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Mr. R. Clark, jnr., 10 Mansion Street, Marrickville, Sydney, N.S.W., writes to the Editor, New Zealand Railways Magazine as follows:—
“I have a large collection of postcard photographs of Australian locomotives and express trains, and would be pleased to arrange an exchange for similar photographs of rolling stock on the New Zealand Railways.”
Readers who are interested are requested to communicate with Mr. Clark, at the above address.
Mile-Stones in New Zealand's Transport History.
The top illustration depicts the development of the Hawke's Bay Motor Company's Fleet from the days of the stage each to the modern vehicles which are now run in conjunction with the Railway Department's services. In this centere is shwewn the departure from Auckland (on Christmas Eve, 1873) of the first train to run on the Auckland-Waikato railway, and below, New Zealand's crack train, the “Limited Express,” at the end of its 426 mile run from Auckland to Wellington.
The frequency of accident by road is due in greatest measure to a desire for speed without due consideration for safety. The question arises, “Why the hurry?” What do all these careless speedsters do with the time saved by pace when they reach journey's end? Are they like the boy with the toboggan, who rides down hill at full speed just to return to the top and “do it again?” Are they financiers who have to attend a meeting at which their presence and brilliancy is needed to solve some intricate business conundrum and turn Motion picturesy into real triumph? Must they scour the country at breakneck speed to the danger of their own and others' lives to manage this? Are they doctors called for an emergency operation, where minutes mean the difference between a patient saved Or lost? Arc they artists or architects who, if not at easel or drawing table by a given time, will lose the urge to produce a soul-inspiring painting or a world-beating building design? Are they poets or writers who find in speed, with an accompaniment of deadly risk, the seeds from which will grow a modern epic of stirring grandeur or a drama of sphere-shaking power?
No. The records of accidents reveal that those who go beyond the dictates of commonsense in speed are in almost all cases really unimportant people who never did anything to get their names in the papers, or otherwise distinguish themselves until receiving brief reference in a road casualty column. Like the easily-overlooked Mrs. ‘Awkins, who “'ad nothink, said nothink, did nothink—till she died,” their only chance of achieving prominence is by taking leave of life in some sudden manner sufficiently spectacular for the press to notice—and the easiest of these ways is by road accident.
It was the declared aim of President Wilson to make the world safe for democracy by helping to reduce war hazards—but the hazards of peace are possibly greater, and they are enormously increased through unheeding hurry on the roadways of city and country alike. Speed, of course, is, like light and space, a matter of relativity. The fifty miles or so an hour which is perfectly safe on straight railway lines, where signal protection guarantees a clear track and right of road ahead, and at the same time ensures ample margin of clearance in the rear, is an invitation to disaster in automobile travel on a winding road, with a flimsy car, or where traffic is at all thick or cross-road vision is obscured. The safety of air travel lies less in speed limitations than in dependable ability to “keep going” at a reasonable elevation, the thinness of traffic and the three-dimensional
Amongst railroads there has been, perhaps, rather too much effort to establish speed records and institute extremely fast services. Competition for business has, of course, accounted for much of this, but high speeds are costly to maintain, and it is doubtful whether the advertising value of this, taking into consideration the convenience—or otherwise—of passengers, makes the effort economically sound. There is, in every method of transport, a speed which is the best for that service, taking all essential factors into consideration, and it is that speed which should be aimed at. A little cool thought applied over a wide area, an analysis of the desire for speed—which in most instances is merely a form of nervous intoxication—a frequent reiteration of the question “Why the hurry?” and an examination of the answer (with special reference to the purpose for which travel is undertaken), should do much to curb the desire for excessive speeds and to decrease the mounting scale of travel casualties. It is pleasing to observe yet once again, with special reference to this point, that the railways of this country have added another year of Christmas and New Year transport to their record without occasioning one fatality amongst their passengers.
The “Cheltenham Flyer,” of the Great Western Railway, established a world's record for speed with steam as the motive power, on the 16th September last when it ran the 77.3 miles from Swindon to Paddington in 58 1/3 minutes, an average start-to-stop speed of 79.51 miles per hour. Hitherto the fastest duly authenticated steam-hauled run in railway history was that established on the Reading Railroad, U.S.A., in May, 1905, from Cowden to Atlantic City, viz., 78.3 m.p.h. At one stage the “Cheltenham Flyer” ran at 90 m.p.h., and for 67 miles continuously the speed ranged well over 80 m.p.h.
Friday, 3rd July, 1931, marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of the Canadian Rockies—the arrival at Fort Calgary of the first railway survey party. On 3rd July, 1881, this body of men, the first all-white party to invade the mountains, went into camp on the north side of the Bow River. At that time practically nothing was known of the Rockies. However, this indomitable band of pathfinders, facing dangers unknown and the most formidable natural obstacles, ultimately succeeded in discovering a path across the mountains and prepared the way for the great railway system which was destined to do so much for the development of Canada.
Of the band of approximately 100 pioneer railway surveyors, only two are alive to-day—Mr. A. E. Tregent, of Victoria, and Mr. T. Wilson of Banff—two sturdy veterans whose photographs appear below.
Railway Pathfinders
(Photo, courtesy Mr. T. R. Aickin, Wellington.)
Mr. T. Wilson (left) and Mr. A. E. Tregent (right) the only surviving members of the party who blazed the trail through the Rockies in 1881.
The financial results from operating the railways remain the matter of most vital moment in the affairs of the Department. In my last message I referred to the improvement, in the net revenue position for 32 weeks, of over £28,000. The figures to the 2nd January, 1932, that is for the 40 weeks of the current financial year, shew a net revenue improvement of over £66,000 compared with last year, notwithstanding that the depression conditions still obtain.
The general result of our operations for the 40 weeks of the financial year to date may be briefly stated as follows: our total working expenses have been reduced by £970,573, thus more than offsetting the revenue decline of £904,239 for the same period.
The public are again earnestly asked to support as far as possible the railway services at their disposal, as the national aspect of their support is increasingly important. The Board has made special efforts to make the position in this respect clear in districts where branch lines are occasioning direct operating losses.
Passengers
.—The special efforts made to stay the decline in passenger traffic by fare reductions and other adjustments have had a generally favourable effect. Prior to the introduction of reduced passenger rates in September last, passenger journeys had decreased by 23% for the portion of the financial year up to that time as compared with the corresponding period in the previous year. For the four four-weekly periods since the reductions, i.e., to the 2nd January, the decrease in passenger journeys has been 7%.
Parcels
.—The January 2nd period shews a 10% increase in revenue from this source, much of the improvement being due to the public making increased use of the through-booking inter-Island facilities.
Freight
.—The lowest point in goods traffic was reached in August last when the four-weekly figures shewed a revenue decrease of 17% below those of the previous year. Since then the position has gradually improved, and for the four weeks to the 2nd January an increase of 4.57% in freight revenue was recorded.
It is pleasing to find that the interest of the staff and public in forwarding suggestions and submitting inventions, intended to effect improvements in all phases of railway working, continues unabated. These are coming to hand at the rate of over a hundred a month, the total since the Suggestions and Inventions Committee was set up in 1925 amounting to 7,828, of which about 10% have been adopted.
The value of the proposals to the Department may be judged from the fact that approximately £1,000 has already been distributed in monetary awards in connection with accepted proposals. I desire to assure both public and staff that such interest is very much appreciated, and that further suggestions will be welcomed.
