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The line now traverses a Crown forest for some six miles, and the evergreen foliage of the native trees is seen in natural beauty. Away on the left towers the bush-covered head of Ngamutu, 2,776 ft. high. The water-parting on the northern and southern rivers is passed at Cussen's Trig, on the plains near Waimarino Railway-station, from whence the line descends the long slope leading to Taumarunui and the Auckland District, and all the streams further met with flow towards the north or west and join the Wanganui fiiver. A most elaborate engineering feat is to be seen near Raurimu in the famous " spiral,' , 111 miles from Mar ton, where, to overcome the sudden drop from the Waimarino Plateau to the lower level of the Piopiotea Valley, it was found necessary to form a spiral, the line overlapping itself in the process. All the country surrounding it is rugged in character and covered with forest, and the spot will consequently be one of the show-places on the line (see photo.). Fortunately the Crown owns the land all around, and the necessary reservation is being recommended. A small township near the railway-station has already been surveyed, and will probably become an important centre for the settlers in the Retaruke and Kaitieke Valleys. Raukimu to Taumaeunui. (Plan No. 6.) The last stage of the journey through the Waimarino country is now entered upon. The line continues to pass through the forest, the land on the east falling towards the Piopiotea Stream. Three miles from Raurimu a large Native block of 4,600 acres is traversed, its eastern boundary being the Whakapapa Stream (see photo.). Between Oio Station (116 miles) and Owhango Station three miles north, and on towards Kakahi Station, there are at intervals splendid views of the Whakapapa River foaming along for some eight miles in a densely wooded gorge beneath the railwayline. The area for some distance of the line and the river has already been recommended for reservation for scenic purposes, which together with a considerable area of bush on both sides of the line as now recommended should be maintained in its virgin state. On the west of the line in this locality the Public Works Department have been granted the right to cut the timber over a large portion of bush containing much of the best totara, matai, and kahikatea trees in the Waimarino Forest. From this is taken that required for the building of the bridges and culverts, and other works necessary in the construction of the line, and a Government sawmill is in full working at Kakahi Station. Nearing this place the Wanganui River is first seen as it slowly flows from its source in the great mountains now left behind in its long journey to the sea. From here the bush recedes from the line, which enters pumice downs. Undulating hills and slopes covered with native grass and patches of ti-tree and manuka appear all round, but the forest is not very far distant, and across the banks of the Wanganui River in the Auckland District can be seen many and extensive blocks of Native land on which the forest still exists untouched by axe or fire. To the south of the river and west of the line, and behind the large area reserved for the Public Works Department, it is all Crown land with the exception of 1,500 acres of Native blocks. Several portions near the Hunua and Makahiwa Mountains are now being subdivided for settlement, and reservations for forest and scenic purposes in suitable localities have been recommended for gazetting. The railway as it now follows the Wanganui River passes one or two Maori settlements and cultivations. Then Piriaka Station and township (three miles be3 - ond Kakahi and 129 miles from Marton) is reached, and the Manunui Village Settlement two miles further on, which extends to Taumarunui (135 miles), where the line crosses the Wanganui River and ends the section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway line now under construction, meeting at this point the terminus of the line from Auckland, which has been opened for traffic. General. The hundred odd miles of scenery traversed from Makohine to Manunui forms a national asset that, in our opinion, should be most jealously conserved and protected. At present it is a comparatively easy task to secure the bulk of the forest land bordering the route of the railway, as nearly the whole of it is in the hands of the Crown or Natives. Most of the area is not well adapted for close settlement, and the timber growing thereon forms its principal value. The varieties of timber, the natural beauty of the forest, its magnificent situation amongst numerous deep ravines and sinuous gorges through which run rapid mountain streams, together with the background of frowning hills and lofty ranges, and in the distance the grand snow-capped peaks of the Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro Mountains, all unite in proclaiming this portion of New Zealand as one of the principal attractions of the colony. As time goes on forest country will disappear from most of the other parts of the colony, but its picturesqueness will be more appreciated as its extent diminishes. It is almost needless to say that once the forest is sold and felled it can never be replaced as it now stands, and from the climatic and utilitarian points of view its retention is necessary to secure much broken and otherwise comparatively useless country from slipping into the valleys and gorges, and thus becoming a perpetual eyesore in contrast to its present pristine beauty. The Board has, therefore, the honour to respectfully recommend that those areas recommended in the accompanying schedule as suitable for scenic purposes may be duly proclaimed for permanent reservation under the Scenery Preservation Acts, or, in the case of Native lands, under " The Public Works Act, 1905." Given under our hands at Wellington, this 27th day of March, 1907. Thos. Humphries, Chairman. John Strauchon, ) ~ , ~, t> j T. E. Donne, | Memb « B ° f the Board.