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Riders of hobby-horses:the construction of the North Island Main Trunk Line,1858-1908
Lisa J Truttman(Originally published in
 NZ Legacy
, Vol 20 No. 2, 2008)
“It is all very well to laugh at the riders of hobby-horses. They seldom start off on an excursionbut they succeed in discovering some pleasant resting place for more sober equestrians; and in so far they are entitled to the present thanks of the community. The dreamer of To-day, too, often proves the forerunner, if not the instigator, of the practical man of To-morrow; and so entitleshimself to the thanks of “Posterity” – thanks, alas, as rarely bestowed as they are earnestlybesought.” Editorial, New Zealander, 24 November 1858
After fifty years of legislation, importation of material and human resources, plans both staid andimaginative, and a considerable outlay of funds – by May 1908 the railheads of the Main Trunk Line from Auckland to Wellington lay only ten miles apart. The last gap was between Makatoteand Ohakune, finally closed when the plate-layers on the north and south railheads met nearHoropito on 30 July 1908. This was just in time for a great event in New Zealand history thatyear, the completion of the Main Trunk Line, to coincide with another grand event: the visit of America’s Great White Fleet.
Northern beginnings
Back in 1858, however, it began with coal. Twenty-two miles south of Auckland, coal wasdiscovered just east of Drury and Opaheke, and the Auckland Provincial Council was faced withthe logistics of bringing the coal from the seams to the wharves of Auckland town. Privateenterprise urged that a system of “tramways” be instigated, rail lines from Drury to Auckland,possibly incorporating water transport. One councillor, Joseph Middlemas from Papakura,suggested a plan where the first company formed for making a permanent railway from Aucklandto the Waikato River would receive a subsidy, but this idea was later withdrawn.Instead, the Provincial Council petitioned the General Assembly in 1863, after calling for expertsto suggest the best route out of Auckland to link with Drury, and received funding under theAuckland and Drury Railway Act of that year. High hopes and great expectations didn’t carry theProvincial Council very far at all, however. Sections at Parnell, Newmarket and Westfield were
 
never completed, including the initial Parnell Tunnel. The first locomotive engine to arrive forservice in Auckland in 1865 was assembled at Newmarket after the parts were paraded up QueenStreet in the wake of a paid trumpeter for the occasion, but could only run backwards andforwards on a short length of rails before being put back into storage, alongside another whicharrived in 1866. They stayed there until 1871, when Engine No. 1 was sold to the Bay of IslandsCoal Company. Engine No. 2 was used during later rail construction work in the early 1870s,until it, too, was sold in June 1874.A correspondent in the
Southern Cross
newspaper was scathing by September 1867 of the wholeconcept of a rail project out of Auckland:
“… My proposal is that two or three thousand [pounds] should be voted to put the railway out of sight -- shovel in the cuttings, take away the fencing, and have done with the whole affair. If wecould manage to bury the commissioners, the engineers, and contractors in some cutting, somuch the better.”
 The idea to build a railway southward wasn’t quite dead. The Papakura Agricultural Associationtried an unsuccessful petition to the Auckland Provincial Council to resurrect the project in 1870.But, while the Council was reluctant to singe their fingers again on what seemed an impossibleproject, things were changing in Wellington. The Fox Ministry had assumed office in 1869, andthat ministry’s treasurer was one Julius Vogel.
The Vogel plan
With Vogel and his plan to borrow millions of pounds to finance a breathtaking schedule of roadand rail development, came the Railways Act of 1870 which authorised the construction of a linefrom Auckland to Tuakau. The act standardised the maximum gauge for the railway, and waslinked with the Immigration and Public Works Act passed by Parliament a day earlier, so aworkforce was almost guaranteed. By the end of that year, Messrs John Brogden & Sons enteredinto contract negotiations with Vogel for the project.Surveys were carried out by Henry Wrigg, confirming that the original 1860s proposal throughParnell to Newmarket via the Parnell Tunnel couldn’t be improved upon (and so the tunnel wascompleted in 1872, but replaced by another alongside the original in 1915). A hold-up came whenJ Runiciman of Mangere disputed whether the planned terminus at Tuakau would be of as muchuse to nearby settlers as Mercer would be; so Wrigg was instructed to check out this alternateroute as well as the one already determined in 1864. Wrigg found that while a terminus at Mercer
 
was preferred, Runiciman’s suggested route was abandoned in favour of one passing throughPukekohe, Tuakau and Pokeno.By April 1873, the new railway had reached from Newmarket to Mount Smart, and on 24October an experimental journey was made from Auckland Station through to Onehunga, taking24 minutes. The line through to Onehunga officially opened 20 December 1873. By March 1874,the rails had reached Otahuhu, when H. Knox of Camp Farm in Otahuhu became the first farmerin his district to send produce to Auckland by rail, consisting of twelve tons of potatoes, costing3/- 6d per ton. The line reached Mercer by May 1875.Section 12 of the Railways Act 1873 authorised construction of the line southward from Mercerto Ngaruawahia. This work began with the turning of the first sod by the provincialsuperintendent at Ngaruawahia in January 1874, and was completed with the arrival of the firstpassenger train from Auckland on 13 August 1877. From this point on, however, progress of therail line southward was complicated by questions of access to the King Country. Local Maoriargued against a line to Te Awamutu (via Hamilton) for example as they felt one to Alexandrawould be of more benefit to them for business purposes. However, track-laying on the route toHamilton began in October 1877, with Frankton reached by December that year.
Access through the King Country and central plateau
By August 1879, the rail line was within two miles of the King Country boundary. This wasterritory closed to non-Maori, and seemed to many at the time to be an almost insurmountablebarrier to a continuous rail link between Auckland and Wellington. The Railway ConstructionAct of 1878 authorised a preferred line from Te Awamutu to New Plymouth, an attempt to bypassthe King Country almost entirely. In 1882 however, Wahanui assumed control of the KingCountry from Tawhiao, and advised the Native Minister at the time, John Bryce, that he wouldnot oppose preliminary exploration through his territory. Earlier surveys had suggested centralroutes via the Waikato Valley and Lake Taupo to the southern end of the central plateau; by 1883,three routes were under consideration, including one from Te Awamutu to Marton or Fielding,without either a Hastings or New Plymouth detour. The central route was determined by surveyorJohn Rochfort (1832-1893) who left Marton in June 1883 and reported completion of his survey
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