TAUPO.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 613, 22 October 1913, Page 5

TAUPO.

Taupo will be a place of considerable importance in the not-far-away future. At present it is chiefly known as an angler's resort, and the wealthy tourist with plenty of time at his disposal camps on the shores of the great lake for weeks at a stretch in the summer season steadily hauling in the giant rainbow trout until he has creeled his solid half-ton or so of fish. But for the average man and woman, particularly the working New Zealander, Taupo is prctically out of reach by reason of its isolation and the coat of travel. It is a place of magnificent lake and mountain scenery, and will probably surpass Rotorua as the North Island spadistrict of the future. At present the time-pressed holiday-maker passes it by on the qther side because it does not possess railway connection with the Main Trunk line, and the cost of motoring or coaching to its shores is • a heavy item. Now, however, there are railroading schemes in band which will change all this. The parliamentary correspondent of the Lyttelton Times telegraphed a tew days a;ro that an Order-in Council had been issued authorising the Taupo Timber Company to extend tha light railway which runs from the Auekland-Roto-rua line to Mokoi. to Taupo township, at the northern end of the lake. More over it is stated that the Tontranro Timber Company, which is op?ra»in.sc in the great totava and rimu forests to tha west and south of the lake, ia completing avrangeiKi'nts for the construction of its railway from Kokahi, on the Main Trunk lire a short distance below Taumarunui to Kuratau, which is on the south-western shores of Tauao, lass than ten miles from Tokaanu. tho lake-side terminus of the conch road rfom Wsiourn, the Main Trunk station near the base oi! Mount Ruapehu. This line, like that from Puuiruru, is to ha made suitable for passenger traffic, ami whan the work is completed a large expanse of extremely interesting country will he thrown open to the tourist and the holiday-maker.