GISBORNE PEOPLE CELEBRATE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 292, 8 September 1942, Page 3

GISBORNE PEOPLE CELEBRATE

Rail Link With Napier

(By Telegraph —Press Association.) GISBORNE, Sept. 7.

A crowd estimated at nearly ten thousand assembled, in perfect spring weather this morning, to witness the departure of the first passenger train from Gisborne, • The ceremony was described as a semi-official one, as the line has not yet been taken ovar by the Railways Department, but no official recognition could have, vested it with greater importance to the people of the Gisborne district, or made the scene at the station more impressive. School children were given a halfholiday, and business premises were closed for an hour.' The station was liberally bedecked with bunting. The ' Minister of Railways', Mr. Semple, who had come to Gisborne accompanied by the General Manager of Railways, Mr, E. Casey, said in his speech that the Hue from Napier to Gisborne had cost just over £6,000,000, of which nearly half was incurred in the construction of the Gisborne; Waikokopu section. Had it not been for the opening of the railways, he said. Gisborne Would probably have been cut off from the rest of the Dominion, as.it was unlikely that any heavy service cars ■would, be left on the road' in six months’ time.

Drawn by two heavy engines with their whistles blowing for several minutes, a train of ten carriages carrying between three and four hundred passengers, pulled out only a few minutes behind time for Napier and Palmerston North.

The present service is oifly a skeleton ode to relieve the emergency caused by the curtailment of road transport, and consists' of one train daily each way. It will be replaced by a more complete timetable toward the end of the year when the construction work is completed. 1