The New Zealand
Railways
Magazine
Railways
Magazine
Registered for transmission by Post as a Newspaper
Published by the
New Zealand Government Railways Department
“”
For Better Service.Service Copy Circulation 20,000
Vol. 5. No. 8.
Wellington,
New Zealand
February1, 1931
The Earthquake
Sudden as all such visitations are, and unpredictable (either as to location or time) from any seismological data so far assembled, the disturbance on the eastern side of the North Island, which brought disaster and grief to so many of our citizens, found the Railways immediately available for the work of both succour and evacuation in the devastated area. It supplies an epic in efficiency. Within fifteen minutes of word being received of the need, the first relief train was ready for despatch to the military camp at Tren-tham, and within twenty-four hours a comprehensive service was organised to the nearest possible point, and sufficient passenger rolling stock had been concentrated on this point to effect the evacuation of the whole area, if found necessary. Within three days, despite sunk bridges and twisted tracks, the train service was re-established right into the heart of the stricken district, and the Napier express was able to leave almost “on time” with a total of nineteen cars.
It is in times like this that the national value of railway; is most clearly demonstrated, and the existence of a well-disciplined and experienced transport organisation is seen to be a practical necessity. The manner in which the problem was dealt with by the Railways during the most acute period of strain has brought encomiums from all quarters, and adds one more to the remarkably fine record of achievements established in times of stress from flood, fire, or earthquake, during the period of railway, operation in this country.
The vital losses in life and property which have been suffered in the Hawke's Bay province are being met with that sterling type of fortitude and brotherly sympathy and helpfulness which is the true indication of national character. But while time can be relied on to heal both the human and the material effects resulting from the present shock, immediate conditions require the most careful and considerate attention of which the people of the Dominion are capable.
In the work which has fallen on the shoulders of various sections of the commuuity.
This is a country of quick recoveries and great resources, and in the devastated region it may well be that we shall see reconstructed, within but a brief period, civic centres, with all their accompanying amenities of civilisation, finer even than those that have been destroyed; and in this work, to which efficient transportation means so much, the administration, management, and men of the Railways may be depended upon to lend every assistance within the ambit of their respective powers.
For Livestock
Railway Transport Approved.
That the expense entailed in the very thorough provision made by the Railway Department for the proper handling of sheep is justified by results is revealed when comparison is made with the effect produced on livestock transported by the usually very crude methods adopted on the roads. With our specially built cattle and sheep yards, properly constructed races, and carefully designed and constructed cattle and sheep wagons, we are in a position to give such transport as will preserve in the best possible condition the animals entrusted to our care. Striking evidence of this is contained in a recent statement made by Mr. E. M. Edkins, one of the directors of the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co., Ltd., who has recently drawn pointed attention, through the Waikato Times, to the better handling of livestock by the railway as compared with the motor truck.
Mr. Edkins said that inspection of a large number of lambs on arrival at the freezing works showed bruises and other marks on otherwise satisfactory animals, such defects necessitating placing the lambs in second grade. He went on to say that these defects were only apparent on animals which had been transported by motor lorry. The defects were due to faulty handling.
“On the other hand,” said Mr. Edkins, “sheep handled by the Railway Department always arrive at the works in first-class condition.”
Feature of Auckland's New Station
Much favourable comment has been passed upon the commodious and well appointed dining room at Auckland's new railway station, and the high quality of the meals served therein. One of the most striking features of the dining room so far as concerns its furnishing appointments, and one upon which the public have bestowed lavish praise, is the wonderfully artistic effect that has been achieved in the flooring”. The material for this was supplied and fitted by the well-known firm, Messrs. A. J. Redpath, Ltd., whose work on the floor of the dining room is a lasting monument of efficient craftsmanship.
The Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Message from the Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Railways
Hawke's Bay, and particularly Napier and Hastings, came into conspicuous prominence on Tuesday, 3rd February, 1931, when an earthquake of unusual severity suddenly caused serious loss of life and destruction.
With remarkable promptitude advice was received that the railway track was so badly damaged as to render it unsafe for passenger trains. The vigilance of the Maintenance staff in this connection was characteristic of its alertness in maintaining an absolute standard of safety. As the result of untiring efforts on the part of the engineers and staff it was possible to restore the running of trains to and from Napier approximately 48 hours after the upheaval and this achievement rendered a great service to the stricken area, as it was then possible to hasten the evacuation of refugees and injured.
The running of trains so soon after the calamity was a great factor in restoring confidence in the district.
To all concerned in this excellent work my sincere appreciation is extended.
Minister of Railways.
Outstanding among our recent experiences has been the earthquake in Hawke's Bay and I feel that I must take the earliest possible opportunity of expressing my very great satisfaction with the work that was done by our staff in connection with that disastrous occurrence. Immediately the serious nature of the earthquake became known to us, steps were taken to organise transport for the necessary means of relief into the district. Special trains which were necessary for this purpose were arranged and sent forward with a promptitude that stands to the credit of everybody concerned. The damage which had been done to the line in the afflicted area was serious, but the Chief Engineer and his officers were on the job and actively engaged on rehabilitating the lines with a degree of promptitude and thoroughness that enabled rail communication to be re-established right through to Napier in a space of time that was nothing less than remarkable. My personal observation of the position in Hastings and Napier showed that the effect of the re-establishment of rail communication was very great, not only
When all ranks did so much to help in the good work that was done one does not wish to draw any distinctions, but I feel that every employee in the Department will join with me in special congratulations to our Maintenance staff on their achievement in re-establishing communication with such promptitude. More especially is it pleasing to note that although much of the work done had to be very temporary and of an emergent character, absolute safety was maintained with the running of the trains and not a single accident or hitch of any kind occurred in working the very heavy traffic that the situation gave rise to.
I have had many expressions of gratitude to the Department from those concerned with the relief work in the afflicted area and also from many members of the public generally, and I desire through this message to make general acknowledgement of the kindly references which I have heard in this connection. While, of course, it is practically a tradition among railway workers to spare no effort to meet emergent circumstances, I feel sure that our staff will be glad to know that their efforts have been appreciated by the people in the earthquake area where their value was best known.
General Manager.
The First Relief Train to Leave Napier.
(Rly. Publicity Photo).
The maintenance men of the New Zealand Railways have rarely had a more difficult task to accomplish than that of restoring railway communication with Napier and Hastings after the recent disastrous earthquake. The rapidity with which the work was carried out won the admiration of the whole Dominion, and reflects the greatest credit on our organisation. The above illustration shows “cot” cases being placed aboard the first relief train to leave Napier.
Popular Railways Annual Picnic.
The Railway Head Office Annual Staff Picnic was held at Maidstone Park, Upper Hutt, Wellington, on Saturday, 31st January. The picnic arrangements were in the hands of an energetic committee, with Mr. M. Dennehy, Assistant General Manager of Railways, as Chairman of the General Picnic Committee; Mr. G. H. Mackley, Deputy-Chairman; Mr. W. H. Simmons, Hon. General Secretary; and Mr. J. Gauntlett, Chairman of the Children's Committee. The various committees arranged an excellent programme of sports events (special attention being devoted to the provision or amusements, and refreshments for the children), and it was due largely to their well thought out arrangements that the day's outing proved so enjoyable for all present. The above illustrations shew: (1) A section of the picnic party; (2) the Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Railways (centre), Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of Railways (left), and Mr. M. Dennehy, Assistant General Manager (right); (3) Mr. H. H. Sterling, speaking at the presentation of prizes (4) presentation of prizes by the Hon. W. A. Veitch; (5) the tug-of-war contest: (6) one of the children's races; (7) a humorous study in skinninng
Ken Alexander
Dear Reader, the question in question is whether the world is Man's Play Area or his Pay Arrear; whether the globe is Man's marble in the game of back-knocks, or whether the World plays the back-knocks and leaves Man the knock-backs; whether Man is the Captain or the Capstan—whether he is the big noise or only the echo. Possibly the World would manage to keep on the roll even if Man were struck off it, for all Man's efforts are directed towards the betterment of Man. He snips bits off Nature with one hand and returns half with the other, that he may take again and make a gain. It almost looks as if he were dutiable as a luxury; as if he were an authorised expenditure within the meaning of the law of Supply and Demand; a parasitical paradox or even a paradoxical pillarbox filling himself with letters of credit for which he deserves no credit. But seeing that Man is rather the jest than the guest of Nature he is obliged either to conquer or conk out.
Man has conquered almost everything except himself. He has soared to the point where he has nothing to grab if he loses his balance, and he realises that the higher he goes the harder he falls. He is whirled without end, tossed on the horns of his own dilemmas, pursued by his pursuits, torn betwixt Idealism and I-do-ism, withered by hot air, and frozen in the currents of cold reason. One half of him asserts that the game is not worth the candle, and the other half shields the candle; he curses his fate and nurses his fat; he takes all he can and cans all he takes. He claims that life is not worth living, but leavens his liver to live the longer.
Man has a lot to his credit and he owes a lot to Credit; for he is a natural creature of Credit. Credit is the breath of his strife, and shortness of breath is a prevalent penalty of Progress. Credit is a sort of L.S.Delirium to which he is heir; it is a swivelisation of civilisation, and without Credit he would be discredited. The idea of Credit is to get something for nothing on the understanding that you pay twice as much for it as you would if you paid for it before—or something as incredible. Before you can get Credit you must prove that you don't need it. But he who needs it most can't get it unless he can prove that he can do without it, which he can't. A country that would raise a loan must shew reason why it doesn't need it, and the supplicant who gets Credit must first prove that he should'nt. All of which seems discernible and incredible; boiled down and oiled up it means: “If you can't you can” and “If you don't you do.” ‘Tis a mad world, shipmates. Credit is really the echo of Bullion's bellow or cash incog.
Credit is like Cricket in that you are apt to get stumped if you lash out with
“Man must either conquer or conk out.”
Speaking of Hope, January is the advance agent for a brand new line of this luxury. Hope, like soap, is slippery when it gets damp, and is liable to slither out of reach; but every new year is a brand new cake of unsampled fragrance with the promise of its qualities advertised on its wrapper.
Hope is guaranteed to remove the wrinkles off an oyster's cloister, bring back the merry laughter to a bored borer, and renew the bloom of a cold stew. If the future were an open book man would grow leaves instead of turning them.
The New Year is like a railway journey, there is always something to look forward to.
“The umpire is an unbiassed spectator.”
you as you ride with Romance. You are Mohamed drawing the mountain; trees glide towards you as if they would brush your cheek; the blue distance rolls up its curtain and admits you to its veiled secrets. You are a wizard opening up magic vistas. You sit back in upholstered ease while the world peers in at the window, shouts, whispers, reaches out a hand, and passes. There are no pot-holes in the permanent way; the rails run clean and true. Metal skims metal as light as thought, when you ride with Romance by Rail.
New Zealand is likely to become a suburb of Sydney if the cream of Aussie's youth continues to descend upon it out of the blue, thereby making the Tasman look small. When Mr. Menzies dropped in
The Railway BufferWelcome on the mat, but had he given us the wheeze we might have arranged for him to meet New Zealand on firmer ground. Under the circumstances it would have been excusable had his first impression been that New Zealand's name is mud; however, we prefixed “mire” with “ad” and all was well. Let ‘em all came; where there's life there's hops. For to-day Man is a gas-hopper, and the whole earth is his hop-patch. Such once little-known outposts as Neuralgia, Central Heating, Upper Tooting, Lower Honking, The Far Yeast, The Near Beer, Alice Springs, Bertha Bounds, Sciatica, Lumbago, The Steppes of Siberia, The Ladders of Hosiery, The Canaries, The Hen and Chickens, The Two Black Crows, Jamaica, and other rum places, are to-day more accessible than a hot lunch on washing day. The gas-hopper or aeroplane has knit the loose strands of the earth into a zig-zag jumper, and transported civilisation to the heat spots of the earth, where once the uneducated savage regarded the human head more as an aid to interior decoration than a business asset.
