Fleet Week and Trunk Line Week

New Zealand Tablet, 13 August 1908, Page 9

Fleet Week and Trunk Line Week

Two events of considerable importance to New Zealand have " been crowded into the past few days, and the two will be linked together for ever in the annals of our history. One is (he first visit of the American fleet to Auckland; the other is the opening —in connection with that auspicious event—of th's Trunk Line that links together Wellington and Auckland through 426 miles of country that comprise some of the wildest and most interesting scenery within the seas that lap the Dominion. Young New Zealand offers a right hearty and expansive welcome to young America, that visits us by proper deputy —a deputy that we in 'lie inlands of the soi do specially appreciate, namely, the great white fleet that is the guardian and guarantee of peace throughout the wide expanse of ocean in which we live. But when the licet is gone, and its visit, and the flags, and th« speeches and songs of welcome, and the. happy fraternising i.f sea-divided kin, are over, we shall still have, in the Trunk Line, a great engineering and commercial record to remind us of the memorable thing'- thiit were crowded into these few happy day-. The great timber and other resources of that extensive central region will ndw be brought near the markets of the Dominion ; (he patient waiting of many years will have its reward ; a new and favorite track will be opened for the tourist; and the slopes of white-topped and actively volcanic Ruapehu and Tongariro will in due course be turned into beauty-spots for the sightseer from afar and for the weary seeker of that rest of mind and body which Goethe-found on every mountain height.