Any new idea, no matter how trifling it appears, may have value, and when submitted is treated as confidential. It is assured of most careful and impartial consideration at the hands of an expert and experienced technical committee, to the members of which the source of the suggestion is not disclosed.
General Manager.
The Debt Chain—Rival Links—“Commercial” Compromise—“Scotland is a Spirit”—Separate—Yet One!
“Reparations and inter-Governmental debts are separate and distinct subjects,” said the President of the United States Chamber of Commerce, on 21st January. In so saying, he implied that if Germany carried out Dr. Bruening's New Year threat not to pay reparations to the European and British Empire countries receiving reparations, the United States Government would not necessarily regard those reparation-denied Governments as being entitled to corresponding (or any) reductions in their debt burdens to the United States. Although the parallel is imperfect, let us liken the United States to the mortgagee of a house property, France to the mortgagor-owner, Germany to the tenant. France hears that the tenant Germany is not going to pay the rent, but mortgagee America expresses complete unconcern, and says that interest and rent “are separate and distinct subjects.” So they are, but in practice one knows that if the rent stops, the interest may stop too. And it may be unwise to foreclose!
Dr. Bruening's “Germany cannot pay reparations” statement prevented the Lausanne Conference being held in January. If Germany had merely asked for time, France might have been persuaded at that conference, by Britain and others, to grant Germany a moratorium of six months or a year in respect of reparations. But the blunt “can't pay” has for the moment deprived the French (Laval) Government of moratorium enthusiasm. The “can't pay” of Germany at the debtor end, and the “can't reduce” of America at the creditor end, have irritated France. And some of this irritation has displayed itself against the claims of the “commercial” short-term creditors of Germany. These “commercial” creditors are largely British and American banks. They supplied Germany with trading finance, as distinct from long-term obligations. Last year they gave Germany a six months' extension of credit.
This 1931 credit-extension (“standstill”) agreement (“commercial” debts) was due to expire in February, 1932. The Hoover moratorium expires in July, 1932. During December, France emphasised the priority of reparation annuities (beginning to be due in July after the expiry of the Hoover moratorium) over the “commercial debts.” In Britain, the reply was made that the “commercial debts” are part of the working foundation on
At time of writing, France has made no overt sign of compromise, but the “commercial creditors” are reported to have extended the credit-extension (“standstill”) agreement for a year. If so, this will be the first substantial step in 1932 to a substantial creditor-compromise. Will Germany receive, with regard to reparations, as much consideration as is proposed in connection with the “commercial debts”? This intricate question has been stated at some length, because the world's principal (though not only) malady is debt. Debt is paralysing trade. The new “commercial” credit extension covers about 268 millions, owed by Germany. But it is only a part of the world's debt burden, of which New Zealand, like other countries, is a victim.
Entertained by South of the Border Scots on Nov. 26, Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald declared “Scotland is a spirit.” There was certainly, in the Scotland of his youth, a spirit of education perhaps found nowhere else. An old barrow-man in the streets of Lossiemouth nails on to his barrow a piece of wood on which to rest a book, and as he walks behind the barrow, and as his lips chant “Rags and Bones,” his mind is busy with Latin and Greek. Seeing young Mac-Donald with a book, the barrowman says: “Are you interested in these things? Then, tak' that.” And he gives the youth a translation of Herodotus. Up the street marches a chanter of “Rags and Bones,” and down the street walks a future Prime Minister. Where, outside of Scotland, would you beat it?
Lord Irwin, who worked so strenuously for a round table settlement of the Indian problem, in his first utterance in the House of Lords in mid-December, held that such a settlement “had been immeasurably advanced by making India the joint architect of its own constitution.” But within a few weeks Gandhi and the Indian Congress had turned from architecture to civil disobedience. Arrests followed. The war between Government and the passive disobedience of Government is now on. But it is not always passive. On December 14, about the time of the House of Lords debate, the District Magistrate of Comilla was shot. He was shot by two Bengali women. This seems to herald the intervention of Indian women in Indian resistance. They will recall the passive resistance to the English education rate by free churchmen a quarter of a century ago, and the London suffragettes. To meet them, the Indian Government may enrol women police.
All sorts of queer stamps have been produced, and it may be that in stamps there is nothing new under the sun, but the last Newfoundland issue contains some features that, to a mere layman, appear novel. New Zealand has hitherto been content with the King, but the Newfoundland new six cents (dark blue) carries “the first stamp portrait of Princess Elizabeth.” Stamp portraiture would seem to have untapped material in the Royal family, and still more untapped material in Nature. A stamp-issuing authority that seeks to catalogue the fauna and flora of the country might meet with executive difficulties, but Newfoundland, in its new issue, shows a caribou (five cents, violet), a salmon leaping falls, (ten cents, orange), and a baby seal (fifteen cents, ultramarine). Other denominations show a fishing fleet and a sealing
“The genuinely coloured newspaper has not yet become a daily, or even a weekly, addition to the breakfast table.” This is the finding of a British weekly that recently published a de luxe issue adorned with direct colour photography (meaning photography of moving objects in natural colours with single-exposure cameras). It does not say that the adaptation of weekly or daily prints to colour work is “just around the corner,” but the effort it has just made implies a belief that the movement in that direction is not slow. Colour has been knocking at the door of the newspaper, and the moving picture long enough; its occasional entry should eventually lead to a wider opening of the door. Whether the future lies with a number of small improvements, or one big invention, is not clear. Inventors are busy, even in New Zealand.
By the aid of the talking picture, the world's leaders are becoming known at the
Wellington's Big Reclamation Work.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
A recent view of the reclamation work in progress at Thorndon in preparation for the provision of improved railway terminal facilities at Wellington. The Wellington Harbour Board's Floating Dock is shewn in the foreground.
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; an hour may lay it in the dust.—Lord Byron.
Track Improvements by Deviation.
Deviations on the North Island Main Trunk Line, N.Z. (Left) Tawa Flat deviation, under construction; (right) Westfield deviation, completed.
Think big, go big and be big,” is the slogan of the quick'n and the straight griffin to the wide open graces of existence. Britons are still the biggest little people in the human hotchpotch, in spite of themselves individiously. As singular nouns they are subjective to the verb “to be,” but considered as an aggregation of ideas, they conspire to promote something bigger than themselves.
There are peoples who think big, but fail to match the colour of their thoughts with the fabric of their actions; there are others who are so busy going big that they have no time to encourage the passenger service between heart and head, and still others who were born to be big, but missed the right train of thought to the highlands of Humanity.
The elephant is big, but being bereft of bigotry, he is no bigger than he doesn't know he is: the gnat, being a fly of personality and unaware of how much he can't do, is as big as the elephant, who is only as elephantine as his perception.
Which proves that perception is only “early doors” to Imagination or an advance screening of the feature films of the Future. Quoting from the same advertisement, Ideals are a close-up of Big Bill Truth in a love scene with Josephine Justice. An idealist is one who is big enough to get a screw at the screening over the swelled heads of the front-rankers, or the rank fronters.
Britain (and I offer an apology for punting on the home stable) is big because she is big enough to know how small she is. After all, Humility is only a sense of proportion, and a sense of proportion is essential to the painting of mind-pictures. Working the argument to skin and bone, the greatness of bigness is not a matter of arms, alms, mechanised morals, dehumanised commerce, and hot dog generally, but an unawareness of the greatness of Greatness and a realisation of things as they are and not necessarily as they are advertised.
Britons are what might be termed two-handed sentimentalists or manual thinkers, which are aliases of the idealist. A dreamer is a still-life worker, or an example of slow emotion, but an idealist acts his own scenarios, and never looks back.