The planet's dimensions have been reduced aeroplanetically. To-day it is possible to visit your rich uncle in Fiji, touch him for a fiver and return after a loan flight, in time to circulate the good news among the local licensed victuallers. It is nothing nowadays for a lady to take a fly round the well-known shopping routes. Its a small world, dear reader, and getting smaller every day.
Production Methods Applied to Hutt Workshops Christmas Party Plans.
Never surely was a happier application of modern efficiency methods made than that at the great demonstration and festival (on the Saturday before Christmas) for the children of Hutt Valley Workshops men.
From the moment when the Workshops Special pulled out from Lambton Station to the sweet strains of the Workshops Ukelele Band, to the last item on the programme, when the versatile Chung Tai juggled his most fascinating jugglery, the afternoon was one long series of thrills for the children and parents who composed the several thousands making up the Christmas party.
Father Christmas himself joined the train at Woburn, to the intense excitement and interest of the children who crowded the cars.
Mounted on a lorry at the entrance to the grounds, it was he who led the procession, beckoning the young to follow him towards the great wagon shop, where his Magic Cave was hidden.
Along the wide concrete-paved midway, a bunch of clowns cut capers as they rode the powerful overhead crane.
Then followed thrill upon thrill as the Workshops Band, the Orchestra, Punch and Judy, Aunt Sally, Skittle Alley, the programme of dancing and juggling, and the Magic Cave all got into real action—on schedule.
Eight hundred and forty children of Workshops men had the right to file through the race that led past the Magic Cave. Each child held a ticket, previously supplied, which indicated the age of the holder.
Father Christmas and his attendant fairies plunged for the various grottos containing appropriate presents for the sex and age of the child indicated, and a fine present was handed over. The child's card was nipped, and then the youngster passed along towards the outlet, but on the way was stopped, first by the fruit men, who handed over an apple or an orange, then by the “sweets” lady, who gave out a bag of chocolates, and once again by the “lucky dipper,” who produced for the already loaded child a surprise packet. Last punch of all on this wonder-producing ticket was for some of the 120 gallons of free drinks provided, and ice-cream at the children's stall.
Next came some great gymnastic and dancing efforts by the clever pupils of Miss Bartosh and Miss Wilton respectively, and then it was a case of lining up for trolley rides all round the workshops grounds, in the improvised electric trains fitted up for the children's amusement.
Altogether it was a great day for all the visitors. The function had an official opening by Mr. W. Nash, M.P., who was introduced by Mr. A. E. P. Walworth, the Works Manager.
The Christmas demonstration for the children is the outcome of weekly contributions by the employees at the shops, and is the work of a fine-spirited committee.
The official party was composed of Mr. Nash, M.P., and Mrs. Nash, Mr. and Mrs. Walworth, Mr. and Mrs. G. G. Stewart, Mr. Spidy, and all the foremen.
A portion of the large crowd who attended the recent Hutt Workshops Christmas Party.
byE. Vivian Hall
Imperial Conference and Tariffs—Snowden on Quantity Markets—Eyes on India—and on South America—Russia Shakes Wheat World—U.S. Farm Board Bull Buyer.
Those people who hoped for an extended use of tariffs as a means of promoting intra-Imperial trade are of course disappointed with the Imperial Conference.
Some of them, however, value the under-standing said to have been arrived at to the effect that existing tariff preferences shall not be withdrawn before the expiry of their agreed currencies. Since the conference concluded there has been some debate as to the exact terms of this under-standing, but average opinion holds that if the Conference made no advance on the tariff front, it at any rate checked the early scrapping of preferences and the threatened retreat from Singapore. Mr. Philip Snowden was an unrelenting line umpire. As soon as his flag went up for out-of-bounds, the ball was dead.
Mr. Snowden, who is Chancellor of the Exchequer, considers that taxes on food and on essential raw material are too big a price for Britain to pay for bigger Dominions trade, to the detriment of other trade. He is impressed with quantity (as against quality) markets, and he made this clear in a notable speech to Imperial Conference delegates on 23rd November. High-tariff, low-populated Australia has not (for him) the possibilities of low-tariff, highly-populated India. The comparatively few people of high purchasing power in Australia, even if they were able to buy a few more British goods than they buy now, would contribute a mere drop in the bucket compared with what British trade would gain if the low purchasing power of India's many millions could be even fractionally raised. Mr. Snowden, when looking for customers for British goods, thinks in terms of population and turnover, and would raise the buying power of low standard countries.
Without attempting to enter into political controversy, it is well to understand this argument of the Labour freetrade stalwart. Within the British Empire, it has its expression in India. Outside the British Empire, South America illustrates the case as well as any other country. With Argentina, for instance, the British Labour Government made a conditional agreement (not yet completed) last year. According to the published outline, Argentina was to favour certain British goods by means of “bulk purchases” (a device that made fitful appearances in the Imperial Conference
Meanwhile, South America has been beset by political disturbances in several places, and a President in Argentina and a Government in Brazil have disappeared. The deposed President of Argentina is the same Trigoyen as figured prominently in the negotiations with Lord d'Abernon last year, resulting in the above-mentioned trade agreement with Britain. The President is gone—long live the President! When the Prince of Wales makes his South American tour (down the West Coast via Chile, and back via Argentina and Brazil) he will not see the Argentine President and the Brazilian Government he would have seen in 1930. But no doubt the wheels will still be going round, and Britain's interest in the huge South American market will not be diminished, nor will the importance have dwindled of Britain's huge capital investment in Argentina. The Prince of Wales is not the only prospective South American tourist. Recollections of Col. Lindbergh's “good will” flight are aroused by New York's report (21st November) that he will soon leave on a 22,000 mile air tour extending to Cape Horn.
These South American comings and goings are a reminder that there are vast continental trade-units which are beyond the orbit of Empire and which Empire policy cannot ignore. South America is one. Russia is another. Somehow, not much is known about economic Russia. In some quarters it is pictured as a land of famine, but suddenly one wakes up to find that the land of famine is shaking the wheat markets of the world. Are millions of people going hungry in Russia to permit the export of millions of bushels of wheat to upset Chicago, or has Russian agriculture got its costs down and its organisation up? This has certainly not been achieved by wheat growers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, who are clamouring for help. Tentatively, “bulk purchases” and a quota system have been discussed. But the wheat-growers want a cash guarantee of payable prices. And the United States Farm Board is reported to be buying wheat heavily to hold the market up.
So big a part is taken now by the United States in the economic and political events of the world, that the Congressional elections, though they did not include the fight for the Presidency, must be considered a world-event. Depression inevitably meant a swing towards the Democratic party, but it was hardly expected that in 1930 the Democrats would have won practical equality with the Republicans in both House and Senate. However, this has happened, and the two great parties now divide the responsibility of facing the slump. They seem to know of nothing better than raising as much public money as possible to provide work for the more than four million unemployed. But the American colossus has at last reached the stage already experienced in other countries—the stage at which depression cuts revenues and thus cuts at the sources from which relief work issues. The simple plan of taxing yourself out of trouble might work if the trouble had not already undermined taxable wealth.
It seems to be only the other day when an overflowing United States Treasury was making refunds to taxpayers. Therefore the anticipation that the Federal Budget cannot be balanced comes as a shock. The British Minister for Dominions, Mr. J. H. Thomas, said on
Trade troubles have not prevented the march of technical achievement. The great German flying boat reached England (where the Prince of Wales flew with it) and Spain, but its commander seems to be unprepared (at time of writing) to follow his lighter-than-air compatriot, Dr. Eckener, across the Atlantic. Oscar Garden, New Zealander, made an unostentatious flight in a light aeroplane from England to Australia, and
New Additions to the Locomotive Fleet on the N.Z.R.
Designed for use for shunting operations or suburban train haulage two engines of the “C” class as illustrated above have recently been built and put into commission by the Railways Department. They are the first of an order for 24 which are to be built at the Hutt Valley and Hillside Workshops. These engines are of the 2-6-2 type with double bogie tenders whose tanks slope downward and backward. The cylinders have a diameter of 14ins. with a 22in. stroke. The driving wheels have a diameter of 3ft. 9ins., and the tractive effort is 13,798lbs. The boiler pressure is 180lbs. to the sq. in., and the tender carries 2,000 gals, of water and four tons of coal. The engines are superheated and fitted with combined multiple valve throttles. The weight of the engine and tender, in working order, is 66 ¼ tons.
“If railway traffic were half as devasting to life and limb as is modern road transport, we should soon have an agitation for forcing all railway tracks underground, and for making the railway companies pay for it.”—
Surrey Comet.
Current Comments
The death occurred at Christchurch, on Saturday, 8th November last, of Robert Julian Scott, emeritus professor of engineering at Canterbury College.
Professor Scott was director of the Canterbury College School of Engineering from its foundation in 1889 until his retirement in 1923, and he was absolutely outstanding among New Zealand engineers. He was the son of Rear-Admiral R. A. G. Scott, and was a cousin of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the South Polar explorer. He was born at Plymouth in 1861, and was educated at the Abbey School, Beckenham, at the Rural School of Mines, and at King's College, London. The deceased took a position with the New Zealand Government Railways in 1881, and was draughtsman, office engineer, works engineer at Addington and Hillside, and locomotive superintendent. In 1889 he took up his position at Canterbury College, and he was a fellow of the University of New Zealand from 1903 until 1923. He served on many advisory bodies and commissions, and was chairman of the Addington Workshops Commission, of the Royal Commission on Transport, and also on railway rolling stock, and chairman of the Munitions Commission. He was a member of the council of the Institute of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers, and a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Professor Scott was well known in yachting circles, as he was one of the founders of the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club. He had a wide reputation as a designer and critic of yachts, and took a considerable part in racing and cruising himself.
Twenty-two years ago, on 6th November, 1908, the last spike on the North Island Main Trunk Railway was driven by the then Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, near the Manganui-o-te-ao viaduct, half-way between Auckland and Wellington (states the New Zealand Herald). The ceremony was witnessed by about 400 people, who arrived in special trains from the two cities. The trains afterwards proceeded to Auckland, where a banquet was held that evening in honour of the event. Earlier in the year the whole length of the line had been traversed by a special train, which took a Parliamentary party to and from Auckland on the occasion of the visit of the American fleet. The completion of the railway ended twenty-three years’ work, the first sod having been turned on 15th April, 1885, on the boundary of the King Country, near Te Awamutu, by the then Premier, Sir Robert Stout.
With the provision of improved terminal accommodation, the Great Western Railway, England, is providing special educational facilities for its staff on the subject of scientific goods traffic movement. As in other branches of railway activity, the “human element” plays an all-important part in freight traffic handling. Backed up by modern machinery, keen goods station staffs can do much to quicken and improve goods traffic movement, to the mutual benefit of the railway undertaking, its employees, and the great public they serve.
LondonLetter
“New Year's Day is with us once again, and optimism reigns in the heart of man. Good resolutions and an optimistic outlook on life always appear to go hand-in-hand with the New Year celebrations, and this is as it should be. The coming of a new year is an affair of prime importance to everyone, if only by reason of the stimulus the event affords all of us to improve upon the record of the past twelve months, and to push cheerfully ahead with whatever task the days may bring forth.”
—Our London Correspondent.
An Optimistic Forecast
In conducting their business of passenger and freight transportation, railways all over the world were, last year, faced with difficulties innumerable. Apart from the anxious days of the Great War, there probably never was a time when so many perplexing problems had to be met. Yet, taking all in all, railway records for 1930 almost everywhere give cause for satisfaction. There is scarcely a country in the world that did not make real progress in the railway field last year, and while prophecy may be the most dangerous of pastimes, it seems comparatively safe to predict increased railway prosperity throughout the globe during the coming twelve months. Railways are anything but a back number, despite the rapid growth of competitive means of movement. During 1931 it is up to railwaymen the world over to leave no stone unturned to prove the superiority of the “Iron Way” as a carrier of mankind and mankind's belongings.
