PALMERSTON’S DESERTED DEVIATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4040, 11 January 1930, Page 3

PALMERSTON’S DESERTED DEVIATION.

MERELY A MEMORY. GRABS CLOTHING SURFACE OF GROUND. Scarred and broken where steamshovels once Lit their way through the surface, there is a belt of land seven miles long on the outskirts of Palmerston North to-day which boars a forlorn and deserted appearance (says the Standard). I[ is merely the ghost of the former railway deviation works. Beyond deep cuttings, which are the only really tangible evidence of the iabouir and money expended on the site, vestiges recalling the original purpose of the undertaking are few. Green grass and vegetation are lapidly clothing the disturbed surface of the land, and only a dismal looking engine-shed, still blackened with the smolkc of the past, remains of (lie buildings and huts which dotted the site. The administration office is now wholly occupied by the Highways Board. If ore anil thorp are scattered small piles of timber which have not yei been removed. The Milson bridge stands out, a monument to the past, while (lie clay banksVdill carry the toelli marks of scoops long since removed.

Although only nine months have elapsed since the cessation of all construction work was signalled by the whistle, everything has undergone a .remarkable transformation Where locomotives travelled to and fi°t steam shovels operated, and ever two hundred men were employed, all is now silence. Cattle craze on land acquired at a cost of over £50,000.