Looking back is backing luck with an overdue promissory note or trying to refill a bottle with the headache it produced. The skipper who steers with his eyes on his wake is due to wake where ships have wings and sailors don't have to care. It is said that history repeats itself: if so, why look back at it, when by waiting for it to catch up, you can get it on the second bounce.
It is impossible at this juncture to say who won the great European fracture, but Britain is prepared to post the Past as missing and write off the cost of breakages. This is forgiveness with cash discount, and is so oblivious of the obvious that it is almost sublime.
The obvious is something everyone else is thinking, and therefore is as open to suspicion as a jemmy in a jeweller's. If everyone thinks what everyone else thinks it is usually wrong because it is founded on precedent, and precedent is yesterday's car wearing to-day's numbers. The rebels against precedent are pioneers in the realms of imagination. When Stephenson produced his whistling kettle he strayed so far from the path of precedent, that had he adorned an earlier epoch he would have made his last trip by rail before he had made his first.
Imagination, after all, is the writing on the wall, or a poster postulating probabilities unprobed. Thus it is reasonable to believe that the more unreasonable a prognosis may read the more reasonable it may be. Britain's unreasonable reasonableness in promulgating a brotherhood of notions and a notion of international forgiveness regarding the big bust of 1914 and the succeeding reverberations, brands her as a lady who profits from her mistakes.
Britain has spent fifty per cent, of her time making mistakes and the other fifty unmaking them. Falling into a well is easier than falling out of it, but provided you can keep your respiratory end above the water line, each bout of well-sinking adds to mental well being, until finally you become so wise that you can get out of wells without falling into them. It is true that “where there's a well there's a way” This kind of dropsicality is productive of tolerance for the lop-sided-ness of others.
Tolerance is Imagination with the lining turned outwards, or a fellow-feeling derived from the bumps of experience. Britain, whose history is studded with more excavations and pit-falls than the average city thoroughfare, owes her bigness to her bruises. Decorated with doggerel the situation is something adjacent to the following:—
Trouble is a blessing so well disguised that in comparison a sausage is an open secret. But trouble has its advantages like deafness at an oratorio, or cauliflower ears at a vegetarian lecture. Recently we have passed through so much triple-plated trouble in compressed form, that the experiences of the Ancient Mariner read like a page from the Deadhead's Diary. If the darkest hour is before the dawn, we are in for a dawn that will demand smoked glasses. In comparison, a shining example wearing an illuminated address will look like a liquorice baby by twilight. Already there is a perceptible quiver of agitated air in the Doldrums of Depression. The sails of commerce slap sluggishly, and the skipper of the schooner Perspirus prepares to run before the “trades.”
Let's follow the fortunes of the schooner Perspirus through the seas of Persiflage:—
“The opportunity is taken of repeating the call to all members of the Railway service to cultivate and practice habits of care and economy in the use of stores and material and to realise that every item represents an expenditure and has a value and a utility. Every requisition upon and every order placed by the Stores branch represents an expenditure, and clearly it is the duty of everyone to recognise this and to assist in keeping all expenditures in proper relation and proportion to the essential needs of the Department.”—Mr. E. J. Guiness.
It may be taken as a truism, that no industry of any consequence can be carried on without supplies appropriate to its character. An industry of the magnitude and importance of the Working Railways of New Zealand, requires an astonishing variety of stores and materials.
The volume and annual value of such stores and materials (including stationery) are of such dimensions that a properly organised and specially trained branch of the Department is necessary to handle the purchase, receipt, custody and issue of them, and to account correctly for them. The Stores branch exists for this purpose. It is essentially a department of service and its prime function is to supply stores and materials when and where required for railway purposes. The activities and necessities of working railways bring the Stores branch into contact with practically every other industry that produces, manufactures or distributes in New Zealand and with merchants and manufacturing firms throughout the British Empire, as well as in foreign countries. Its purchases and turnover probably exceed that of any other organization or business in New Zealand. Therefore it is of the greatest importance that everything it does should be on sound and correct lines and, furthermore, as it forms part of an important Department of State it is equally necessary that its commercial probity should be of the highest standard to retain the confidence, not only of those to whom it is immediately responsible, but of everyone with whom is has business contact.
In surveying the activities of a railway stores branch it would seem that one of the most desirable attributes it can possess is the ability to anticipate successfully the future requirements of the Department, thus enabling it to keep its stocks on hand at proper levels in proportion to the actual needs of the service. The Stores branch works in close contact with every other branch of the Railway service, the material needs of which are its particular care. The organization of the branch covers the whole of the Railway system. Its main stores or warehouses are situated in the four main centres, but it controls or supervises storage depots and “Trust” stores throughout the various districts in both the North and South Islands. In addition, it controls the operations of the railway sawmills and bush areas and has
Comptroller of Stores Office, Wellington.
(Rly. Publicity Photos.)
(1) Mr. E. J. Guiness, Comptroller of Stores; (2) Mr. S. S. Millington, Act. Asst. Comptroller of Stores; (3) Comptroller of Stores, Gerneral Office; (4) Mr. P. M. Muir, Chief Clerk, Stores branch; (5) Comptrollex of Stores Record and Correspondence Section; (6) Typistes' Section.
The District Store at Woburn, Lower Hutt.
(1) Mr. J. S. Stewart, District Storekeeper, Woburn; (2) District Storekeepers's General Office; (3) Section of Woburn Stores containing material manufactured in the workshops; (4) Bay of Stationery Store, Woburn; (5) Bay of General Store, Woburn.
The whole of the Stores branch is under the immediate direction of the Comptroller of Stores, whose headquarters are in Wellington. In each of the main centres there is a District Railway Storekeeper, whose respective headquarters are at Otahuhu (Auckland), Woburn (Wellington), Addington (Christchurch) and Hillside (Dunedin). At the smaller centres such as Invercargill, Greymouth, Westport and East Town (Wanganui), there are stores offices and warehouses in immediate charge of stores officers who are responsible either to the nearest District Storekeeper or directly to the Comptroller of Stores. For the better organization of the branch and for purposes of convenience, expedition and economy of working, the railway system has been divided up into stores districts or areas under the immediate supervision of the respective District Storekeepers, but all controlled and brought into uniformity and harmony of method and working by the central control in Wellington.
Of recent years the Stores branch has so extended its influence and control that to-day all railway stores and material, whether new or second-hand and where-ever situated, which are not actually in use for service purposes come within the ambit of its responsibility and it is the business of the Stores branch to see that they are properly cared for and accounted for, and finally that they are put to proper use or disposed of to the best advantage. Whilst its prime function is to provide supplies and materials of all kinds to enable the railway services to be efficiently maintained, the Stores branch is the open enemy of material waste in all its forms and it has the duty of limiting expenditures in respect to supplies, to actual necessity.