Appropriately enough, as the year 1930 drew towards a close there was published one of the most thoughtful reviews yet produced of the transportation situation in Great Britain, and the respective parts likely to be occupied in the future by rail and road transport. Much that is contained in this review, which took the form of a report (prepared by Sir Henry Maybury, Mr. James Milne, Mr. Frank Pick and Mr. E. S. Shrapnell-Smith) for submission to the Sixth International Road Congress at Washington, U.S.A., is of interest to railwaymen everywhere, and especially in New Zealand, where road transport is now making such rapid progress.
The root principle of railroad correlation and co-ordination, this review stated, was to secure a just balance and proportion between rail and road systems. Roads were essential to the service of railways, except for certain heavy types of traffic such as coal and minerals employing railways alone for their movement between, say, mine and seaport, or mine and works sidings. It was much to be regretted that the Home railways had had seventy years of progress almost to themselves, and after that, that road motors had had thirty years of progress almost to themselves. Had both developed side by
British Passenger Accommodation.
Third Class Sleeping Car on the L. and N.E. Railway.
The growth of road transport has resulted in many changes in the Home railway world. Not the least striking of these changes now proceeding, is the closing down of many branch railways for passenger operation, and their replacement by railway-operated bus services. It seems likely that eventually road buses and trucks will form the railways’ standard equipment for handling branch line business, many branch railways in sparsely populated areas being either eliminated or converted into purely freight carrying lines.
A big replacement of passenger trains by railway-operated motor buses has recently occurred in North-East England, on the York and Scarborough branch of the L. and N.E. system. On this line there were hitherto fourteen intermediate passenger stations serving small towns and villages en route, and over the branch there were operated daily a number of stopping trains in addition to a through non-stop service. All of the intermediate stations, with one exception, have now been closed, the sole remaining station retained for passenger business being an important junction point midway on the branch. The intermediate depots are now used for freight traffic only. Passengers are conveyed by railway-operated motor buses, the services of which are so arranged as to link up with the trains at the two branch line termini of York and Scarborough, and the midway depot that has been retained. The motor buses meet all public needs, and as a result of the changeover considerable economies under staff and other headings have been effected.
Across the Channel, most of the European railways are contemplating the change from rail to road transport in the rural areas. On the main lines, however, many noteworthy improvements are being put in hand. In France, the French State Railways propose to remodel completely the tracks, stations and services between Paris and the ports of Cherbourg and Le Havre. According to M. Dautry, the Director-General of the French State lines, the railway system between Paris and the Channel ports will shortly be one of the most remarkable and competent in the world.
Heavy track has been laid over these routes, and improved power signalling is
vice versa. Many new loops are being installed to permit of expresses passing stopping
Luxury Travel on the Home Railways.
A Drawing Room Observation Car on the Great Western Railway.
In French railway working, and in passenger movement throughout Europe generally, a big part is played by an independent organisation known as the International Sleeping Car Company, which has its head-quarters in Brussels, and is the European counterpart of the American Pullman Company. Founded in 1876, the International Sleeping Car Company to-day operates some 2,100 sleeping cars and 292,600 drawing-room and restaurant cars. It has the exclusive right to run trains-de-luxe and carriages de-luxe in many countries, and also operates a chain of hotels at various tourist haunts.
One of the most important international trains operated by the International Sleeping Car Company is the Simplon-Orient Express. This train leaves Paris (P.L.M.) daily in three parts, running as follows:—(1) Between Calais and Constantinople; (2) between Calais and Bucharest; (3) between Calais and Athens. Other noteworthy trains formed of the luxurious cars
In and around Russia, train-ferries play a most important part in railway transport. One of the most remarkable of European train-ferries is found on the Trans-Siberian Railway, where the line crosses Lake Baikal, some 28 miles in width. In addition to serving as a transport, the Lake Baikal ferry steamer acts as an icebreaker, being capable of cutting a way
An Anglo-Belgian Transport Link.
One of the Train Ferries between Harwich and Zeebrugge.
Of all the Baltic train-ferries, the most famous is that linking Trelleborg in Sweden with Sassintz in Germany. Twin-screw ferry steamers transport complete trains across the sixty-five miles of open sea between the two points named, the ferry boats being 370 feet long and capable of a speed of 16 ½ knots per hour. Britain's experience of train-ferry operation is confined to the Harwich-Zeebrugge train-ferry, operated by the L. and N.E. Railway and the Belgian State Railways, between England and Belgium. This ferry, however, is employed exclusively for freight movement. Now that the Channel tunnel scheme between England and France has been turned down by the experts, it is not improbable that train-ferries will shortly be seriously considered as a means of moving passengers and freight between Britain and the mainland of Europe.
(ByA. P. , Hutt Valley Workshops.)
Godber
The railways enable us to connect with means for reaching places which, while well worth a visit, would otherwise be too far out-of-the-way. Such a place is Raglan. The writer was astonished at some people's hazy idea of where Raglan is. Its position was placed at various localities from “north of Auckland” to “somewhere in the South Island.” Frankton Junction is the converging point of lines of railway from Auckland, Rotorua, and as far south as Palmerston North and Wellington. Take the train to Frankton Junction, and you are at the place to connect with a motor service to Raglan. But why go to Raglan, you ask? Because this little township, just inside the entrance to Whaingaroa Harbour, contains just the climatic conditions and natural attractions of a superb holiday resort.
The old name of the harbour, “Whaingaroa” (having a reference to a stingaree), has been dropped, and that of “Raglan” substituted. A modified steamer service is kept up with Onehunga, but the chief means of communication with the outside world is by motor, along a good road from Frankton.
For the first few miles the road meanders over undulating hills past the township of Whatawhata. Prosperous looking dairy farms, with their herds of sleek milk producers, line the road. Then the road commences to rise to surmount the Hakarimata Range, passing through beautiful vistas of tree ferns. The road has recently been widened and regraded in parts. Curves abound, but the careful motorist need have no fear. Descending from the Hakarimata Range it is not long before the waters of Raglan harbour, and the houses of the township, come into view. Although short, the main street is prettily laid out. A plot of flowers, shrubs, and lawn traverses the centre of the street, and is flanked on either side by the business premises of the town.
Commenting on the number of empty dwellings, the writer was told that quite half the residents did not live at Raglan. This remarkable statement was explained to mean that the greater proportion of property owners use their dwellings only during week-ends and holidays. Two excellent hotels and a comfortable private boarding establishment offer ample accommodation to the visitor. Boating and fishing can be safely indulged in, as the harbour is well sheltered from rough weather. The harbour by the township is only about a mile wide and can be rowed across in a few minutes. The opposite shores well repay a visit. Fantastic shapes of limestone rocks abound, that termed the “Wineglass Rock” having more than a local reputation. The upper reaches of the harbour may be visited by motor launch. The Okete Falls, four miles, and Waingaro Landing are two points of interest on the shores of the upper reaches. By crossing a narrow arm of the harbour, close to the township, by a pretty ferro-concrete bridge, access is had to the Ocean Beach.
A walk of two or three miles along a firm sandy shore, and the tramper reaches a group of rocks of great interest. Scattered about are several which are known as the “Tattooed Rocks.” The effects of the weather has almost obliterated the markings on these. Who did them, when, or for what purpose, still forms grounds for conjecture by the geologist or historian. Even the meanings of these peculiar hieroglyphics are unknown. A stiff climb along a narrow, fern-fringed track brings us to the Bryant Home. Here are gathered up to fifty boys and girls who need care and fresh air, with good food, during days of convalescence after a serious illness. The Home is named
The first settlers came to Raglan in 1854, Rev. James Wallis being the local missionary. The tide of war did not reach Raglan, thanks to the vigorous protection afforded the European residents by the local chief. A monument to Wiremu Nera Tawataia bears testimony to the colonists’ appreciation
An Ideal Holiday Resort.
(Photo, A. P. Godber.)
A view of Raglan, with a glimpse of the harbour in the background.
A Unique Record
The assertion that he has travelled a million miles on the railway between Auckland and Frankton Junction is made by Mr. William H. Mathison, a news vendor, well known in the Waikato (says an exchange). “They will probably know me better as ‘Scotty,'” he said, when mentioning that for the past fifteen years it has been his practice six days a week to leave Frankton for Auckland at 9.45 a.m., and return by the train leaving the city at 4.1 p.m. “Scotty” holds the opinion that train travelling in New Zealand is very safe. “Fifteen years’ travelling between Frankton and Auckland every day,” he said, “and I have never been in a collision nor seen a train off the line.”
(ByW. R. , M.Inst.C.E., Assistant Chief Engineer.)
Davidson
The official opening, on 24th November, of Auckland's new railway station by the Hon. W. A. Veitch, Minister of Railways, marked the culmination of the scheme to provide Auckland with modern terminal facilities in keeping with its importance as the chief northern headquarters of the Dominion's railways. The station (built mostly of New Zealand materials) embodies the very latest features in design and equipment, and is a most imposing edifice, destined to serve the growing needs of Auckland for many years to come. The interesting history of this great station project is told in the following article.
Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of the New Zealand Railways, in his association with the later stages of the new Auckland station project, has been fully seized of the present-day necessity for the best terminal facilities at our larger centres, not only to facilitate the rapid and economical transport of goods, but to meet the public demand for comfort and convenience as afforded by fully equipped modern station buildings.
While many minds have been at work on the problems in the past it has fallen to the lot of the present engineers to revise, consolidate and complete the scheme on the lines of modern practice. Special reference should, however, be made to the late Mr. D. T. McIntosh who, in his capacity as District Engineer at Auckland, carried out the preliminary investigations in connection with the scheme. For the last six years the work has been under the control of Mr. F. C. Widdop, M.Inst.C.E., as Chief Engineer. Associated with him in the matter of designing the sheds, bridges and trackwork has been the Designing Engineer, Mr. A. S. Wansbrough, M.Inst. C.E. Mr. J. K. Lowe, as District Engineer, Auckland, exercised general supervision over the construction operations, but their immediate oversight was delegated to a New Works Engineer. There have been several occupants of this position from the time the work started, but to Mr. J. Dow, Assoc. M.Inst. C.E., has fallen the heavy task of carrying out the new construction and merging it into the old yard, and also changing over to the new arrangements without serious interruption to traffic operations.
A large staff of workmen has been employed, and the efficient work done by them, under very exacting circumstances, is worthy of commendation. The construction of the intricate trackwork in the yard and its approaches—work done with safety and despatch, often under severe traffic conditions—has been in the capable hands of Mr. G. McLeod, Inspector of Permanent Way.
An important feature of the new work has been the installation (for the safety of train operations) of the very latest power signalling and interlocking throughout the yard, and also the erection of powerful floodlights for the benefit of the staff at night. This work has been under the direction of Mr. G. W. Wyles, A.M.Inst. E.E., Signal and Electrical Engineer.
The deviation of the Main South line to a low level route 9 ¼ miles in length between Auckland and Westfield has
The surveys and plans for the deviation were initiated by the Railway Department.
The Site of Auckland's First Station, About 1874.
Mechanic's Bay, Auckland, shewing the railway station and Fort Britomart on the far side of the bay.
While this new loop line is somewhat longer than the old route via Newmarket and Remuera, it has great advantages in the matter of elevation and grades. Whereas the highest point in the new line is only 78ft., and the limiting grade 1 in 132, the highest point in the old line is 265ft., with approaching grades in each direction of 1 in 41. The new low level line comes into full use with the opening of the new station. It not only provides an improved rail outlet from Auckland, but makes contact with some fine residential areas capable of carrying a large suburban population in the future.
Another project also closely associated with the work under review was the construction of a northern outlet under the city, making connection with the North Auckland line at Morningside.
Present traffic conditions, however, do not justify this proposal, which would involve heavy expenditure.
The remaining item, and one that must make the greatest appeal, not only to the citizens of Auckland, but to the travelling public generally, is the erection of a modern station building.
The traveller takes but little cognisance of that labyrinth of steel tracks which forms the vast and intricate transportation machine known as a railway yard. His interests lean more towards convenience and creature comfort, and these he will find in Auckland's fine new station.
No pains have been spared in providing Auckland with a station building in full keeping with her pride and prestige, both now and in the future when she has achieved her manifest destiny.
