successfully with high speed steel by the brazing process. (This necessitates the use of a specially prepared brazing medium.) A composite tool is thus produced, giving the high efficiency of super-quality tool steel at a low cost.
The method adopted in tool tipping is to procure the best super-high speed tool steel in sizes to suit the tools to be tipped. These pieces are ground perfectly true on one side and one edge, and then cut to length to suit the nose of the tool shank. The ends of the tool shanks are forged and machined (or ground) to produce a seating for the tip as shown in the accompanying illustration. The high speed steel tip is then placed in position on the shank, with the brazing medium between it and the shank, and it is tip-wired to secure it in position. The end of the tool is then placed in the tool hardening furnace and heated slowly to a dull red, after which the temperature is raised quickly to 2,300 deg. F. When this temperature is reached (as shown on the pyrometer) the tool is quickly withdrawn and pressure applied to the tip, which is cooled quickly by means of a cold air blast.
The tool can now be treated in the same manner as an ordinary solid tool.
Tips approximately 3in. long, 1¼in. wide and 3/8in. thick, have been brazed to shanks 2in. × 1½in., and the resultant tool tested in the new 5ft. 6in. Loudon wheel lathe by taking a 9–16in. cut with a 3-16in. feed. The results of the test equalled those obtained from solid high speed tools.
These highly successful tests have been followed by the adoption of the tipped tools for wheel lathes and planing machines. The field for their utilisation is a wide one. When it is considered that a high speed tool for the Loudon wheel lathe costs £4 10s., whilst a similar tool of low carbon steel with super-steel tip costs 17/6, the saving effected by the adoption of the method of tool tipping can be readily appreciated.
The simplicity of the general mode this season and the frequent use of combinations of colour and material, make it an easy matter for even the inexperienced seamstress to remodel old garments into attractive new ones.
The sheer frock that is out at the elbow becomes the “latest thing” when the sleeves are removed, the armhole bound, and a cape collar that comes down over the arms, is added. The dress that has given out under the arms may become a sleeveless slip to be worn under a sweater or one of the short jackets so popular this season, or the substantial material may be applied to a deep yoke that is not only in good style, but also may be used to lengthen a frock that has shrunk until it is uncomfortably short.
Even last year's frock that became shiny at the back may be transformed into a most desirable bit of clothing with a front panel and a new back, and collar and sleeve trimmings of contrasting material. Discarded blouses, otherwise worn but with lovely fronts, lend themselves admirably to adaptation for the new costume blouses; a piece of new material, a little trimming, or none, where the pieces join, and the thing is done.
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Remember always in sewing that it is the lines of the garment that give it style. Regardless of the number of times it is necessary to piece in making a garment, if all the piecing is done on the correct lines, the clothing will still present a smart appearance. In some cases it is best to piece and forget about it; in others, the piecing may be made a decorative feature by accenting it with a line of fagoting, hemstitching, lace, braid, a touch of embroidery, a bit of piping, or by one or more rows of fine, uniform stitching. Choose carefully, however, the places to be so decorated, for too much effort to hide a piecing often makes it most obvious.
In selecting patterns for use in remodeling a garment, the most important consideration, next to getting one most becoming to the wearer's type, is to suit that pattern to the lines of the material on hand. Long strips lend themselves best to panel effects; short pieces to simulated jackets and quaint frocks with the waistline that is to-day rapidly climbing up to the natural. It is as interesting as a crossword puzzle to make the pieces come out right, and most absorbing of all, to experiment and work out all sorts of original ideas that are still in line with the prevailing mode.
Children's clothes should be so pretty that the little owners feel at their best in every garment. Remodeled garments should never announce the fact to playmates. If parents would always buy materials that would dye well, and mothers would try to perfect themselves in the art of making lovely things that would never be recognised as “hand-me-downs,” many a child who is not getting along well in school because of self-consciousness would be radiantly happy and bright in his studies, and the clothing bill for the whole family would be astonishingly low.
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Ingredients.—loz. arrowroot, 1 pint milk, 2oz. sugar, 2 or 3 yolks of eggs.
Method.—Blend the arrowroot with a little of the milk, and put the rest on to boil; when boiling add the arrowroot and sugar. Boil for eight minutes. Cool a little, and then add the well-beaten yolks; stir well. Flavour to taste.
This is delicious served in custard glasses with stewed fruit. This custard may also be used in making trifles.
Three-quarters cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon salt, a cup milk, 2½ cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ cup walnuts.
Cream sugar and butter, add egg, milk and other ingredients, the walnuts last. This is especially good when spread over with cream cheese and used as a sandwich.
Six slices bread (buttered), 1 cup sugar, raisins, 2 eggs, 1 quart milk, vanilla.
