Cross Creek
TS name spelled out in white pebbles at the foot of the Rimutaka hill outfaced thousands of travellers. C-R-O-S-S C-R-E-E-K. As the passenger looked out
upon its people, he very easily could believe that here was a little world with a life- and character quite of its own. Much of this quality was caught in the NZBS feature Cross Creek, the story of the settlement from its roisterous canvastown beginnings, as Milepost 36, until the end of its days in 1955. And the people through the window? United by @ common purpose in their 80-year task of keeping the great incline open, they shared a tradition of work and a warmhearted interwoven social life. The men and women who spoke of the past told their story with pride and affection and we could believe that they kept good and cheerful company in the small community. They introduced us to their legends and their heroes, men like Nick O’Brien, the man with a flair, who could : (continued on next page)
make even an old, sick engine run. Cross Creek was very well presented, but its narrator, Basil Clarke, was inclined to a subject which was moving enough in itself. He was, too, sometimes dismayingly portentous. "The first Queen ever to come down the incline to Cross Creek," indeed!
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19580725.2.40.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 24
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218Cross Creek New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 988, 25 July 1958, Page 24
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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