Sir George Grey's View.

Among the witnesses who gave evidence before the Committee was Sir George Grey, who was then M.H.R. for Auckland East. He gave it as his opinion that the Stratford line would be the most serviceable. “When I chose the line by way of Taranaki, during my administration,” he said, “I did so with the view of uniting the two great populations of Auckland and the whole of the New Plymouth district.” The last time he was in the district traversed by the route, he said, was about 1865. He first of all traversed it carefully about 1847 or 1848, looking for a road from Auckland to New Plymouth.