Pioneer Surveys Of Maori Country

Rochfort had trouble with the obstructive Maoris near the Upper Wanganui—only a very short time previously a white man was shot at Taumarunui for trespassing on this forbidden land—and at Karioi (on the present line, below Ruapehu) he was told that if he persisted in advancing (he was working from Marton north-ward arid westward to Taumarunui) he would be shot.

One of his chainmen was the noted Tom Adamson, a big “pakeha-Maori” who had been a Government scout in the war days; he always marched barefoot and adopted Maori ways. He had a Native wife, and he was bargaining for tribal lands. The Maoris objected to Adamson continuing with the party, so Rochfort carried on without him, and hence-forth received help from the local Maoris. He cut a line through the great forest where the railway now runs, and established camps along the route, and for many years afterwards his patakas, or high-legged storehouses, were to be seen here and there in little bush clearings marking the sites of his pioneer camps on the adventurous traverse of the central plateau.

Mr. Hursthouse's seizure and imprisonment by the fanatic Mahuki near Te Kuiti in March, 1883, delayed his surveys, but not for long, and in 1884 all the preliminary reconnaissances were complete, and Parliament approved of the proposed route from Te Awamutu to Marton.

The turning of the first sods at the northern end of the Puniu banks, on the 15th April, 1885, was the next stage in the Main Trunk's progress. The leading figures in this ceremony near Te Awamutu were Sir Robert Stout (then Mr. Stout), Premier of the colony, and the chiefs Wahanui, Rewi and Taonui.

The work went on from both ends at varying rates of speed and under varying systems. The co-operative plan of line construction superseded the old private contract methods.

In 1885 there was a gap of about 200 miles between the two ends of the line. The filling-in of this gap took twenty-three years. It was in 1908 that the final link was completed. The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, then Prime Minister, officially opened the line for through traffic. It was at the time of the visit of the United States Fleet under Admiral Sperry to Auckland.