The building as it now stands embodies a recognition not only of the status of Auckland as a city, but of the importance of our national railways in the life of the
The Imposing Facade of the New Station.
(Photo, W. W. Stewart.)
The arrival at the main entrance to the station of the first tram from the city, on Sunday, 16th November.
The outstanding feature of the new Auckland Station building is that it is built of the simplest materials, steel, concrete, brick, timber, granite and marble. These have been so disposed by the art of the architect and the skill of the craftsman that a structure of great beauty and durability is available. Auckland may well have a deep local pride in the building. The architects whose master minds shaped the structure were born and bred within her gates. The builders and artisans are also of her citizens, and have reared an enduring monument to honest service and skilful craftsmanship.
The building materials, too, have been drawn largely from the Auckland Province—granite from Coromandel, marble from Whangarei, bricks from New Lynn, cement from Portland, shingle and broken metal from neighbouring bays and quarries, roofing tiles from Taumarunui, and timber from her forests. The comparatively small proportion of imported materials are of the best British manufacture.
We see but part of the structure as it stands to-day. Hidden beneath the building, the retaining walls and the verandahs, and reaching down through the silt to solid rock, is a vast forest of concrete piles up to 70ft. in length.
Provision has been made in the upper floors of the building for housing in commodious offices, the Divisional and District staffs of the Railway Department.
The architectural development of the building and its precincts, also the supervision
In common with the other important railway works in Auckland, the construction of the new station premises has been under the control of the Chief Engineer, Mr. F. C. Widdop, M.Inst. C.E., who recently made an extensive investigation of railway systems throughout the world.
Associated with the architects in the planning of the new station, and collaborating with them throughout the work of construction and equipment, has been the Assistant Chief Engineer, Mr. W. R. Davidson, M.Inst. C.E., who also has had the advantage of an intimate study of many modern railway stations abroad.
This very necessary collaboration between engineer and architect precluded the submission of the station plans for competition, and led to the direct selection of a firm of architects of proved ability, whose work speaks for them so impressively to-day, and will continue so to speak in the years to come.
Messrs. Gummer and Ford and their staff have every reason to be proud of their work. The station with its precincts, as designed by them, is a wonderful embodiment of simplicity, utility and beauty, and forms a splendid addition to the architecture of Auckland.
The station embraces features which are novelties in this country, but which conform to the most up-to-date practices in other lands. To place the matter in a nutshell, the premises while giving efficient railway service to the traveller, offer him all the amenities and conveniences of a high-class hotel, except sleeping accommodation. We find here shops, dining and luncheon rooms, lounges and rest rooms, bath and dressing rooms, and a barber's saloon, so that patrons may have every bodily need satisfied without leaving the station precincts. In designing these services regard has been had, not only for beauty, but for the most scrupulous cleanliness and sanitary efficiency. These amenities have been provided at considerable cost, in the confident hope that they will be largely self-supporting. To achieve this hope the public must show the interest and give the patronage which these excellent services will deserve.
While dealing kindly with its clients, the Railway Department has shown also a commendable civic spirit. A valuable block of land lying between the station and Beach Road might readily have been put to very remunerative commercial purposes. Instead, it has been left as a forecourt to be beautified with gardens, lawns and ornamental masonry, and maintained as a public park at the cost of the Department.
Criticism may be levelled against the location of the station and the relative positions of building and platforms, but these have been enforced by circumstances which have had the fullest investigation.
The station has been closely linked with the tramway system of Auckland (by means of a loop line to the main entrance) and, by broad carriageways, taxis and other vehicles have ready access to the various parts of the building and to the arrival platform.
Messrs. J. T. Julian and Son, Limited, have been the contractors for the construction of the main building, together with the forecourt, the retaining walls, the passenger subway and ramps and the platform verandahs. Their operations throughout have been marked by fine generalship, a ready adaptability and a high sense of service which have helped greatly in the successful prosecution of the work.
Under the main contractors a small army of sub-contractors (representative of all trades) have given their quota to this embodiment of the finest craftsmanship in this building, which is the creation of so many hands both skilled and unskilled.
The work of Messrs. Hansford and Mills, Limited, as sub-contractors for the stone work in the building, requires special mention. It was their efficient methods and up-to-date equipment which made the extensive use of Coromandel granite in the building at all possible. The beauty of this masonry work is one of the outstanding features of the station.
Watching over every detail of workmanship and material with a keen, impartial eye has been that important functionary, the Clerk of Works. In this exacting task Mr. H. W. Chant has held the high esteem of all parties, and by his intimate knowledge, tireless energy and unfailing courtesy helped materially in the satisfactory progress of the work. Many others might be mentioned who have given of their best in this great project. To them remains the satisfaction of a task well and truly done, and in every fibre of the structure their record is written.
The total cost of the Auckland-Westfield deviation has been £790,000. The cost of the complete re-arrangement and
An Historic Event.
(Photo, W. W. Stewart.)
The first train to leave from Auckland's new station. (Note the fine wide platform.)
Some of the leading items in this sum are: Station building, including platform verandahs, passenger subway, retaining walls and forecourt, £365,000; engine depot, £96,000; new outward goods shed, £46,000; new inward goods shed, £22,000; signalling, interlocking and floodlighting, £75,000.
A very substantial offset to the cost of the project is the value of the old station site which is being abandoned. The railway land actually extends from Queen Street to Breakwater Road, and its situation in the business centre of Auckland gives it a very high commercial value.
Tribute To Our Magazine.
It is good news to know that the Railways Magazine is to be given a further lease of life on condition that it can prove itself a sound financial proposition. Having already proved itself a brilliant literary success, there is no reason why it should not pay its way—From the December issue of Aussie.
The Management And Staff Loyalty.
The recent annual reunion, at Wellington, of the Chief Accountant's Staff of the New Zealand Railways, was one of the most successful and enjoyable functions of the kind held for many years. The gathering was presided over by Mr. H. Valentine, Chief Accountant, and the speeches throughout the evening were marked by many interesting references to the past and present position of the railways and the important part they are destined to play in the future. Responding to the toast of the Management, proposed by Mr. W. Bishop, Assistant Chief Accountant (Expenditure), Mr. H. H. Sterling, General Manager of Railways, made an appeal for the continued assistance of the staff in solving the many presentday problems of the railways.
On rising to speak, Mr. Sterling was greeted with applause. He said: “Mr. chairman and fellow officers, I feel it is a privilege to be present again at your annual re-union. I have stated, I think, that the humanising influence so valuable to an administrative officer can only really be fully obtained by that personal contact, which, this evening, is made under such pleasant circumstances. We have recently been going through strenuous times, but hard work never killed any man—worry might. I feel now that the Royal Commission has presented its report public opinion is definitely crystallising on this important question of transportation.
“I would like at once to pay my tribute to the way in which the Chief Accountant's Branch stood up to its job in connection with the work of the Royal Commission. The returns and statements required were voluminous, and in many cases intricate, but in no instance was there any failure to produce the information as and when required. I greatly appreciate the high quality of the work that was done.
“The Commission has come and gone, and at a social gathering of this nature I do not propose going into many aspects of their report. It may be the forerunner of much that will tend to clarify confusion of thought as evidenced in public criticism on the railway question. The question “Do the Railways Pay?” must be considered in relation to the usefulness to the Dominion as well as to actual financial results. When we are judged by financial results it must not be overlooked that we do not frame the policy under which the Railways are worked.
“I am pleased at the general spirit of loyalty displayed to the management by the staff. Occasionally one finds an isolated case—and in such a large staff there will be such cases—of misguided members who see no wrong, for instance, in giving away departmental information. Such action does not harm the General Manager, but so far as any member through his action does anything that would tend to weaken the management, then he is damaging himself and his fellow members; for any action that tends to weaken the management must weaken the service as a whole.
“The year has been one of importance to the Chief Accountant's Division. Some review of the branch has taken place, but reviews are really always going on. In these days of rapidly changing conditions new ideas are always welcome. Make no apology, but see your Chief Accountant and discuss any new methods that appear to have advantages. I want the assistance of all.
“I again thank you for the valued assistance during the past year. Let us all do our job thoroughly, and we may look forward confidently to the future.”
Holiday traffic on the New Zealand Rialways
The recent Christmas and New Year period was remarkable on account of the record time-keeping and train handling performances achieved by the New Zealand Railways Department. The above illustrations shew:—(1) Purchasing tickets at the Central Booking Office, Wellington: (2) the New Plymouth express passing through Khandallah, on the outskirts of Wellington; (3 and 6) the holiday rush at Thorndon station; (4)transferring inter-island checked luggage; (5) Christmas celebrations at the Hutt Valley Workshops, Wellington. (The energetic Committee who organised this popular and successful intertainment was: messrs. A. E. P. Walworth (Works Manager) (President), H. Du Faur (Organising Secretary), C. O'Shes (Assistant Secretary), F. Parr, (Chairman), H. Leopard (Treasurer), W. Burton, H. Dallison, H. Gjerson J. Grohon. J. Hale, J. Hooper, J. McGuire, W. Neil, W. Robinson, A. Spurr, W. Sullivan, and W. Wilson).
“When it's Springtime in the Rockies I'm coming back to you.”
So runs a popular and pretty gramophone song of the day. Here in New Zealand, where midsummer and holiday-time so happily coincide, it is the approach of Christmas that brings joyful anticipations of a return to the old home, to reunions with old friends, and to days of release from toil, days above all spent in the open air. Perhaps New Zealanders do not sufficiently realise how fortunate they are to be able to enjoy their great holiday of the year under climatic conditions so different from those of the land from which their fathers came.
The glory of the out-of-doors, the joy of the road, the bush, the mountains and the water, are theirs in the season when they have most leisure. Even if that leisure time be spent chiefly in travelling rather than in a quiet rest in some easily reached country nook, or some old familiar haunt, there is the change of scene, the change of company, the interest in making new friends, that have their part in physical and mental recuperation.
To everyone his holiday taste, to everyone his spot beloved over all other places, his restorative for jaded body and jangled nerves. Some will travel the length of the Dominion to meet old friends; scattered families are together again for a few too-brief days or hours. There are some whose holiday wants are easily satisfied. I know a veteran editorial toiler on a city newspaper whose idea of supreme holiday bliss is to get into his oldest clothes, get his fishing tackle and his tin of smellful bait, and dream the hours away in the stern of his small boat anchored out in the bay. Pipe in mouth, hat slouched over one eye, line in hand, he sits there in utter content, and lets old Time go by. If the fish like to come and hook themselves on, well and good, if not, he has no complaint. Those days in the boat prolong his life; he needs no medicine but his week-end rest cure, lengthened to a perfectly delightful fortnight at Christmastime.
There are others, the young folk—lucky, lucky youngsters, to be just youngsters!—whose delight is the merry bustle of quick-change travel, and who can play all day and dance all night, the more crowded the holiday place the better. Everyone to his taste—and hers. And a glory of our land is that there is so much that is new for those lucky youthful ones—something new always round the turn of the road.
In these fleeting reflections on Christmases past, present and to come, the inclination naturally is to let memory stray back along the old trails, the old waterways, and to wonder whether anything the coming days hold for one is likely to be as sweet as those that are far, too far, behind. My own most cherished memories are of the North. Long days spent in the saddle, boating cruises, nights in camp under the trees, or gently rocked to slumber in some sweet old anchorage, some delightful bay of the thousand bays along the Auckland coast.
In those youthful days, when Christmastime brought the long spell of the year, there was always that element of surprise, obtained in a more simple way than it is to-day.
What mingled pleasure and regret there is in the thought of old Hauraki days! In one craft and another, but most of all in a certain little half-decker, we sailed from bay to bay, making a new anchorage every night. We poked into all sorts of coves and creeks along that most enchanting sector of the Auckland coast; we cooked our meals on an old nail-can, which made the best possible stove; we found every day a new adventure.
