AT THE FRONT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 3, 9 November 1906, Page 3

AT THE FRONT.

[Continued.] What will prove a great blessing to the Raurimu community during the coming summer, viz., a water supply, has just recently been laid on, with stand pipes along the road every chain or so, so that everyone can obtain pure water at a minimun of trouble. There is a good-sized hall, post office, and last, but not least, a. policeman, who, be it said to the credit of the credit of the place, is seldom called on to deal with any very serious breach of the law. Just behind the station yard may be seen some of the clearings and cuttings of the famous "spiral," which it has been found necessary to make in order .to carry the line up to the level of the Waimarino plains. * * * *

The road to Makatote, the site of the great viaduct, is, if anything, in even better order than that between Oio and Raurimu, and the traveller who has decided to continue his journey will have nothing to complain of as regards his personal comfort, unless it be the cold, but for this, if he is a wise man, he will come prepared. After some six miles have been covered the coach emerges from the silent bush and a panorama of indescribable beauty, meets the eye, for on the right hand, if it is a clear day, will be seen the glistening, snow-covered masses of Ruapehu and Tongariro, with the sharply defined cone Qf Ngaruahoe in between, from the crater of which, looking as if it came from the snow itself, is the steam cloud, which ever distinguishes it. As the coach makes its way over the plains, which, with their russet brown covering of coarse tussock, intermingled with stunted flax, stretch on either hand, the traveller has view laid before him, probably unequalled for cold, stern beauty in any part of the North Island. The plains, with their seemingly level boundaries-of dark, Igreen bush, only broken here and there by the parties of men engaged in forming the earthwork for the railway line (here some 2600 feet above sea level), provide a sad and silent picture. After crossing the first stretch of plain, the road rifns close under the gloomy sides of Hohongatahi (4098 feet), which for the time being cuts off the view of Ruapehu. Two miles from Makatote, the road again enters the bush, and from here on, the quality of the land rapidly improves. The pumice formation gives place to a light, loam, and it was found necessary to metal the road through the township to make it passable. * * * *

Makatote, which is reached about half-past four in the afternoon, boasts of a store, several boarding houses, and four billiard tables, stands almost on the edge of a gully (nearly 300 feet deep), at the bottom of which the boulder-strewn Makatote creek finds its way. Messrs Anderson Brothers of Christchurch, hold the contract to build the viaduct at £57,000 (the same firm built the Waiteti viaduct close to Te Kuiti), and have erected a machine shop over 270 feet in length, in which will be found one of the most up-to-date plants for bridge building in the colony. A4O h.p. engine is the source of power, driving a dynamo which supplies the motors by which most of the machines are driven. The principal machinery comprises, roller mills, saws for cutting the metal, nine separate drills, and a powerful planing machine, the cutting tool of which runs up and down against the bottom edge of the great steel girders, and takes off a shaving nearly a quarter of an inch thick, with seemingly no more effort than cutting butter. The men in charge of the giant planer, hand their inquiring visitors one of the rigid shavings, and the hurried manner in which it is allowed to drop to the floor, tells at once that it is decidely more than blood heat. All the steel to be used in the job (about 1000 tons) has been brought up from Oio by Messrs Clarkin Brothers' fine teams, this firm having the contract at a fixed rate per ton. * * * *

Two tall wooden towers —gantry is the'proper term —have been erected in each side of the gully, 940 feet apart, between*which are stretched two great cables, weighing nearly five tons each and in actual work will take a lift of 20 tons though tested to 150. Behind the gantry on the western side is a winding engine, which operates the hauling rope and controls the "blondin" or iron traveller, which runs from one side of the work to the other. The concrete for the bases, on which are built the steel towers, is mixed alongside the creek at the bottom, for which a turbine water-wheel supplies the power and hoisted up in an iron bucket, carrying a ton at a time, and conveyed by the "blondin" to the desired spot. The height from the creek bed to the dip of the cable is 260 feet, and the gantry heads are 40 feet above this. Mr Pascoe is the engineer in charge of the work, while Mr Turnbnll acts as inspector on behalf of the Department. Unfortunately, space forbids a more detailed description of the work, but it will probably enable our readers to form some slight idea of the nature of the undertaking.