Being the actual custodian of or responsible for the custody of thousands of different articles, many of which are of a highly technical or special nature and of considerable item value, it naturally follows that suitable provision is necessary for housing, handling and accounting. The accounting system of the branch is based upon the best commercial methods modified to suit the particular needs of its own organization and to dovetail into the accounting systems of all other branches of the Department and also to meet the requirements of the Chief Railway Accountant, the Treasury and the Comptroller and Auditor-General. It is impossible within the limits of the space available to explain the accounting system in any detail or to convey more than a general impression of the work of the Stores branch. It may be said, however, in short terms, that stocks are controlled by two principal methods, viz.:—“Stock book and ledger card,” and “Bin card,” both of which are extensively used by railways in other countries, including England, America and Australia. At the close of each financial year. Trading, Profit and Loss Accounts, and Balance Sheets, are prepared for all store districts. The general practice of the branch is that no one officer of the Department can commit it to any expenditure or to the purchase of any stores. It requires the knowledge and concurrence of at least three responsible officers before any order for stores can be given. The position is further safeguarded by the regulations of the Stores branch which are officially approved by the Railways Management and agreed to by the Treasury and Audit Departments. The necessary checks are applied by the Stores Audit Inspectors and other officers whose special duties require them to make a careful examination into the transactions of the branch and to report thereon. Tenders for supplies are called under the authority of the General Manager or the Railway Board and are
The proper training of stores staffs is a matter which receives considerable attention in the Stores branch. It is essential that all responsible officers of the branch should have a sufficient training in stores methods (both physical and accounting) and possess a sound knowledge of materials and their uses, sources of supply, market values, means of transport and a general knowledge of trade customs and commercial procedures and practices, not only within New Zealand, but in overseas countries as well. Every reasonable effort is made to increase the personal efficiency of each member of the stores staff, enlarge his knowledge and outlook and inculcate a proper sense of responsibility and initiative and the desire to give real service to the Department by which he is employed. It is realized that the measure of reliability of any service or industry is the average reliability of its personnel.
Between Canterbury and Westland.
Notable features of the world-famed Otira Gorge, South Island, New Zealand. The walk over the Gorge may be accomplished in about three hours and is popular with railway excursionists to Arthur's Pass.
It is the aim of the Stores branch to bring into its own system law and order, cleanliness, simplicity of method and general efficiency.
Many treatises and papers have been written and published the world over concerning railways stores systems and functions. This present article is merely a general statement without any attempt at detailed explanation or analysis.
Mr. T. Bernard Hare's new book “Practical Railway Operating,” within the obvious limitations of a 163 page octavo publication, is a very thorough and closely reasoned work upon the subject, and is worth studying by every railwayman directly associated with train-running and transport control.
Dealing with operating figures, Mr. Hare concludes that ton-mile statistics represent a considerable advance upon any railway statistical information which had previously been compiled. Their limitations, however, “appear to be such that further improvements must be evolved and applied before they can be regarded as adequate.”
In practical operating, he favours the diagram system (as used, by the way, in New Zealand train control offices) to either the time or geographical type of control board still employed upon some of the British railways. The latter types “possess the common disadvantage that they do not leave behind a permanent record of what has happened,” whereas “the value of the bird's eye view which the completed diagram gives of the actual working from day to day, is almost incalculable to those charged with the responsibility for planning the lay-out, staffing and organisation.”
Chapters on the use of light shunting engines, line occupation, passenger and freight train services and terminals, mineral traffic shipment, and wagon pooling, with sixteen supporting diagrams, contain much that will help towards improvement in railway operating amongst those engaged in it who care to study these pages.
In 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, a circular was sent out from the Traffic Manager's Office, Dunedin, advising particulars of arrangements for “Through Booking to Mt. Cook.” Coaches, of course, ran in those days, and the railway journey from Dunedin was to Fairlie Creek; but it is interesting to note that throughout the forty-four years from 1887 up to the present time, a “through booking” arrangement by rail and road has been maintained for the convenience of travellers wishing to visit Mount Cook Hermitage.
* * *
At this season one thinks of favours received, many of which are but lightly acknowledged (states Mr. John A. Brailsford in a letter to the “Dominion,” Wellington). During two years' constant travelling on the railways, I have received a good deal more than ordinary courtesy, and I think that has been the experience of passengers generally, and I should be glad if you would publish this little word of appreciation. I have had special reason for gratitude. My umbrella and overcoat and various other possessions have a way of forgetting that they belong to me. They seem to imagine they should remain in the train when I get off. However, the railway people have never failed to take charge of these erring things, and to hold them in secure custody till I have claimed them. One would like to be able to regard honesty as a matter of course, but unfortunately mankind has not attained to that state, and one may be pardoned for expressing gratification at the high standard of honesty in the railway service.
“I am on the whole sceptical of the commercial future of the aeroplane, and in the struggle between the old and new forms of transport I think that the ultimate victory after all will be with the railways.“— “Candidus”, in the “Daily Sketch,” London.
A scene from the brake-van on the Rimutaka Incline, N.Z.
Is any good coming to mankind through learning to fly? Most of us have ceased to take much interest in the long-distance flights to which some newspapers attach such enormous importance; if an airman were now to fly round the world without stopping it would cause much less admiration and astonishment that did the first flight of Bleriot's across the Channel. But now that the aeroplane has ceased to astonish the world it must depend for its future fame on its usefulness. Is it ever going to be really useful? I have grave doubts.
I an not questioning the importance of flying as a form of sport. It provides thrills for the adventurous, and there must be great excitement in the acrobatics of the air and in long-distance solitary flights. But the oftener these things are done the less the excitement, until in the end I should imagine the intrepid airman will get more fun out of a five-mile country walk than out of a trip across Europe. I once knew a millionaire whose whim it was to ask a couple of friends to an early luncheon and then take them to tea on the Lido. As a freak entertainment it must have been exciting the first time, but would anyone enjoy it a second or a third time? The best way of getting to the Lido is to take a sleeper and make yourself comfortable for the night. If you are an average man, there is nothing gained in hurling yourself at these terrific speeds from one end of a continent to another. A millionaire or a Prime Minister may find the gain of time worth the discomfort, but that is their misfortune. The average man is not such a slave of time, and he thinks far more of comfort in travel than of any increase of speed over sixty miles an hour. Most of us who have done much motoring have already come to the conclusion that for distances above fifty miles the train is by far the more preferable means of transport. You can read in a train, go to bed, shave, write letters, and take a little stroll. An extra sixty miles an hour is a poor compensation for the loss of these advantages. At present the world is speed-crazy. In a few years, when the novelty wears off, we shall put it in its due place in our scheme of values.
I am on the whole sceptical of the commercial future of the aeroplane, and in the struggle between the old and new forms of transport I think that the ultimate victory after all will be with the railways.—“Candidus.”
“The scenes of childhood are the memories of future years.”—J. O. Choules.
Our Children's Gallery.—(1) Maureen and Pat Jury (Lower Hutt); (2) and (4) trolly riders at the Children's Grand Free Xmas Tree Carnival at the Hutt Valley Workshops, 19th Dec., 1931; (3) Yona and Joyce Harland (Lower Hutt); (5) Nellie, Maurice, Aileen and Brian Casey (Wellington); (6) Joan Sullivan (Lower Hutt); (7) Doreen and Trevor Askew (Lower Hutt); (8) Joyce Green, giving an exhibition of fancy dancing at the children's carnival (Lower Hutt); (9) Desmond, Freda, May and Aileen Hayward (Opua); (10) Graeme and Maisie Willison (Opapa); (11) Bruce McLeod (Lower Hutt); (12) Margaret Watkin (Lower Hutt).
In years gone by, travellers by rail entered the Queen City through the back yard. It was not dignified, it was not beautiful. Nobody wants to see the washing on the line when they go to call on a friend, nor to dodge the ash can on their way to the front door. The back-yards and rubbish tips of Parnell, and the Domain Gully, were no scenic assets to Auckland City, and the first impressions thus given to visitors were not worthy of our city.
