The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1914. AT WHANGAMOMONA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 59, 1 July 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1914. AT WHANGAMOMONA.

To-day marks another important step in the progress of this district on the formal opening of a further section of tho Stratford-Ongarue railway, and, at last, after many years of waiting, the iron horse has reached Whangamomona township, and a regular time-table has been instituted. Many years ago this line was recognised and admitted to be the most important of the unfinished linos in tho North Island. Four years ago, on the twenty-first of last month, tho lino

was declared open to Te Wera by tho Hon. T. Mackouzio, and it has now reached another important stage. Tho building of our railways in ''New Zealand does not progress at anything like tho rate one could wish, but settlers will ho at least thankful that yet another few miles of shockingly bad winter roads may ibe avoided, and that connection with the outer world will be possible all tho year round. Quite properly there is jubilation ai Whnngamomona today, and people are giving the Hon. W. H. Hemes, the Minister of Railways in the present Government, a warm and hearty welcome. Details of the ceremony are not yet to hand, but we sincerely hope'it will he impressed on the Minister that although the railway has now reached a point long promised, that, in the interest? of Taranaki and the Dominion as a whol®. th« VTOrk must b« pushed

on with at least the same, if not even more, vigor than in the past. By all means let the construction proceed at the 'Auckland end, but there must be no relaxation at the Taranaki end on that account. In the interests of settlement and commerce we desire to see the gap bridged entirely, and to most people the snail-like progress this railway hag made up to the present, seems almost incomprehensible. The total length of the line to the junction with the Main Trunk will be something over a hundred miles from Stratford. The work was begun in the years 1901, when the Hon. W. Hall Jones turned the first sod of the branch at Stratford. In 1902 the railway had reached Toko, the formal opening taking place on August 9th of that year, the day of King Edward's Coronation. On the Ist of March, 1905, a further section between Toko and Douglas, four miles and seventy-two chains in length, was opened. Three years later, on April Ist, 1908, a further section of four miles and fifty chains, stretching from Douglas to Huiroa, was brought into use for passenger traffic. To Wera station, the next point reached, is twenty-two miles and fifty chains distant from Stratford. At that, date the construction work was within two-and-a-half miles of Whangamomona township, the total distance from Te Wera being twelve miles. The principal difficulty to be overcome on that section was a thirty-chain tunnel at the Whangamomona Saddle, a work started about four years ago. We understand that the survey and preparations for work onward from Whangamomona have reached Tahora, but beyond that there is a gap of something over sixty ■miles to bridge before the Main Trunk line is reached. We most sincerely congratulate the settlers of Wliangamombna on the fact that the railway now runs to the township, for it will make the lives of those who have suffered tho hardships incidental to pioneering in every country and in every new district a trifle easier. When one is within reach of a centre of considerable size by nienrts of a few hours' train journey, one does not feel that the world is so very far away.