One Christmas Day it happened that our rendezvous was Coromandel. We made up a party that day, with some friends from the shore, and what a party it was, and how we pitied the folk in the towns that day of perfect delight! We sailed across the harbour to that enchanting spot, the “Little Passage,” where the long woody point of the northern shore comes out to meet Beeson's Island. Mainland and island almost touch noses there is a narrow seaway between rimmed by the cleanest and whitest of sandy beaches. What a Christmas dinner it was! There was schnapper fresh caught from the little passage; we boiled it in salt water with the potatoes; there were lots of good things from the shore, including a glorious duff; and there were oysters from the rocks—the most delicious oysters I had ever tasted, and we had sampled them from every island in the Gulf in those happy days before absurd poaching regulations were invented along the Hauraki.
We picnicked under a grand old spreading pohutukawa tree, aflame with blossoms. Close by, a spring of fresh water bubbled up in the grass, and ran its few yards through the sands to the sea. It was a perfect camping place, and a perfectly joyous Christmas Day it was. A meal eaten amidst the loveliest of scenes, a gentle breeze that came as a caress; warmth and sunshine, and the low wash of the blue water; peace like a benediction over land and sea.
One hopes for more such halcyon days, knowing full well all the same that this old zest of life can never be recaptured.
Mention of the pohutukawa — for Christmastime and our New Zealand Christmas-tree are inseparably associated, at any rate in the North—inevitably brings up mind-pictures of that glorious tree on cliff and beachside for a thousand miles of coast. What a sight it is in flower these Christmas weeks, emblazoning all that rocky coast, bending over every sandy beach, burning with colour, at once the delight and the despair of the artist.
It seems to have its cycles of intense bloom. Every third year there is a more profuse showering of its deep-red blossom; a more bountiful meal of nectar for the honey-sucking birds.
That genial old gossiper, Dr. Henry Van Dyke, has something to say in his book “Fisherman's Luck,” about holiday life in the open that I cannot resist quoting, since it perfectly expresses a fact that we New Zealanders, who love the camp life, can vividly appreciate. “The people who always live in houses,” he writes, “and sleep on beds, and walklon pavements, and buy their food from butchers and bakers and grocers, are not the most blessed inhabitants of this wide and various earth. The circumstances are too mathematical and secure for perfect contentment. They live at second or third hand. They are boarders in the world. Everything is done for them by somebody else…. What do these tame ducks really know of the adventure of living? They might as well be brought up in an incubator. But when man abides in tents, after the manner of the early patriarchs, the face of the world is renewed. The vagaries of the clouds become significant. You watch the sky with a lover's look, eager to know whether it will smile or frown. When you lie at night upon your bed of boughs and hear the rain pattering on the canvas close above your head; you wonder whether it is a storm or only a shower.”
That sort of experience, now and then, is good for most people. As Van Dyke says, it brings us home to the plain realities of life.
A Christmas-season memory of one's own, from many memories, this clinches —if such clinching were needed—the good old angler's philosophy.
“‘Tis such a scene of bright p spective and brave hues As no painter can forge, brushing his greys and blues.”—Robert Bridges
(Govt. Publicity photo.)
In Half Moon Bay (near Oban) Stewart Island, New Zealand.
We were canoeing and camping up the Mokau River, up above the limits of steamboat navigation. One evening, after a particularly strenuous day paddling and poling and rapid-climbing, we ate our supper of fried bacon and “hard tack” at a fire we had made on a snagstrewn little island in the river, at the Panirau bend, where forested ranges rose steeply for nearly a thousand feet above us. Wearily we turned in, and listened to the voices of the night. Rapids rumbled and growled above and below our island; we heard the kiwi's call and the high melancholy crake of the weka. Heard, too, the song of the mosquito, and felt its accompaniment, but not for long; even that could not keep tired canoemen awake. And morning on Panirau—how glorious a sight! We turned out refreshed for another day's adventure. This canoe voyage of ours had all the charm of an exploring expedition. Something new lay round every bend in the winding Mokau. As we opened up a long smooth reach above the rapids, the lights and shadows and tender tints of early morning were beautiful beyond imagining. A shimmer of mist lay along the river; fog banks belted the upper parts of the hills. Then up over the lofty Ranga-a-Waitara range swung the glorious sun, and cliff and forest and river were all suffused with the softest rosy light. The mist veil melted away, the white forms of the Haumaringirngi, the foggy phantoms, floated away, and into the deeper hollows of the hills, the mountain tops lifted clear in the pearly morning light.
How could one but rejoice and be strong on such a morning, when all the world was good!
One could go on recalling one such midsummer memory after another. There were days and nights far down the West Coast, in the glacier country; there was a quiet and enchanting week at stewart Island, by bush track and whale-boat. The cumulative effect of the retrospect is a sense of gladness at having seen so much, experienced so much of the real New Zealand, a gratitude to “whatever gods there be” that one was able to extract so much of the joy of life from this pleasant land of ours while there was yet time. For inevitably there comes a time when bones ache and joints creak, when one wants to take it easy in holiday-time. Tents leak, the fire smokes, the bacon is burned; you can't see the mountains for the wet fog; you might as well be home in comfort.
But the joy of the road, the call of the open air, is overwhelmingly strong when the sun shines and the wind softly blows across the plain, and there is the knowledge that office and shop and factory
“The glassy river sparkled smooth as jet, Just touched with crystal beams.”—Robert Buchannan.
The beautiful headwaters of the Whakatane, North Island, New Zealand.
Station Gardens Competition.
Much interest is now being evoked in the coming competition for the best kept station garden in the Canterbury district. Working in conjunction with the Canterbury Horticultural Society, the members of the Traffic Manager's staff throughout Canterbury have the competition well under way. There will be two divisions in this competition—A and B—and some splendid trophies have been donated for each division. This year there appears to be a much fuller appreciation of the value of such a competition, and the task of judging the winning gardens promises to be both interesting and difficult.
By Those Who Like Us
From the Secretary, Waikato Carbonisation Company Ltd., to the General Manager of Railways, Wellington.
The greater portion of our plant arrived in Auckland recently per S.S. “Ruahine”.
The despatch of the shipment to Rotowaro required the use of 98 railway wagons, the total consignment consisting of 3,694 packages weighing approximately 1,065 tons.
At a meeting of my Directors I was instructed to write, expressing their appreciation for the excellent service rendered by your staff, with regard to the despatch of the material and in their attention and co-operation with our shipping agents. The fact that the wharf charges were kept to the absolute minimum reflects great credit on your wagon supply department under Mr. Hoddinott and your Wharf Foreman, for the manner in which the supply of empties was maintained, and the despatch of the loaded trucks. We were able to load into trucks direct from the ship's slings, an undertaking requiring considerable attention from your Department, in a shipment of this magnitude.
your District Engineer's Department also gave us every assistance in the matter of over-gauge and heavy lifts, your Engineers being always in readiness to make the necessary surveys.
* * *
From the Hon. Secretary, Wellington Cricket Association, Wellington, to the General Manager of Railways, Wellington:—
My Committee has instructed me to express to you its appreciation of the efficient manner in which the business connected with the transhipment of the West Indies Cricket Team from the S.S. “Tamaroa” to the “Limited Express” was carried out.
Both your Mr. Craig and Mr. W. Doig rendered us the greatest assistance in connection with booking and with the safe transfer of luggage. Their never failing courtesy and their readiness to render assistance helped considerably to eliminate the difficulties that generally present themselves on such occasions.
* * *
From the Secretary, Otago and Southland Horse Owners' and Breeders' Association, Dunedin, to the General Manager of Railways, Wellington:—
At a meeting of the above Association I was instructed to write thanking you for the splendid arrangements made in discharging the horses from the special train, which arrived from Christchurch, with horses for the recent Forbury Trotting Meeting
The whole train was discharged in four minutes, which speaks well for the efficiency of your staff. I can assure you that those in charge of the horses appreciated the expediency of discharge.
We have to state that we find a great deal of improvement in the transport of horses on the Railways and always find the officers in charge of the various centres willing to hear any complaints and assist us in every way possible.
“Isle of contentment, isle of calm serene
Bathed in the sunshine of the southern sky,
Rude Boreas softens here his rages keen
And breathes to Zephyr what is but a sigh.”
—C.A.K.J.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The Home of the Big Game Fish in the Bay of Islands, North Auckland, New Zealand. Two views of beautiful Otehei Bay (Urupukapuka Island), where anglers from all parts of the world are now gathering for deep sea game fishing. (Inset: Colonel Burton Mabin, the hospitable host on the island.)
Outdoor Advertising
Outdoor advertising is now recognised throughout the world as a real selling force. It is also regarded as the most economical form of effective publicity, and these two most important features account for its increasing popularity amongst advertisers.
In choosing an advertising medium, circulation is usually the first consideration. In this respect the outdoor advertisement is unique, in that its circulation is limited only by the number of people who pass its location, and that it is on duty telling its message twenty-four hours a day.
The dimensions of the usual outdoor advertisement, and the fact that it is in colours, assure it of public attention. We may be so occupied with more immediate things that we may not consciously be aware of the influence that the outdoor advertisement is exerting upon us, but consciously, or unconsciously, its constant repetition, day after day, impresses its message upon our minds.
Having dealt with the value of outdoor advertising generally, it is now necessary to consider how this class of advertising may best be obtained. In the first place it is more convenient to advertisers, and more economical too, to deal with as few advertising organisations as possible. It would be a cumbersome business if an advertiser had in some way to make separate advertising arrangements in regard to each of his potential customers, and the same principle, to a lesser extent, applies in regard to potential customers grouped in different localities. The convenience, therefore, of dealing with one advertising organisation, is obvious, and with those organisations whose rates are based on a sliding scale, the advantage of quantity rates will be readily understood.
The Railway Department has a choice of outdoor advertising media that cannot be equalled, or even approached, by any other single medium in the Dominion. Its hundreds of important railway stations, its hundreds of passenger carriages, and its thousands of excellent sites along the line, all offer most suitable locations for advertisements. For Dominion-wide advertising, here is a medium that stands predominant.
Now to consider how we should commence to obtain the outdoor advertisements, appropriate with regard both to style and design, to advertise the goods we have to sell. Here again the big organisation employing a large number of artists with wide experience in the use of colour, will serve you best.
Such an organisation is the Railway Advertising Branch, and it has on its staff designing artists, production artists, and other experts—all specialists in their own particular line of business. With this establishment it is necessary merely to state the commodity to be advertised, along with a few of its main features, and a design is prepared and submitted for approval.
By far the greater part of the business done by the Railway Advertising Branch covers full service, from the planning and designing of the advertisement, to its erection and maintenance during the period of display. The advantages of these services need not be stressed, for it has truly been said, “that a bad advertisement is worse than no advertisement.”
It can be rightly claimed that the Railway Advertising Branch has done much to improve the standard of outdoor advertising in New Zealand, and with the increasing support that it is receiving from Advertisers, it will, in the future, be able to improve still further its plant and service.
[Published by Arrangement.]
Much of life is spent in waiting for we know not what. We all laugh at Micawber's perpetual waiting for something to turn up, but most of us have a touch of Micawberism, and we should not be happy without it. Waiting on the future eases the weighting of the present.
* * *
The ancient jest about waiting for waiters in restaurants is never out of print. It used to be in the first fifteen of British standard jokes, and is still high up among the emergencies. But that kind of waiting is as nothing compared with the long waiting for a big win in “Tatt's,” or for the gold nugget of a monstrous art union.
* * *
The other day I heard an old song, which was sung when I was a boy. Here is a piece of the ditty:
Jenny's heart was true, of course, but was beginning to despair about the rise of salary for which her lover was waiting, and the vision of the cottage with the rambler roses and honeysuckle had lost some of its rosiness—but all would be well if she would only wait for another few years.