So, when we lost our beautiful headlands and historic bays, and gained an iron sea-road, we tried to find new beauty. Nothing, of course, can ever compensate, from an aesthetic viewpoint, for the ruination of an uniquely lovely natural waterfront, but worse damage has often been done with less bestowed in compensation. There is real beauty from Auckland's new waterfront railway, a railway line that pushes straight out into the harbour as no other railway in New Zealand has done. Dunedin has a magnificent railway approach, a line cut in the face of the cliffs, mile upon mile of blue water stretching far out to the horizon, waves crashing on the rocks a hundred feet below. Then the long, winding way down through the hills into Port Chalmers, and the shallow reaches of the harbour. Wellington has a beautiful railway sea-road in the Hutt line, where the train swings to the curve of the bays, with the high cliffs of Ngahauranga and Khandallah rising sheer on one side and the green waves crashing on the rocks of the embankment just outside the carriage windows.
Auckland's new waterfront route is not like either of these—it is a narrow embankment built straight out into the harbour, across the eastern bays, in a deviation that greatly improves the Main Trunk route between the northern city and Wellington. Reams have been written of our grand new railway station, but nobody has done justice as yet to the beauty and interest of the deviation that starts a few chains beyond.
On a recent summer morning, I set out on a trip through the Waikato. It was one of those rare occasions when there was time to spare, so that instead of the usual whirlwind dash down the platform, I actually had ten minutes to play with. So I went out to the edge of the platform, and looked across a concrete road to rows of stiff concrete buildings, stores, warehouses and factories. And standing there in the sunshine, the years rolled away, and I was a little girl catching shrimps on a reef at low tide, paddling in the dancing waves, balancing precariously on great logs that floated in through a sea gateway to Macklow's Mill, in what used to be Mechanic's Bay, but now a busy industrial area. Then I was creeping with trepidation through a dark tunnel that cut through old St. Barnabas' Point, between Mechanic's and St. George's Bays,
The Resting Place of Some of Auckland's Pioneers.
Picturesque St. Stephen's Church, Fort Resolution Point, Auckland.
My dream of years gone by was broken by the clang of a bell, and a moment later our train glided smoothly from the station. Round the ruins of Campbell's Point we passed, and across the entrance to pretty little Judge's Bay, with its memories of two of Auckland's distinguished men—Sir William Martin and Mr. Swainson—whose homes, nearly a century ago, were on the shores of this beautiful bay; prettiest of all the harbour bays of the Waitemata. Still on Fort Resolution Point stands little St. Stephen's Church, built by Bishop Selwyn, and in the hallowed acre surrounding it lie many distinguished members of that little band of pioneer officials who directed Auckland's destinies in those first difficult days of British settlement and administration. They left the Homeland to carry British tradition and British law to a wild, untamed country at the far ends of the earth, lived out their little span of life under strange southern skies, and then were laid to rest where the seawinds call, and the sound of the waves makes music night and day….
In a moment the little bay has vanished and we are travelling swiftly across the wide expanse of Hobson Bay. The tide is in, and the still blue waters reflect in
From Hobson Bay one gets an entrancing view of the harbour, of the new waterfront drive, and North Shore. How much, more beautiful is this (much as one may deplore the loss of cherished bays and landmarks) than the backyards of Parnell and Newmarket, through which the railway passed for so many years!
We come in from the beauty of the sea to the pretty bush slopes and fern-clad gullies of Purewa. For just a moment, the sky-line is cut with the crosses and monuments that mark this quiet City of the Dead, then the train is swallowed up in the darkness of Purewa tunnel, and when we emerge, Purewa is left behind, and the beautiful open country of Tamaki surrounds us. Tatnaki-Makarau, the Desired of a Hundred Lovers—how fair and fertile those wide miles, once the home of a great Maori tribe, now given over to the market gardener. Here are acres upon acres of vegetables, lettuce, peas, potatoes, all growing as lush and lavish as Jack's beanstalks in this fair land. To come upon Westfield, with its very dreadful testimony to the presence of boiling
Holiday Time on the N.Z.R.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Auckland-Wellington Express between Paremata and Porirua, on the outskirts of Wellington.
Our trip has barely begun, yet every mile has been filled with interest and beauty, old-time tradition, and memories of the past.
Mr. L. O. Hooker, Hon. Secretary, Mt. Egmont Alpine Club, Inc., Hawera, writes to the Stationmaster, Christchurch, in the following appreciative terms:—
I desire to take this early opportunity of conveying to you the hearty appreciation of the members of our Club who made the recent trip to Franz Josef Glacier.
They are full of praise for the excellent arrangements made by you in connection with their transport from Lyttelton. They appreciated very much the fact that the special carriages were at the boat on arrival, and also speak highly of their breakfast arrangements in Christchurch.
It was also very good of you to arrange on their return trip for the carriages to go-down to the boat. Such excellent treatment is further encouragement to use the Railways.
Appreciation of the services rendered by the Railways Department in connection with the Otago A. and P. Society's recent Summer Show is expressed in the following resolution passed at a meeting of the Executive and printed in the “Otago Daily Times”:—
That this meeting places on record its high appreciation of the satisfactory arrangements made by the Railways Department for the conveyance of stock to and from the Show. The prompt despatch was much appreciated by exhibitors, many of whom expressed themselves as being well satisfied with the arrangements made. The Secretary was instructed to send a copy of the resolution to the Railways District Traffic Manager, with a request that he should convey the Society's appreciation to the officers (especially Mr. C. E. Barnes, Goods Agent) and the men who were responsible for the carrying out of the arrangements made.
* * *
From the Secretary, Timaru Harbour Board, Timaru, to the Stationmaster, Timaru:—
At a meeting of my Board yesterday, I was instructed to write to you, conveying the best thanks of the Board to those of your Department who so readily gave willing and timely assistance when the R.M.S. “Corinthic” parted her ropes recently.
Had it not been for the prompt action of Mr. Wilson in placing an engine and staff at our disposal, the consequences may have been of a very serious nature.
* * *
From the Secretary, Dannevirke Publishing Co. Ltd., Dannevirke, to the Railway Shipping Officer, Wellington:—
We have to thank you for the expeditious manner in which attention was given to our shipment ex s.s. “Waiotapu.” We are pleased to state that the handling costs in spite of heavier rail freight from Wellington, were more favourable to us than had we worked Napier, and under the circumstances we look forward to your Department's co-operation for future shipments.
* * *
From Messrs. Wright Stephenson & Co. Ltd., Wellington, to the District Traffic Manager, Wellington:—
We recently acted on behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society in making arrangements for the transport of the North Island exhibits of stock to and from the Royal Show held at Chrislchurch and we wish to express our appreciation of the courtesy and assistance offered us by those officers of the Railway Department with whom we had dealings in this connection.
Some Recent Train Scenes in the North Island of New Zealand
(1) Ohakune Junction, on the North Island Main Trunk Line; (2) Waiouru the highest station (2,660 feet), on the Northland Main Trunk Line, shewing Mt. Ruapehu (9, 175ft.) in the background; (3) the “Daylight Limited” Express passing through Turangarere; (4) scene at Palmerston North station; (5) Phar Lap, the famous New Zealand racehorse, at Lambton
(Railway Publicity photos)
The world's largest and most powerful locomotive.
The largest and most powerful locomotive of its kind in the world and the first of the type in America was completed and ready for service when the giant, oil-burning, three cylinder “8000” type engine, representing a new era in the advancement of steam motive power of greater efficiency and higher sustained capacity, was placed on exhibition in the Windsor Street station of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Montreal recently. It was built by the railway at its Angus Shops in Montreal and is destined for use in freight and passenger service in the Rockies, It is attracting much interest in mechanical and railroad circles, particularly because of the radical departure in boiler design from the present type of locomotive boiler, and also because of the high steam pressures used with resultant economies in fuel without additional costs for boiler maintenance.