Grease pudding dish with butter. Lay in slices of buttered bread and strew with raisins, which should be washed well. Beat eggs with sugar and add one teaspoon of vanilla. Stir into milk and fill dish. Bake one-half hour in oven.
Juice of three lemons, grate the rind of two; 1 pound sugar, ¼ pound butter, 6 eggs; leave out the whites of 2 eggs, beat them to a froth and add when done boiling. When it thickens it is done. Best cooked in a double boiler.
Unemployed: “Can you give me a job where I can keep dressed up all the time and won't have to work?”
Mr. Keating: “I'll keep you in mind, and when I find two jobs like that you can have the other one.
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“And you'll be careful, dear, won't you, about getting out when you reach London? I think you'll get out this side. Anyhow, you'll see when you get there, and, if it's not this side, then, dear, it's sure to be the other.”—(From “Punch.”)
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Mother: Billy, why are you making your little brother cry?
Billy: I'm not. He's dug a hole and he's crying because he can't bring it into the house.
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A Dutchman, addressing his dog, says: “My tog, you haf a snapp. You vas ondly a tog, and I vas a man, but I vish I vas you. You every vay haf de best of it. Ven you go mit to bed you just turn round t'ree times and lay down. Ven I go mit to bed I haf to lock up de place, vind up de clock, put de cat oudt, undress myself, and den my vife up and scold me, and de baby cry, and I valk up and down, and den maybe ven I just go to sleep it's time to get up again.
“Ven you get up you just stretch yourself and den scratch yourself a couple of times and den you vas up. I haf to light de fire, put de kettle on, scrap some vid my vife, and maybe get some breakfast.
“You play all day and haf plenty of vun. I vork all day and haf plenty of drouble. Ven you die you vas dead. Ven I die I'se got to go to hell yet.”
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Pat: “Well, Mike, I fooled the boss to-day.”
Mike: “How's that?”
Pat: “Well, I carried the same hodful of bricks up and down the ladder all day, and the boss thought I was working.”
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Enginedriver's Sweetheart: “And do you always think of me during your long night trips?”
“Do I? I've wrecked two trains that way already!”
“Oh, you darling!”
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Daughter: “Did you have many many love affairs daddy?”
Soldier Father: “No, child; I fell in the first engagement.”
In reference to the efficient service rendered by the staff at Whangarei in connection with the recent Spring Show, the “Northern Advocate” writes as follows:—
The Whangarei Spring Show officials wish it to be known that they owe a debt of gratitude to the Railway Department for the splendid manner in which stock was handled. They contend that the organisation, headed by Mr. Burns, Mr. Cullen and their staff, for the receiving and disposal of stock has not been equalled in the Dominion. No other district was in the position of having to handle stock at three separate stations, as was done at Ruatangata, Mair and Whangarei, and the fact that the stock was loaded into the respective trucks in such a short space of time reflected much credit on the organisation, efficiency and co-operation of the local railway officials.
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From H. C. Campbell, Ltd., Customs and Shipping Experts, Dunedin, to the District Traffic Manager, Dunedin:—
We should like to offer our thanks to the Department for the very great help which we receive from the officers of the Department in the carrying out of our daily duties. At present we are particularly referring to Mr. J. A. Boswell, of the Goods Agent's Office. It is really a pleasure to come into contact with this gentleman, and we know of no occasion on which he has not gone out of his way to assist us in every possible way. This week, for instance, ex the “Karetu” at Sydney, we had a consignment of fruit for Invercargill, which we were not able to get from the ship until 11 a.m. Yet on the same day it went forward by express goods train due to leave Dunedin at 11.30 a.m.
Another instance we should like to mention is the following:—
A few weeks ago we had some very important, and heavy cases of machinery ex coasting steamer for the Ross Sea Whaling Co. The steamer arrived during the forenoon, and it was 11.15 a.m. before we were able to get them to the Goods Yard, and yet, because of the able assistance which we received from Mr. J. W. Henderson of the Goods Agent's Office, they went forward by express goods train at 11.30 a.m.
We only instance these two particular cases to prove that the Officers of the Department are ever willing to do all they possibly can to further the interests of their Department, and also of the public.
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From the Secretary, Scottish Society, Oamaru, to Mr. Hartley, Stationmaster, Oamaru:—
The members of the Scottish Society desire to express to you and the members of your staff their great appreciation of the arrangements made and attention given on the occasion of their recent trip by rail to Timaru.
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From Mr. J. A. Simson, Hastings, to the General Manager of Railways, Wellington:—
My daughter met with a very serious accident in Auckland last month, the worst of her many injuries being two very badly broken ankles. In no fit condition to travel, she had to be brought home by the second express from Auckland last Friday night, 30th November.