* * *
About the time when various baritone, tenor, soprano, alto, and contralto voices were busy with “Jenny” in many places, a song of a lost ship was also having a big run. Here is as much as I remember of the chorus:
* * *
They were pathetic waitings in those two songs, but there were comic or semi-comic waitings in some other songs of long ago. There was an unclassical ballad about an ill-used wife who was waiting for revenge, thus:
* * *
The spinster, waiting for a husband, was a favourite “property” of many novelists in the Victorian period of conventions and contradictions—but the modern maid would scoff at that stuff. Percy waits to-day for Pamela, who would have no sympathy whatever with the deserted lady of the old Lauder song:
* * *
How is it that when you urgently need a tram, you may have to wait more time than it would take you to walk to your destination? Sometimes you decide to hurry on to the next stop, but when you are half-way your tram scurries past you. Perhaps you
If you have no need of a tram ride, and merely wish to cross a street safely, can you do it? There is an unholy alliance of trams and motors against you, until you have a feeling that the Government, acting on secret information from the Imperial Authorities, has ordered a mobilisation of these vehicles.
* * *
Many a man is waiting anxiously for bank managers to become more benevolent about overdrafts. Plenty are waiting for the thaw and flow of that “frozen finance” mentioned by a prominent politician. “Money, money everywhere, but not a bob to borrow,” is the sad feeling of many a chap who would dearly like a loan of a few hundreds or thousands, or even the price of a pint or two.
* * *
How many are waiting for the peaceful deaths of rich uncles, aunts, or other relatives? The waiters know that their wilting wealthy kin will be far happier in that Better Land, but the money folk seem to have a supernatural lease of life. It is not at all the loosehold for which the others are hoping.
* * *
However, the great majority of the public have not the kind of uncles and aunts whose wills will open up an easy way to fortune. Still, anybody may have at least a faint hope that some day the unexpected may happen, and that a newspaper advertisement may give a delicious thrill: “If A—B—communicates with X—Y—he will hear of something to his advantage.”
* * *
Some of these persons, who are not now “among the money,” are waiting for the fulfilment of fortune-tellers’ prophecies. One of my friends, who had his head and his hands read several decades ago, has a fervent belief that the money-tree will drop plenty of fruit on him soon. The shrewd lady who collected his half-crown predicted some hard knocks as well as boons and blessings. “The troubles she mentioned have come along—every one of them,” my friend said. “So why shouldn't the good things turn up, too?” He is sure they will. He has promised me half of them if they do. So I am waiting, too.
* * *
While some very healthy poor men were waiting for the wealth which may come by chance or luck, some very sick rich men are waiting for health.
* * *
A man making money by hatfuls and sack-fuls now is waiting for a time when he will cease from troubling about stocks and shares, dividends and bonuses, and will be able to read the papers in no fear that he will be pained or shocked by slides of butter, falls of cheese, or the downward gallop of tallow in the world's markets. He is looking forward to years of leisure in good health for many things which he has yearned to do. But, in the long run, more often than not, he is afraid to step out of the rut of his routine lest he should fall suddenly into such a small plot of ground as the very poorest may own some day. He has dread of a cry from the Grim Conductor: “End of section.” So he goes on with the moneymongering.
* * *
Farmers say they are waiting for drops in wages, and workers are waiting for rises. Will they both have a win?
* * *
Think of some other waitings—children waiting for Christmas or picnics; patients waiting for their turn in the dentist's chair; tigers waiting for their prey by jungle waters; confidence men waiting for the “mugs” who are sure to arrive.
Who is not waiting to be properly understood? The only reason why Tom Bracken's sentimental verses “Not Understood” appeal to the average person is because he or she believes that he or she is not understood.
* * *
Well, dear friends, whatever we may be waiting for, let us not wait longer than we should. An American philosopher has truly said: “All that comes to him who waits is whiskers.”
The following is the text of a little booklet, explanatory of the services and facilities of the New Zealand Railways, recently issued by the Railways Publicity Branch and distributed to all schools throughout the Dominion.
Your railways are the largest industry of New Zealand, whose prosperity depends on their cheap freight services for farms, timber-mills, coal-mines, factories, and so on.
A Modern Aladdin.
The main lines and branches have a total length of nearly 3,300 miles, serving the principal districts of the North and South Islands.
The passenger service is the cheapest and safest in the world. During the past four years your railways have carried a total of one hundred million passengers without causing one fatality amongst them.
For the making of the railways, the stations, workshops, goods-sheds, engines, carriages, and wagons, the people of New Zealand have spent fifty-six million pounds. If you counted that huge sum at the rate of a pound every second, going on for eight hours a day, except Sundays, the task would take over six years. When you had finished the counting you would understand well why the people should help their railways to earn interest on this money, every pound of which has been borrowed by New Zealand.
In your railway service there are 19,000 employees. This means that the livings of about 75,000 New Zealanders (including wives and children) come directly from the railways. You must consider also the merchants, shopkeepers, and others whose welfare depends on the custom of railway workers.
(To be continued.)
Wit And Humour
Two Scotsmen went fishing, with an understanding that the first one to catch a fish was to buy the “soda.” One got a bite that almost broke his line, but refused to pull up. The other was fishing without bait.
* * *
Motorist: “I wasn't doing forty, nor thirty; no, nor twenty miles an hour—“Constable: “Here, steady on, or you'll be backing into something!”
* * *
One of the section crew of a western railroad in U.S.A. chanced to pick up a dining car menu card, and, seeing at the top “Table d'hote,” turned to his pal and inquired:
“What does this ‘ere mean, Joe?”
“Well,” said Joe, “it's like this 'ere. Them swells in the diners have some soup, a bit of fish, a bit of this, a bit of that, and a bit of summat else, and call it ‘table dottie.’ We have ‘table dottie,’ only we mixes it all together and calls it stew.”
* * *
“I will dance on your grave when you die!” said the angry wife.
“Splendid!” said her aggravating husband. “I'm going to be buried at sea!”
* * *
“Members are requested to refrain from picking up lost balls until they have stopped rolling.”
Seeing that the Railway is a plaid out thing and every Little good to the Public as a carrying Concern, I am sure it would be better to scrap the whole turn out, sell the land to Chinan for a Market garden Let them have the Engines and trucks to cart their cabbage to Market with hoping this will meet your favour.
I am dear sir—–
Text of a letter received recently by the Suggestions and Inventions Committee of the New Zealand Railways Department from a Chinaman in the North Island.—Ed.
* * *
“How many fish have you caught, Uncle?” asked an observer of an old man fishing on the bank of a stream. “Well, sir,” answered the angler thoughtfully, “if I catch this one I'm after, and two more, I'll have three.”
Caution.
“Does the express stop here?”
“Well, the timetable says it do, the stationmaster says it do, and the signals says it do, and if it don't it looks to me as if there'll be a norful row.”
Conducted bySheila G. Marshall
New Zealand.
Far away across the rolling Pacific, isolated and remote, there lies a little land—remarkably green—swept throughout by great sea winds. It has been mentioned somewhat rarely in books—indeed, it is astonishing how little the average Englishman knows about it. He has a vague idea, gleaned from a pernicious geography book, that a savage race, known as Maoris, inhabit a group of islands in the far Pacific; he has gazed in awe at a crude representation of a giant Moa stalking the land, has heard of the wonders of Rotorua, and perhaps a whisper of Waitomo. As a result, his picture of Britain's smallest Dominion is wonderfully vague and distressingly inaccurate—a nebulous vision of colossal sheep stations, great crude farmers, and a people dwelling in semi-barbarism, remote from all the refinements of civilisation.
Imagine his surprise, and probably his bitter disappointment, when he sails through Wellington Heads in the summer, sees the grand gorse-clad hills, the busy crowded wharves, the quite remarkably large and modern shops! Gone are his dreams of riding miles through virgin bush, of boiling the billy and listening to the clear ring of the bell-bird in the “leafy deep.” Mr. Kipling has deceived him cruelly. His first impression is one of narrow streets, dense traffic in a restricted area, a little commercial city peopled by a disconcertingly English type of man and woman. This country, he feels, has little to offer him.
By and by he will discover that between the rather uninteresting and decidedly unbeautiful towns of this strange little island, lie great tracts of land whose sheer beauty will leave him staggered and unbelieving.
His train rushes across golden plains of ripe wheat, making him think of Canadian prairies. Far before him is a low line of intensely blue hills—indeed, there is an amazing blueness over everything which is unfamiliar to an Englishman—a fine clearness of atmosphere, giving sharpness of outline.
“What a land for the painter and the poet!” murmurs our English pilgrim to the man in the next seat of his railway carriage.
“Yes,” answers the other, “and we are just beginning to realise it—been too busy settling down so far!”
“Really,” the traveller replies, and delves in his memory in an effort to drag up to the light of consciousness some
Safety First.
Miss C. M. Holland (of the Chief Accountant's Branch, Wellington), winner of the prize for the most original costume at a Fancy Dress Dance held at Lower Hutt.
Now the train begins to ascend the mountains, just as a typical glorious New Zealand sunset throws a lurid and blood-red glow over all things.
“But this is perfectly marvellous! ‘Your country seems to combine all the characteristics of the world-blue tropical seas, golden rolling plains, long, low, caressing hills, and now rugged mountains. Why on earth don't you people write about it? Over there they have simply no idea!”
Now, once more, the train is slipping through bush, almost terrifying’ in its strange grandeur—half-frowning, half-menacing, where once noiseless brown skinned Maoris slithered through the undergrowth in search of food.
That night, in his hotel, our Englishman read a poem about New Zealand, by William Pember Reeves:
He looked out to the bush-covered hills, and up to where the Southern Cross shone cameo-cut in the warm darkness. He was beginning to understand something of the charm of this country, the indescribable fascination of it, the sheer exultant beauty of it. And across the little slumbering township came a wind—keen, with the salt tang of the great seas.
A stretch of Mediterranean blue, Girt about by sharply outlined hills, And vaulted by a mass of ever-changing clouds.
Beach Pyjamas.
Summer once more! And everyone is planning a holiday—thinking of days down by the sea, lounging happily in the sunshine, far from the dust and grime of the city. All the shop windows are vivid with really “dashing” bathing costumes, tremendous “Lido” hats, sunshades, beach-wraps of gay towelling, “Sun-tan” powder, and all the et ceteras with which the modern woman adorns herself for her worship of the Sun God.
This year beach pyjamas will be much in evidence, and are a very necessary part of one's wardrobe. Strange how our ideas of things change—at one time the idea of a woman wearing pyjamas of any sort was positively shuddered at. Later she was permitted to follow her lord and master, and reached the stage of possessing very alluring garments (not merely designed for utility as men's are) for the actual business of sleeping. Now we may stroll quite unconcernedly along the seashore, drink our tea, and wander at will—attired in a most attractive species of that one-time purely masculine property, the pyjama.
You won't need nearly as many simple summer beach frocks as usual, and will be quite freed from the misery of ironing those innumerable pleats! Also, think of
Choose some bright, vivid material—blue skies and seas demand colour, as does our holiday spirit. There are countless varieties of fadeless materials everywhere, chintzes, prints, shantungs, etc., which will defy the kisses of the sun and flaunt their beauty most daringly right through the season. Spots and stripes, flowers and modern “futuristic” designs are suitable. You can use all your originality and individuality in devising a really unique and unusual scheme for your beach pyjamas.
Those in the illustration are very easily made. The full, almost Turkish trousers, are on a hip yoke, close fitting, and have a little sleeveless top of plain material. There is also a coatee to be slipped on when the wind is a little chilly, and the whole effect is quite French and very attractive. Monograms, appliqued nautical designs, bows, etc. All these add to the chic appearance of your holiday lounge suit. Coloured shoes and a soft floppy Lido hat, and you are ready for the beach, feeling deliciously cool and comfortable, and looking worthy of your surroundings.