Statistics in regard to this monster locomotive will give some idea of its size. The weight of the engine is 485,000lbs. and the tender 300,000lbs”, a total of 785,000lbs. or 3921/2 tons, while length overall of the two is 99 feet 3 3-8 inches, an increase in weight of 44,800lbs. and an added length of 1 foot two inches over the “5900” series locomotive, the biggest locomotive prior to the construction of the “8000.” The ten driving wheels are 63 inches in diameter, the two low-pressure cylinders located outside the frame and using superheated steam at 250lbs. pressure per square inch are 24 inches in diameter by 30 inches, stroke. The high-pressure cylinder situated between the frame and using superheated steam at 850lbs. pressure per square inch is 151/2 inches in diameter by 28 inches stroke, transmitting its power through a piston and connecting rod to a crank axle located at the second pair of driving wheels. The tractive effort of the locomotive is 90,000lbs., an increase of about 17,000lbs. over the “5900” series. This means that on a level track the “8000” will be able to haul a freight train of 150 forty-ton freight cars, a total weight of 6000 tons and over a mile in length. The tender has a capacity of 12,000 gallons of water and 4350 gallons of fuel oil, enabling the locomotive to make long hauls without replenishing. The aggregate length of all the seamless steel tubes used in the construction of the boiler units alone totals to 18,695 feet or slightly over 31/2 miles.
The “8000” is termed a “multi-pressure” locomotive because steam is generated in three separated portions and at three different pressures. The firebox and combustion chamber are formed by tubes in which steam at 1300 or 1350lbs. pressure per square inch is generated from distilled water. The water in this system, heated by the furnace gases, is converted into steam which passes through coils located inside the highpressure
The firebox unit is designed for 1700lbs. pressure per square inch with an average working pressure of about 1350lbs.
Wonder Trails of the “Iron Horse.”
(Photo, courtesy Mr. S. Fahey, Featherstott.)
The electric metre-gauge line of the Rhaetian Railway on the Coire-St. Moritz route, in the Canton of the Grisons, Switzerland. The illustration shews how the engineers solved the difficulty of overcoming a difference in altitude of 1,335 feet, between. Bergun and Preda, by the construction of three spiral tunnels. On the extreme right is shewn the portal of Zuondra Tunnel, and just above, the continuation of the line to Preda; in the middle centre is shewn the portal of Toua Tunnel, its exit appearing just, below the viaduct in the middle foreground, thus completing a double-spiral In the left background, the third spiral is shewn. The portal of Rugnux Tunnel is entered just after crossing the viaduct, and after making the complete spiral the line emerges on to the viaduct shewn below and to the right of the uppermost viaduct. An unusual feature of these spiral tunnels is that they complete the entire spiral circle, within the heart of the mountains.
There are three locomotives of this type in Europe which are showing excellent savings in fuel, ranging from 25 to 35 per cent. in comparison with the conventional design of locomotive. The largest of the European locomotives is only 42 per cent, of the weight and develops 36 per cent, of the power of the “8000.”
In co-operation with the American Locomotive Company and the super-heater Company, of New York, H. B. Bowen, Chief of Motive Power and Rolling Stock, Canadian Pacific Railway, designed the “8000” after he had made a special trip to Europe in 1929 for the purpose of studying various types and developments of locomotives there. The construction of this giant locomotive was handled under the direct supervision of J. Burns, Works Manager, Angus Shops, and T. Donald, of Mr. Bowen's staff.
“In a single year the Home railways convey 55,000,000 tons of miscellaneous merchandise, 63,000,000 tons of minerals other than coal and coke, and 200,000,000 tons of coal, coke and patent fuels. About 17,000,000 head of livestock are also dealt with annually. Freight train mileage runs to about 143,000,000 per annum. In the British railway goods stations there are 27,000,000 square feet of storage space, and recently more than 5,000 containers of all kinds have been brought into use.” — From our special London Correspondent's current Letter reviewing recent railway developments in Britain and on the Continent.
The Home railways have met successfully the competition of the road carrier through their policy of acquiring financial interest in the larger road transport undertakings. Now they are concentrating upon the improvement of their long-distance passenger and freight train services, with the idea of retaining this type of business to the rail route.
During the last summer season each of the four group railways speeded up passenger timetables: in addition to the acceleration of the principal expresses, better cross-country links were provided, and local train services improved. Many new day trains were introduced, a large number including refreshment cars in their make-up; while for the rush months new sleeping-car trams were btougnt into the schedules of the Anglo-Scottish and West of England night runs. Excursions at low rates, for both long and short periods, have drawn immense numbers of passengers to the rail route in preference to road travel, and altogether the group lines have experienced a relatively profitable summer holiday season.
On the freight side the Home railways are aiming at providing a service of fast trains composed of vacuum-braked trucks and high-powered locomotives that will meet the most exacting needs of traders. Motor-lorry links between railheads and agricultural districts, fishing-ports and remote villages, also are being greatly improved. Scores of fast braked freight trains now run nightly between the principal London goods stations and other important cities, providing in most cases “next morning” deliveries. These services are carried out at the ordinary goods rates, and time-tables indicating times of departure and approximate times of ar tvvaV oi traffic in through wagons are issued to all interested traders. Terminal operations, also, are being speeded up, and overhead electric cranes and other modern appliances installed to facilitate the handling of traffic in the goods depots.
A feature of the past summer's passenger business was the very large number of travellers handled between English and Continental points. The Southern and London and North Eastern are the two Home railways most greatly interested in Continental travel, and by the routes of both of these lines record numbers of people have been carried to and from the mainland of Europe.
A Railway-Owned Cross Channel Steamer.
The ss. “Isle of Thanet” one of the Southern Railway Fleet.
To meet the needs of growing business new steamships have been put into service between England and the Continent. One recent addition was the oil-fired steamer “Cote d'Azur,” placed in the Calais-Dover service. This vessel has accommodation for 1,400 passengers, and is a very fast and seaworthy boat. The Southern Railway, too, have struck a new note by introducing into their Continental steamship services a vessel specially designed for the movement of motor cars. This is an excellent example of the manner in which the Home railways are tackling changed conditions brought about by the growth of automobile travel.
Both the Southern Railway of England and the Northern Railway of France are interested in the Calais-Dover sailings, and through these steamship services the railways secure much valuable passenger business. From and to Calais there are through train connections with all corners of Europe, except Holland, owing to her geographical situation, and Spain, on whose frontier a break of track gauge occurs. For Paris there are three through trains daily in each direction, and for Brussels two through trains daily. Calais is the western terminal of the Nord Express (Berlin, Warsaw and Riga); the Rome Express; the Orient Express (Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Buka-rest); the Simplon-Orient Express (Milan, Belgrade, Sofia and Constantinople); and other world-famed longdistance trains.
Steamship and dock operation forms one of the most profitable side-lines of the Home railways. Around the coast of Britain stretches a great chain of railway-owned docks, the railways being, in fact, the largest dock-owners in the land. Practically the whole of the passenger-services to and from the Continent, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel
Railway-owned docks in Britain are not only the homes of railway steamers, however. They also accommodate those ocean giants whose names are household words. For example, Southampton is the terminal and principal calling place of the largest liners, for whose convenience the largest floating dock in the world has been provided, solely through the enterprise of the Southern Railway. The enormous scope of the Home railways' activities in this important phase of world transport also is illustrated by the Great Western Company's huge docks at Barry, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport; the L. and N.E. Company's docks at Hull, Grimsby, Immingham, Harwich, Tyne-side, etc.; and those of the L.M. and S. system at Garston, Fleetwood, Barrow and Grangemouth.