I desire to place on record my grateful thanks for the extreme care, sympathetic treatment and unfailing attention of every Railway official between Auckland station and Hastings (especially the guard of the second express), and hope that they be informed of my wife's and my own appreciation of their kindness.
Allwright, R. S., to Chief Clerk, Gr. 4, Thorndon.
Chambers, G., H., to Traffic Inspector, Gr. 4, Christchurch.
Chandler, T. F., to Asst. Stationmaster, Gr. 3, Palmerston North.
Cooper, W., to Senior Goods Clerk, Gr. 4, Wellington.
Craig, F. G., to Passenger Agent, Gr. 4, Wellington.
Goldsmith, H., to Car Shop Foreman, Gr. 5, Otahuhu.
Gosden, A., to Timber Checker and Ticket Inspector, Gr. 6, Greymouth.
Hagan, H., to Wood Wagon Shop Foreman, Gr. 5, Otahuhu.
Harmston, M.E., to Asst. Goods Agent, Gr. 3, Christchurch.
Harvey, J. W., to Sub-Foreman, Gr. 6, Otahuhu.
Hilliard, G. V., to Stationmaster, Gr. 6, Glen Afton.
Kelleher, J., to Accounts Clerk, Gr. 6, D.T.M.O., Wellington.
Macdonald, J., to Business Agent, Gr. 4, Auckland.
McEwan, T. H., to Sub-Foreman, Gr. 6, Addington.
Marsh, G., to Officer-in-charge Goods Branch, Gr. 4, Greymouth.
Pullin, W. F. G., to General Foreman, Gr. 2., Workshops, Lower Hutt.
Stephens, T. A., to Stationmaster, Gr. 2, Lyttelton.
Venimore, V. W. W., to Costing Officer, Chief Accountant's Office, Gr. 3, Wellington.
Walker, R. A., to Loco. Foreman, Gr. 2, Auckland.
Warren, F. G., to Asst. Shipping Clerk, Gr. 6, Christchurch Goods.
Watt, R. J., to Tarpaulin Shop Foreman, Gr. 6, Addington.
Wylie, H., to Workshops Manager, Gr. 3, Eastown.
Shunters to Guards: Smith, J., to Cross Creek.
Porters to Shunters: Duncan, F. L., to Wellington Goods.
Gerken, J., to Dunedin Goods.
Hogg, R. C., to Christchurch Goods.
Woolnough, J. A., to Relief, Wanganui.
Surfaceman to Ganger: Morrison, P. S., to Gr. 2, Cronadun.
Commendations: Duncan, A., Outdoor Transportation Asst., Christchurch.—Suggestion re extension of holiday excursion tickets.
Martin, S., Clerk, Auckland Passenger.—Suggestion re method of dealing with cancelled sleeping berth reservations.
Rattray, J., Clerk, Greymouth.—Suggested amendment to the wording on consignment notes.
Commendations and Monetary Awards: Harman, A. E., Leading Fitter, Hillside.—Awarded bonus of £1 for suggestion re pneumatic hammers.
Murphy, N., Storeman, Blenheim.—Awarded bonus of £3 for suggestion re shipment of motor spirit and kerosene via Picton.
Thompson, H. J., Depot Chargeman, Gisborne.—Awarded bonus of £1 for suggested eyebolt and chain to be attached to back buffer beams of engines.
The total operating revenue for the Dominion shews an increase of £22,689 for the nine periods (252 days) of the current year as compared with the corresponding periods (254 days) of last year.
Extended operations of bus services and a substantial increase in the goods traffic are the factors chiefly responsible for the increased revenue.
“Ordinary” train tickets on all but the small sections shew a decline, which is offset, however, by the increase in the number of bearer and season tickets issued, and the operations of the bus services.
The increased traffic in cattle and calves in the North Island is chiefly due to the activity of the boneless veal industry, and to the good prices ruling for beef and dairy stock. The position in the South Island is normal.
North Island traffic in sheep and pigs has been affected by the wet spring, but a big increase in this traffic is shewn for the South Island, on account of the good season experienced in the earlier part of the current year.
Timber traffic shews a decline of 13,000 tons, due largely to depression in the building trade throughout the Dominion, and to the depletion of forests in the Auckland district.
The tonnage of “other goods” shews the substantial increase of 53,500 tons. The increase not general for the Dominion, however, as small decreases are shewn for the Auckland and Invercargill districts and the smaller sections.
The movement of a lesser tonnage of phosphate accounts for the principal decline in the Auckland district, the Invercargill district decrease being due to bad weather adversely affecting the traffic in road metal and general merchandise for export.
Shipping operations, resulting in increased imports and exports, have largely influenced the favourable figures under this heading.