Opening Of The Christchurch-Ferrymead Line
(continued)
In his article on the subject of Railways in New Zealand in the first issue of the New Zealand Year Book (1892) Mr. E. G. Pilcher, then Secretary to the Railway Commissioners, states that on the recommendation of the late Robert Stephenson (the eminent British railway engineer) 5ft. 6in. was adopted as the railway gauge best suited to the circumstances of the colony. This was modified to 5ft. 3in. in Canterbury and to 4ft. 8 ½in. in Auckland, Nelson, Otago and Southland, but no reasons for the alteration are given
The gauge of 5ft. 6in. recommended was probably a compromise between the 7ft. gauge of the Great Western and the 4ft. 8 ½in. of the other British railways. The question of gauge was a matter of fierce dispute in England for some time and the dispute was generally referred to as the “Battle of the Gauges.” Eventually, owing to difficulties arising from the break of gauge, the 7ft, gauge lines were converted to 4ft. 8 ½in. Railways on the 5ft. 6in. gauge were constructed in India, Canada, and elsewhere. The Irish railways were laid on a gauge of 5ft. 3in., and the State of Victoria (Australia) adopted the Irish gauge. This is also the gauge of the railways of the Argentine Republic, and Lord Frederic Hamilton, in his entertaining book, “Here, There, and Everwhere,” explains the reason for its adoption. He writes:—
“It appears that in the middle of last century a firm of English contractors built a railway in Ireland, for the construction of which railway they were not paid. In 1855 these contractors were employed to build a short railway from Balaclava to the British lines. Thinking to make some use of the Irish rolling stock, which they had seized but could not readily dispose of on account of the difference in gauge in England, they obtained permission to construct the Crimean railway on the 5ft. 3in. gauge so as to use the Irish rolling stock. This they did, and two years after the conclusion of the war they obtained a contract to build a 21-mile line from Buenos Ayres to the River Tigre. They obtained permission to build this railway on the Irish gauge, and considering the Crimean rolling stock was still in good order, they transported it from the Black Sea to the Argentine.”
At the time of the visit of Lord Frederic Hamilton to the Argentine in 1883, two of the Crimean engines, the “Balaclava” and the “Eupatoria” were still running on this little line. Later railways followed the lead of the pioneers so that all the Argentine railways were built on the Irish gauge.
The contractors for the Lyttelton to Christchurch railway had just completed a contract on the Melbourne to Essendon line and had plant of the 5ft. 3in. gauge all ready to start work in New Zealand. This fact may have influenced the Canterbury Provincial authorities in adopting the same gauge as in Victoria. Upon the introduction of inter-Colonial steamer service, Melbourne was also to some extent a basis of supplies for the southern provinces of New Zealand.
The organisation for the supervision of the contract included a Superintending Engineer (Mr. G. R. Stephenson) in London, a Resident Engineer (Mr. Edward Dobson) in New Zealand, and two tunnel inspectors selected and sent to the colony by Mr. Stephenson.
The contractors brought their plant for the operations at the Heathcote end of the tunnel up the Heathcote River to a
Nevertheless, good progress was made. Reporting on the 1st July, 1863, Mr. Dobson stated that 1087 yards of the tunnel (541 yards at Lyttelton end, and 546 yards at Christchurch end) had then been excavated or about two-fifths of the total length in two years.
Meantime the preparation of the track between Christchurch and Heathcote was undertaken, and in order to take advanttage of this work it was decided to lay
The Department's Car And Wagon Shops In The South Island.
Two interior views at the Addington Railway Workshops (Christchurch) shewing (left) the car shop, and (right) a corner of the bogie shop.
(To be continued.)
Within the last few years refrigeration applied to small units has made extraordinary progress, and the old-fashioned, cumbersome and expensive units, necessitating the attendance of a skilled engineer, are no longer required. A prominent and recent example illustrating the advantages and flexibility of this new method is afforded by the new Hotel St. George, Wellington, N.Z.
In this “Frigidaire” installation separate units attend to the numerous and various refrigerating requirements. In the kitchen there is a freezing chamber in which game and poultry, etc., can be held over in a frozen storage, enabling the chef to serve these delicacies both in and out of season. There is also a cool room in which are stored all the foodstuffs in current use. An interesting feature of the third machine is that it maintains two different temperatures in two separate chambers combined in the one unit. The first of these chambers is provided for the pastrycook, enabling him to produce the most delightful puff pastry and to preserve his eggs, butter and milk under the most favourable conditions. The second chamber, connected to the same unit, but running at a quite different temperature, is provided for the pantry, and in this are stored cold sweets, butter, milk, and, in particular, celery and salads.
It should be noted that in a refrigerator the air is extremely dry, all moisture originally present and afterwards introduced depositing in the form of frost upon the refrigerating surfaces. This extremely dry atmosphere is not desirable for the preservation of salads, etc., which require an atmosphere with a high humidity. “Frigidaire,” by means of its Hydrator, affords a very ingenious solution to this problem, resulting in an atmosphere with a humidity of 80 per cent, and a temperature between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
In addition to the kitchen equipment, there is a further interesting “Frigidaire” installation for the cooling of liquid refreshments. In the Wine Room there is a cabinet which provides for three entirely different temperatures. In addition, and in the same cabinet, provision is made for the storage of mineral waters, etc., and for the manufacture of ice cubes.
Further units are provided in the regular bars for the cooling of beer, etc., ensuring at all times, irrespective of atmospheric conditions, the best possible service.
Credit for the design and installation of this complete equipment is due to Messrs. John Chambers and Son, Wellington, who undertook the whole of the work.
Daughtsman Drafted to Superannuation.
Mr. e. a. copley, Senior Car and Wagon Draughtsman in the Drawing Office of the Chief Mechanical Engineer, recently retired after forty years’ service with the Department.
At a farewell gathering of members of the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Branch and the Hutt Valley Workshops, Mr. E. T. Spidy, General Superintendent of Workshops, stated that he did not know another man in the service who had given of his best to a greater extent than Mr Copley, and expressed the hope that Mr. Copley would live long to enjoy the fruits of superannuation, and felt sure that he would always have plenty of friends both inside and outside the service.
Mr. P. R Angus, Assistant-Chief Mechanical Engineer, said that the Department would lose a good man whose cheery disposition was helpful in coordinating the work of those with whom he was associated.
Messrs. R. J. Gard (Chief Draughtsman), S. H. Jenkinson (Inspecting Engineer), A. E. P. Walworth (Works Manager, Hutt), and G. R. Wilson also paid a tribute to Mr. Copley's distinguished services for the Department, after which Mr. Spidy presented Mr. Copley with a handsome silver tea-set. In accepting it, Mr. Copley thanked them all for the splendid attendance of all branches, which spoke volumes for the co-ordination between the Head Office, the Drawing Office, and the Workshops. “After one week off duty on superannuation,” continued Mr. Copley, “I don't think it is any good. (Laughter.) No one likes to be told that he has reached the limit of usefulness, but the Department has told me this, in a few well-chosen words.” (Laughter… He found that the friends he had made in the Railway service were the best he had ever met. Nothing in life to him was more interesting than his job. “What am I going to do?” queried Mr. Copley.
It was very fortunate for all, he said, that there was a superannuation fund waiting for them, and he advised those present that whatever came along if anybody tried to tackle the superannuation fund they should fight for it through thick and thin It was a fine thing, when a man was rendered unfit through sickness or age, that the superannuation fund should be waiting for him.
In referring to the splendid co-operation between the Drawing Office and the Workshops, he said that in a sudden emergency in 1924 when they were required to equip eight cars as sleeping compartments in eight days, the job seemed impossible. Yet it was done at the Petone Workshops because they “sprang to it,” and they had the work all under way within a quarter of an hour of his taking the plans there.
The present which they had made him, said Mr. Copley, was such that it could well become a family heirloom, which he hoped to see handed down from generation to generation.
Mr. E. A. Copley, recently retired on superannuation, after forty years’ service.
Beauty and Utility for Panelling Purposes.
The public rooms in the Auckland new station have each a character of its own, the coffee room, with its bright cheerfulness of highly-coloured tiles and ceiling decoration, the dining room with its spaciousness and quietness of atmosphere and tone, the general waiting room with its fine rimu timbering and its air of solidity. The outstanding room, however, is surely the ladies' waiting room. It was desired to make this room typically New Zealand, and at the same time endue it with a restful dignity suitable to its purpose. After careful consideration it was decided to wood-panel the room fully, and to use for this purpose New Zealand's finest decorative timber, the kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile) commonly known as D'Urville Island mahogany. Apart from being one of the most striking trees in the New Zealand flora, its timber has a beauty of grain and colour scarcely surpassed by the finest Honduras mahogany.
Along with other sections of the community the railwaymen of New Zealand are continuing to render much practical assistance to the various funds being raised for the relief of those who have suffered as a result of the recent earthquake disaster in Hawke's Bay. Apart from the handsome contribution of £500 made by the Executive Council of the A.S.R.S. on behalf of their organisation, individual railwaymen have been most generous in supporting the various lists that have been circulated throughout the service. A further contribution of £21, the proceeds of a dance function, specially arranged by the Social Committee at the Hutt Valley Workshops, Wellington, was recently added to the already large sum collected in the Lower Hutt District for the earthquake sufferers.
The dance was held in the Social Hall at the Workshops, which for the occasion was gaily decorated with multi-coloured balloons, streamers, and festoons of greenery. About 200 people, young and
An Example Of Station Beautifying On The N.Z.R.
The above station garden, at Horoplto (on the North Island Main Trunk Line), makes a notable improvement to the appearance of Horopito station. The garden was made (under considerable difficulty, due to the presence of gravel) by the porter in charge, Mr. M. Chapman, seen standing in the picture.
During the evening, Mr. A. E. P. Waalworth (Works Manager and President of the Social Committee), introduced Mr. W. Nash, M.P. (Member for the District) and Mrs. Nash, to those present.
Mr. Nash spoke in eulogistic terms of the fine effort made by the Workshops Social Committee in raising funds to meet the needs of those in the stricken area. Not only in Lower Hutt, but throughout New Zealand railwaymen, he said, were pulling together and accomplishing a great deal towards providing relief for those who had suffered on account of the earthquake. He went on to say that, at the present time, there were 402 residents of Hawke's Bay billeted in Lower Hutt.
The spirit shown was excellent and one and all should be complimented upon the sympathetic interest displayed.
“It is ‘some’ year we have come through — a year carrying more strain than any that the Department of Railways has known,” said the General Manager (Mr. H. H. Sterling) at the annual pre-Christmas jubilation of the Railways Head Office staff.
As last year, the ladies of the staff, under the direction of Miss B. McQueen, had set tables for afternoon tea, and there were strings of gay balloons overhead. In due course these balloons were released, and for five minutes the staff of both sexes, and of all ages and stages, enjoyed themselves pushing balloons. The harder the year, the greater the need of the jubilation and vacation that came with Christmas.
“We perform a service,” said the General Manager, “comparable with that of
Addressing the girls particularly, Mr. Sterling said that, though their wishes might not agree with his, he hoped that the Department would retain each of them for at least another year, and that no external attraction would lead them into another sort of life. He would again express his confidence that the staff of both sexes would live up to its responsibilities.
A bright gathering terminated in congratulations to the ladies on the success of their efforts in breaking the monotony of a drab year with a touch of real Christmas.
Robertson protected Metal Sheets
Few firms engaged in the manufacture of building materials have such a record of progress as have H. H. Robertson Co., Ellesmere Port, England, manufacturers of Robertson Protected Metal (“R.P.M.”) sheets and ventilators.
The policy of this company, since its inception, 25 years ago, has been to concentrate exclusively on the production of an inexpensive, permanent sheeting for the roofing and siding of commercial buildings. At the present day the H. H. Robertson Co. are operating large works in England. Canada and U.S.A., while branch offices and agencies are established in the main cities of the world.
R.P.M. sheets have the strength of galvanised steel sheets with none of their disadvantages. The annealed steel core of R.P.M. is enclosed under heat and pressure in a thick envelope of specially refined asphalte, which, in turn, is encased and bonded under pressure with a coat of heavy asbestos felt. The third and final treatment is the application of the tough waterproof sealing coat, which protects the sheet from mechanical abrasion and damage in fixing. The sheet steel core by reason of the three distinct sealing coats, is absolutely protected against corrosion under the most severe conditions obtainable.
The New Zealand Railways Department use R.P.N. extensively for covering the large structures housing the Department's rolling stock and machinery.