Fast Passenger Train Equipment on the Home Railways.
L. and N.E.R. Harwich-London Express leaving Parkeston Quay, Harwich.
Passenger traffic in and around the world's capitals has grown beyond all belief in recent years, and this vast increase in passenger movement has presented many perplexing operating and administrative problems. In London a solution is being reached by the setting up of an enormous transport pool embracing all the rail and road carriers in the area. These, in the main, are the suburban sections of the main-line railways, the underground railways, the omnibus companies, and the street tramway undertakings. The pool will be supervised by a special Transport Board, who will so exercise their powers as to secure the provision of an adequate and properly co-ordinated system of passenger transport for the London traffic area. For that purpose, while avoiding the provision of unnecessary and wasteful competitive services, they will take from time to time such steps as they consider necessary for extending and improving the passenger transport facilities of the area in such manner as to provide most efficiently and conveniently for the needs thereof.
London should, under the new regime, soon be able to boast of one of the most efficient and scientifically co-ordinated systems of transport in the whole world. Under the arrangement, electrification of
It is interesting to note that in this period of depression in trade, the German railways continue to compile a vast mass of statistical data for the guidance of their officers. Operating statistics on the German railways follow much the same lines as those favoured in Britain, but as in other European countries a good many differences are found in the manner in which essential figures are segregated and in the method of their compilation.
Most of the European lands compile the usual data in regard to mileage of tracks; particulars of locomotives and rolling stock owned; train and locomotive miles; train and locomotive hours; passenger
Outward Bound to the Continent.
Continental Pullman outside Victoria Station, London.
It would be an excellent thing if operating statistics throughout the world could be placed upon a standard footing. This, however, can hardly be hoped for, in view of the different conditions existing in the various countries.
An English baronet, who has been sampling our trout-fishing in the Rotorua-Taupo waters, expressed a wish to get out into the great open spaces mounted on one of the “wild horses” in our backblocks. Whether he attained his wish or not—one hopes he has enjoyed his fill of bucking by this time—it is most pleasing to read of a traveller who has a liking for horseback, in this motor-mad age. Our visitor spent years in the Argentine, which accounts for his tastes. W. H. Hudson and Cunninghame Graham have made us familiar with conditions in the great plains of South America, where everyone is a horseman, and as recorded by the sober economist, Alfred Marshall, even beggers are mounted. It may not be quite so easy to discover wild horses in our back-country to-day; still, they are there. In some parts of the King Country and on the pumice plains to the east of Lake Taupo—the southern end of the Kaingaroa Plain—small mobs of wild or semi-wild horses still rove the fenceless lands. The problem is how to catch one of them for the baronet. The Maoris of the Galatea district, up in the Rangitaiki Valley on the edge of the Urewera Ranges, used to enjoy great sport rounding up the ownerless steeds and lassooing them in a blind gully. It was thrilling work racing after those herds over the tussock and scrub prairie, one of those sports of the open lands that is disappearing with the spread of barbed-wire fences and the afforestation work on the semi-desert backbone of the island.
Reading the other day a recently published book on the old Cobb and Co. coaching enterprises in Otago and Southland I was impelled to hope that some assiduous collection of data about this phase of our pioneer days will extend the record to Canterbury and Westland and more northern parts. We owed a great deal of the pleasure and safety of travel across and around about the provinces to the well-horsed, well-driven stage coach. One remembers the excellence of Cassidy's coaches on the Otira-Arthur's Pass route, when the railheads were stili fifty or sixty miles from each other. How splendidly those drivers handled their
How human-seeming are some of our native trees, seen under certain conditions. The rata's thug-like habit of strangling its friends and supporters is well known. There is an excellent example of the vampire tree at its fell work to be seen from the railway train just before you reach Tarukenga, on the Rotorua line. It is encircling a rimu tree a few yards from the iron rails, and its powerful lateral fingers seem to be compressing the luckless red-pine's throat. The rata is often to be found growing on and encircling the pukatea, a large and handsome tree with a glossy leaf, and the Maoris say it is the pukatea's lover, a bit of forest romance about which a little song is current in Taranaki.
How tragic are some of those ruined trees, ghosts of the forest, on the edge of a devastated area of bush! One in my mind's eye at the moment is a dead puriri of huge size, in a clearing ragged with the half-burned debris of a cow-paddock in the making. It is bleached white as a bone, its upper branches are gone, but those which remain are pointed like fingers. The ancient tree looks like a gaunt giant hand upthrust from the earth, appealing to heaven for vengeance on the murderers of the green and lovely forest.
Many a New Zealander has made acquaintance with native birds and their music this summer, despite the ravages of pakeha pests in the bush. Overseas visitors, too, have discovered the richness of our native chimers; for example, an English traveller who heard the tui on Waiheke Island, up in the Hauraki Gulf, pronounced it a sweeter singer than the nightingale. The call of the shining cuckoo, the far-flying pipi-wharauroa, too, has been frequent in every forest and every park and many a garden this summer. There is a peculiar appeal to the Maori ear in the cuckoo's high whistling call, which one cannot mistake for any other bush voice. Many a Maori song has it for its theme. I have just turned up among my bush-lore papers a little song in Maori sent me by the late Hone Heke, M.P. for the Northern Maori, who had a taste for composing and singing waiatas. (Old Parliamentarians will remember the duets of charm with which he and Sir Apirana Ngata used to delight their friends at social gatherings.) This is a translation I have made of a portion of this gladsome ditty from the Ngapuhi country; it begins with the cry of the little messenger of summer as it strikes the Maori ear:
“‘Kui, kui—whitiwhiti ora—Tio-o!’
That cheery piping rings again above me long and clear,
Call of the shining cuckoo, bright herald of the year;
A song of farewell to the old, rejoicing at the new.
‘Shine, shine and live!’ it blithely cries, A song of greeting to the light, a summer-loving cry.
It sends its soul forth with that call, to tree and fern and flower,
Where red glow quiet waters ‘neath the bending pohutukawa.”
There is quite a revival of gold-digging activity down on the Westland coast, co-incidently with new interest in prospecting on other auriferous areas, especially the Co-romandel Peninsula. Many of the fossickers are said to be doing quite well, especially since the price for gold has gone up to some £6 an ounce at the banks. The old-time digging takes a more scientific form these days on the olden Golden Coast. Okarito's big dredge puts through great quantities of the heavy beach sand, where thousands of men once toiled with their primitive beachcombing appliances.
The riverbeds and alluvial flats where once gold was got in tons, over a length of some two hundred miles along the Westland littoral, are being gone over again, often with profit. We could do with any amount of this, heaven knows. Here and there a nice little bag of gold dust; it comes in most timely these precarious days. Good luck to the prospectors north and south—may they all strike new bonanzas!
American tourists in a luxury liner cruising the Pacific recently, voted Fusiyama the most beautiful mountain they had seen, with our Ngauruhoe second. It was evident, of course, that they had not seen Mt. Egmont. Beautiful is scarcely the adjective for Ngauruhoe. Wonderful, symmetrical, conjecture-stirring, but not the beauty of Egmont.