Ten years ago the H. H. Robertson Company commenced the study of ventilation in commercial buildings. Experiments and tests were carried out for a period of three years, during which time over fifty different types of ventilators were tested under working conditions.
A feature of the Robertson ventilator, is the patent suction band which enables the ventilator to exhaust at full capacity, irrespective of the direction of the wind. Moving parts, liable to choke and stop the action of the ventilator, have been entirely eliminated, making installation a very simple matter, requiring no expert supervision.
Mr. Robert Hope.
The death occurred recently of Mr. Robert Hope, a retired railway servant.
Born at Greta Green, Scotland, 78 years ago, Mr. Hope, when a young man, joined a branch of the Caledonian railways. After serving some time and gaining valuable experience, he decided to settle in New Zealand, arriving here fifty-two years ago. Almost immediately he became associated with the railways in New Zealand, and was stationed at Cross Creek. For about thirty years he piloted trains over the famous Rimutaka ranges, easily the steepest incline on the New Zealand Railways system. Running trains over this country called for a great deal of skill on the part of the enginedrivers. Such, however, was the outstanding ability of Mr. Hope as an enginedriver that for thirty years he served with distinction on this incline. Well-earned promotion came to him five years before he retired from the service, when he became Locomotive Foreman. He retired from the service about sixteen years ago.
Mr. Robert Hope, a retired railway servant, whose death occurred recently.
A gem set in the midst of four beautiful streams—the angler's delight, the camper's holiday resort, the ideal rest place after the strenuous work of the year. Such is the town of Temuka, on the main line of railway, 89 miles south of Christchurch. A grain-growing and pastoral centre, its main street and residential area a picture of neatness, it has a restful charm about it that at once communicates itself to the observant visitor, who will, if wise, make a mental note of its many striking attractions for his holiday programme.
Temuka means “The Strong Oven,” the original being “Te Umu-Kaha,” a name derived from the fact that there were numerous Maori ovens (remains of which are still traceable) in the old days. There is a Maori pa at Arowhenua (situated between the Temuka and the Opihi rivers), an interesting place, with its native school and church.
Temuka is justly proud of its Domain, a magnet attracting visitors and picnic parties from all over the South Island. One of the best evidences of its famed popularity is the annually returning hosts of merry picnickers from near and far who, having once experienced the pleasure of an outing in the sunshine of Victoria Park, with its profusion and wealth of colour and forest surroundings, always vote for a return visit at the first available opportunity.
Another outstanding feature of this magnificent Domain is the splendidly equipped sports grounds, every class of sport being catered for. Tennis courts, croquet lawns, bowling greens, golf links, cricket and football grounds, cycle track, swimming baths, all in close proximity. You step out of the one into the other, and one or other is always gay with life, according to the season, whilst every visitor is welcomed in the true sporting spirit, and made to feel at home by the various club officials and members.
With its four splendid rivers all within a few minutes’ reach, the angler for trout has a choice of locality unequalled by any other town—the Temuka River skirting the borough, and the Opihi only separated by a few chains; whilst the beautiful Tengawai and the Orari are reached in a few minutes by motor car. Should the angler prefer salmon fishing, what finer river for his sport than the Rangitata, with its splendid flow of beautiful snow-fed water as it winds its way to old Father Ocean!
The greatest tribute to the popularity of the trout streams of South Canterbury, and more particularly of Temuka, is the fact that anglers come regularly every year from the Old Country, Europe, America and Australia, to take up their abode for a considerable portion of the season at Temuka. Many of these anglers prefer to camp on the banks of the various streams, the hotel and private accommodation, which is first-class in Temuka, being usually taxed to the utmost.
For the benefit of motorists the local Progress League, in conjunction with the Domain Board, has arranged for a splendid motor camping area at the Domain, where there is plenty of shelter available, and where all the usual facilities for campers are provided at a nominal fee, which is collected by the curator. This money is devoted to defraying the cost of improvements for the benefit of motorists, and the upkeep of the camping area, which is situated in ideal surroundings facing the banks of the Temuka River.
Motorists have the choice of a number of interesting drives along the best of roads, and the great Pacific Ocean is only a quarter of an hour's drive away.
There are six reasons why you should select Temuka for your next holiday, whether you propose a camping expedition, an angling holiday, in search of the sportive trout, or that restful recuperation time “far from the madding crowd,” sought after by those who have been carried off their feet by the crush of competitive business and the whirl of the social arena in city life.
(1) Your decision to go on a holiday somewhere, presupposes an admission that you need a rest, a change, relaxation—call it what you will. It is a desire to escape for a brief space from the strenuous period. Temuka offers you the ideal conditions desired in sunshine and surroundings.
(2) You are looking for variety and cheerful company amongst kindred spirits. You will find these in the most complete group of sporting associations gathered on any sports ground in the Dominion.
(3) Should you prefer to roam “on your lonesome” there are 135 acres of beautiful domain and miles of river bank and bed leading down to lagoon and ocean, with all those delightful little nooks and dells and
A Pretty And Flourishing South Island Town.
A view of the Main Street, Temuka, South Canterbury, New Zealand.
(4) Because in Temuka and its environs you may shake off collar and tie and dress in outdoor camping outfit without fear of incurring foolish conventional criticism.
(5) In these times of economic stress, economy counts, so don't forget that Temuka will be found to be one of the most inexpensive and yet most delightful of holiday resorts you have ever favoured with your presence.
(6) In short, to sum up, if you make Temuka your holiday home your worries will vanish, your spirits will rise, you will feel at home all the time. What conditions could be more ideal? Try it out.
The railroad whistle is in a class by itself. It is one of the most romantic sounds one ever hears. To lie in bed, late at night, and hear some distant flyer whistling for a crossing, is to experience the feeling that one has heard the eerie horns of elfland blowing beyond the horizon. The note is haunting beyond words, with an insistent melancholy, that defies description. We should be sorry to be deprived of it.
—From (Camden, NJ.) Courier.
Man in search of Air Conquest, devised and brought into use the balloon, the pioneer and predecessor of the modern aeroplane and airship. Yet almost from the beginning of Time, long ere man essayed in that direction, the principle of ballooning had been adapted by the Araneiads to surmount obstacles otherwise insuperable to their power. Thus we are strangely brought in contact with a bond existing between two entirely diverse terragrade forms of life —man and spider—both seeking to go beyond the limitations and bounds imposed by Nature.
The newly hatched Araneiad, compelled by the exigencies of life to seek fresh fields and pastures new, builds him a silken balloon; a balloon not gas inflated, but constructed of silken gossamer emitted from his spinarets. As soon as these threads are sufficiently numerous and long enough to give the necessary buoyancy for mounting, the intrepid little voyager casts off by springing upwards and sailing away on his great adventure. On a warm day, with a gentle breeze in evidence, thousands of these adventurers may be watched taking off from raised positions furnished by fences, plants and the like. They may be observed building their frail aircrafts and starting on their journey. They may be seen floating away overhead in their silken argosies with pennants streaming in the air; passing over the tops of tall trees, crossing wide rivers, even going out to sea. The frail aircrafts are somewhat at the mercy of the wind, but not altogether so, the pilot is able to descend at will by contracting the balloon surface and even anchoring.
Let us watch one about to set out. Facing the breeze the whole body is raised to the full extent of the legs; the spinarets are then brought into action, and several gossamer lines cast out. Gradually the legs bend in the direction of the breeze, the joints stiffen under the muscular strain of holding-down that increases in proportion to the pull of the uplifting force. Suddenly the eight anchoring claws let go simultaneously—the balloon bounds into space!
As the balloon rises upwards the bold adventurer turns over on to his back, cuts off the threads from his spinarets, and, swiftly gathering the strands together, weaves them into a silken cradle. Immediately, and while this is being done, another strand is cast out and downwards, which, floating behind, balances the now completed airship.
These argosies have been recorded out at sea, passing at comparatively high altitudes, and settling upon the masts of vessels two hundred miles from land.
At times, so densely do they descend on land, they are spoken of as “gossamer showers.” Spenser writes of them :—
“More subtle web Arachine cannot spin Nor the fine nets, which oft we woven see Of scorched dew.”
These “gossamer showers” have been known to cover the earth so thickly as to cause it to appear carpeted in white gauze gemmed in dew diamonds. The “showers” fall in flakes an inch wide and six inches long, that twinkle brightly in descent as they catch and reflect the rays of the sun. One shower is recorded as covering an area of eight miles. Pliny in describing one that fell in his days, writes:
“It rained wool about the castle.”
International Athletes At Wellington.
Some interesting snaps taken on the occasion of the international athletic meeting held at Wellington on Saturday, 21st February, in which J. Carlton, the crack Australian sprinter, won a notable victory over G. Simpson, U.S.A., by J. Carlton by two yards); (3) Carlton winning the 220 yards race from C. Jenkins; (4) J. Carlton; (5) The grand parade of athletes; (6) finish of the 880 yards handicap, E. Watson winning from O. Richardson; (7) H. Rothert, U.S.A., winning the shot-putting; (8) final of the 120 yards ladies' handicap (won by Miss S. Corbett; (9) S. A. Lay throwing the javelin; (10) start of the one mile international test race; (11) finish of the three miles. A Grade cycle race (won by M. Gane; (12) The American trio, Messrs. Kiser, Simpson and Rothert (from left); (13) G. Bayne (Wellington) winning the one mile scratch race from R. Kiser.
Cement a Quality Product
To appreciate the elaborate manufacturing processes that cement must go through, and the care required in all these processes, it is necessary to know something of the tests the finished cement must pass—and why it must pass them
You may never have thought of it, but the cement you purchase for a footpath or a farm feeding floor, might have gone into the foundations of Auckland's new station; into the beams of a warehouse, or the trusses of a great bridge.
For these great works, for office buildings, hotels, bridges, dams—on which the lives of thousands may depend—it is obviously necessary to have a product of known reliability. You must have cement that you can count on. And that is what you get.
Testing begins before the materials are out of the ground, taking samples as the drills go down for the blasting, and the last tests are not completed until the finished cement is in the ship or truck, ready to go out to the consumer.
The tests are for chemical content, fineness, strength, setting time, freedom from impurities—all points that are of concern to the user. Some are made every few minutes; some every hour; and the samples from which they are made are taken continuously.
The exact form of the more essential tests is prescribed by the British Engineering Standard Association, England. Whatever is necessary to ensure that the cement you get is dependable, is done.
The well-known brands of locally made Cement—“Wilsonite” Rapid Hardening Cement and “Star” Brand Portland Cement—which were used exclusively in the piles, foundations, platforms, roads, and in Auckland's magnificent new Railway Station, not only comply with the exacting British Standard Specifications for Portland Cement, but considerably exceed it.
Waygood-Otis Lift Installation
It is with great pleasure we are able to advise the public that the new Auckland Railway Station is equipped throughout with Waygood-Otis Lifts.
After considering all the factors it was decided by the New Zealand Government Engineers and the Architects for the building, to instal a Waygood-Otis Micro Drive Self-Levelling Machine for the passenger lift
This decision was inevitable, in view of the fact that only the highest quality and most improved type of lift machinery was being considered. Unvarying reliability was to be ensured. Safety—automatic and certain was called for—silence of operation was desired—and that meant Waygood-Otis.
Although this lift will work at 300 f.p.m.—an unusually high speed for alternating current machinery—it will unfailingly come to rest level with the floor which it is serving, and this in spite of the varying loads which will be placed in the car in the course of its service. This level landing is maintained at all times without regard to change of load on the platform or stretch of ropes.
A further feature of these lifts is that to ensure against the slamming of the gates, they are all fitted with Waygood-Otis silent two-speed self-closing doors.
The success of the Waygood-Otis Micro Drive Self-Levelling system has been phenomenal, and since its inception a great number of installations have been made in the two largest cities of the Dominion, and even in the smaller cities with lifts operating at slower speeds, but where the advantages of automatic operation and self-levelling were desirable.
Less pretentious, but equally efficient are the other Waygood-Otis lifts installed in the building, which include a large luggage lift, stores lift, and a restaurant lift. In the larger of these lifts the control is by double button from car and landings.