If we confine ourselves to the Tongariro National Park, the northern bastion of the Ruapehu Range, is to my mind, the most beautiful thing in all those mountains. This is the height mapped as Te Heuheu Peak, named after the Chief who gifted the mountain tops to the Crown, and after his famous family line. Perhaps the best place from which to view it is from the Waihohonu
In New Zealand's Northland.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
Kaikohe township, near the extreme northern terminal (Okaihau) of the Dominion's railway system.
Oh, the wild engine!” was the fervent phrase of Harold Munro, in a stirring song of the “loco.” At the moment of writing, the engine was to him a monster more spirited and terrible than the war-horse of the Scriptures, Yet the railway engine is really tamer than a child's pet rabbit, for within the walls of the hutch the rabbit is free to dance and prance, to ramp and romp. No such liberty for the engine. A fettered slave on its narrow way, it is forced to obey a masterful driver, and cannot even snort without his permission. But the driver himself has his own master, the timetable; he is in the clutch of the clock; the pitiless hands hold him to a schedule.
Think of the trains running by day and night between Wellington and Wanganui and their links with the country's life— man and his animals, his goods and chattels; the hustle and bustle at stations; the roaring rush over the flats, and the puffing up the grades. From a high aeroplane the trains would look like big centipedes, wandering without noticeable purpose, to and fro. Actually they may be better compared with the processionary caterpillar, which always trails from its home a silken line of safety.
Night lights at Auckland Station—a photographic study by W. W. Stewart.
Think of a little room, off Bunny Street, Wellington. A magician, known as a train controller is at a desk, with a pencil poised over a chart, facing the switches of a selector-telephone; it is a very exclusive instrument, which does not lend itself to social chatter or idle gossip. One thin wire ties all the stations of the Wellington-Wanganui line to that “selector,” a very ingenious contrivance. At the touch of the controller it chooses the station required, and restricts the contact to that station so that any information passing over the wire cannot be received by other stations. This is one of the Department's many safeguards against mistakes and confusion. At any time of the day or night the train-controller can speak
Anyone who walks into the train-control room at any hour of the day or night will see a man at the table, very
Train-Control Operations on the N.Z.R.
Mr. A. C. Thomson, train-control officer, at his desk in Wellington.
A casual onlooker's impression of train-control is that it is not the ideal job for a livery, nervy man; not a task for a dreamy poet or an absent minded professor. This insistent duty, with its ceaseless telephoning and charting, calls for a sturdy worker, proof against irritation, vexation, annoyance, and other troubles which would cause explosiveness in the average person.
Consider the chart, how it grows! At the beginning it is a diagram of the timetable from midnight to midnight, showing two-minute spaces between each pair of the 720 vertical lines. A horizontal line runs to each station, and the lines of the scheduled trains traverse the sheet diagonally. Well, if everything happened perfectly in accordance with time-table anticipation, the controller's coloured pencil would move unswervingly along the black lines of the trains but, even when man has taken the utmost precautions to ensure running on time, Nature may intervene with a drizzling rain to grease the rails, or some other unavoidable incident will push the controller's time line away from, the charted one. Whatever may be the cause of the deviation from the time-table, it is shown on the chart, and the cause is noted. Thus each day's chart becomes a kind of biography of the day's trains—very graphic
Lounging cosily in your carriage reading, musing, dozing, or glancing at the moving pictures of pleasant farms, rivers, forests and mountains, you have taken for granted that the railway folk will stick to their principle of “Safety, Comfort, Economy.” You believe their statement
Wellington-Wanganui. Train-Control Diagram.
Explanatory particulars of the above diagram are given in the accompanying letterpress.
Yes, they are working. They gave much thought to your train before it started, and also to the line and all else. That little room off Bunny Street has a tab on your train all the time. The controller has followed you on his chart; he has gone several stations ahead, for he is working hard to give your train the quickest possible crossing at a loop on the single track.
Perhaps, when your train has unexpectedly halted ten minutes or more on a siding you have thought—well, you have thought * * ? ? ! !; and you have gone on to exchange explosions with a fellow-passenger. One has alleged that the enginedriver and the fireman have gone off fishing, and the other has asserted that the guard is playing two-up with a porter in a quiet corner. You would quickly apologise for such thoughts and remarks if you could hear the voices passing to and fro on the wire that joins the train-control office with the stations. You would know that the delay was for your safety, and that your train moved at the earliest possible moment after the stop.
Railwaymen, indeed, hate a hitch; they keenly dislike a delay, for the time-sense is in their brain and brawn. You know the tradition about His Majesty's mails. There is even more concern for His Majesty's subjects when they travel by rail.
Goods trains in the Wellington-Wanganui district are mainly pilgrims of the night. Between midnight and 7 a.m. they look for a right-of-way when passenger trains are least likely to hinder them. One thinks of them creeping furtively from cover in the stilly night, and
Watching a train-controller at work reminds you of a game of chess. The trains are his pieces, which he moves or checks in accordance with the flow of information through the ether. His little room is the clearing-house; he is the dictator of the day, and his decisions are necessarily quick. He works on the rule of the quickest passage for the most important trains.
In various ways the train-control system works to advantage with passenger and goods traffic, as the following extract from the instructions to officers dictates:
“The Control Officers will undertake the following duties:—
Direct the movement of all trains, rearranging crossings when necessary.
Direct the movement of all tonnage offering, attending specially to the prompt transit of live stock, perishables, or other urgent goods.
Check engine arrangements to ensure that power ordered is sufficient to meet requirements.
Cancel unnecessary trains when anticipated tonnage does not eventuate, and make provision for additional trains when necessity arises.
Early Attempts at Train-Control.
A humourist's impression.
Advise adjacent districts how connecting services are running, and supply particulars of the outward tonnage being landed. Obtain similar information in respect of inward trains and tonnage affecting their own district.
Keep in touch with stations and terminals with a view to obtaining full information regarding tonnage offering.
Advise stations in good time particulars of tonnage to be detached.
Obtain particulars of any important arrangements being made by Wagon Supply Office, and see that such arrangements are duly carried out.
Keep a check on trainmen's hours, with a view to seeing that they are kept within the prescribed limits, and advise Locomotive Depots concerned promptly of any variations made to drivers' runs or to engine runs.
Make suitable arrangements in connection with all train failures, train mishaps, or other emergency situations that may arise.”
So much for instructions, which show wide swathes of work for the Train Controllers, but in practice the scope of service is still greater, for in the managing of many trains an old proverb asserts itself: “Circumstances alter cases.” A glance at a file of a month's charts satisfies a peruser that boredom and sluggishness cannot enter that little room off Bunny Street.
When the completion of the Lyttelton to Christchurch railway appeared to be in sight the Provincial Government made preparation for the working of the provincial railways. On 27th June, 1867, a select committee consisting of Messrs. Aynsley, Buckley, Jollie, Montgomery, Wilson and Sheath and the Provincial Secretary (F. E. Stewart), was appointed to report upon the Tariff for the Government Railways. On 10th July this committee was also requested to report upon the scale of wharfage dues at Lyttelton. The Council also passed the Railway Tolls and Management Bill, 1867, authorising the making of fares, rates, and other charges, and of by-laws for the guidance of the public, and regulations for the control and conduct of the staff.
On 24th March, 1868, a select committee consisting of Messrs. J. S. Williams, Rhodes, Potts, Hillyard, Fyfe, Knight, and the Provincial Secretary (E. Jollie), was appointed to readjust the scale of charges on the Southern Railway. This committee reported on 31st March, and on 1st April the Council resolved that a copy of the report be forwarded to the Superintendent for his consideration. The Superintendent replied that