History

From the unedited manuscript of ‘Stratford, Shakespearean Town Under the Mountain’, by David Walter (2005)

dewalter@xtra.co.nz

CHAPTER 17 - RAILWAYS

Like many other rural towns, Stratford’s early development was given much impetus by the arrival of rail. This came in 1879, giving an important new transport link with coastal New Plymouth that was quicker, safer and usually cheaper for both people and goods.

For just over eighty years the railway station in the middle of the town was a busy focal point, serving passengers, freight and livestock. In earlier times residents used to crowd the station platform as a pastime to welcome passenger and mail trains running between New Plymouth and Wellington.

Right into the 1950s, the Friday morning ‘bush’ train was convenient transport to Stratford for many settlers living in the isolated eastern Taranaki communities, saving them a long return car journey over winding metal roads. Passengers would alight onto the platform near the middle of Broadway – this was before the station was shifted southwards. A number of the ‘back-country’ men would conduct their business without unduly wasting time, then retreat to one of the town’s hotels to socialise until the afternoon train took them back into the hills eastwards.

A former Broadway businessman recalled the regular ritual: They’d usually make it to the Club or County Hotel across from the station either side of lunchtime. Then as the afternoon wore on you could hear them through the bar windows getting noisier and noisier. Just before the train took off at about five I think, they would spill out of the hotel door and across Broadway, clambering into the carriages, some being scolded by their wives – I heard they often slept for most of the trip home.

The idea of shifting the railway station and yards from the town centre was first discussed at a meeting in 1919 when the General Manager of Railways put two alternative new sites before the Borough Council and Chamber of Commerce – near Warwick Road, which was favoured, or between Flint and Pembroke Roads. The shift was proposed to remove the engine noise and smoke further from the centre of Broadway, and gain more shunting space. However almost thirty years later in 1947 a visitor commented: You wouldn’t think that a town of this size would be so noisy at night. With the railway line only a block away from Broadway, where there are several hotels, the noisy clatter of trucks and the strident whistling of the engines are real sleep-disturbers for visitors to the town.

Finally in 1951 a government decision gave approval for a scheme that was to change Stratford. Work on the project finally commenced, over thirty years after being first mooted, and continued through most of the 1950s. As well as new railway buildings in Broadway South, the plan involved closing level crossings on Lear Street, Celia Street, Romeo Street and Warwick Roads, constructing a new road bridge on Juliet Street, and a pedestrian and cycle subway under Broadway by Celia Street. Several houses were shifted, new shunting lines and stockyards built, and a modern electrically operated engine turntable installed.

The junction was moved southwards when the old line that ran eastwards along Celia Street was relocated to the present formation, this new deviation opening on May 2nd 1959. Service lanes were opened up behind the shops on the east of Broadway Central to improve rear access. The large area west of Juliet Street between Fenton and Regan Streets that had previously been railway lines and yards was made available for new businesses. Earlier proposals around 1937 had even included eliminating the level crossings on Fenton, Regan and Seyton Streets and possibly Pembroke Road by lowering the lines and constructing bridges or overbridges the full width of the streets, but somehow this plan lapsed.

The Minister of Railways, Jack McAlpine, opened the new railway station on December 12th 1961, though almost two years elapsed before the old station and goods shed were removed. Despite the modern facilities, a small number of citizens and some business people through the Retailers’ Association complained that the passenger and freight terminals were now too distant from the centre of town. Conversely there was little complaint from taxi owners who found a lucrative new demand for their service.

Town clerk at the time was Gerry Grace, who later expressed some reservations on the road closures. I have always felt it was a mistake to close all the streets south of the Patea River. If Lear Street had been left open, the traffic bottleneck we now see at Fenton Street roundabout would have been alleviated, he said in 1978.

Originally it was planned that Stratford’s upgraded rail facilities would be the location for Taranaki’s main marshalling yards. However this idea lapsed when a new marshalling complex was built near Smart Road in New Plymouth. Even though Taranaki Cooperative Dairy Company built a large cool store and siding adjacent to the new station in the early 1960s, Stratford’s modern signalling systems and expansive yards were never used to the extent initially planned.

Ironically the new station and facilities were opened around the period when rail use and dependence began to plummet. Most families now owned a car, and New Zealand Railways also ran road bus services. Livestock cartage by rail was largely phased out by the 1970s, and legislation protecting rail freight haulage for distances over 40 miles was lifted.

Passenger trains called at Stratford for just over a century, though timetables and frequency varied. Regular return services ran from New Plymouth to Wanganui, Wellington, Taumarunui and Auckland. Steam engines – ‘Ab’, “Aa”, ‘X’, ‘J’, ‘Jb’ and the larger ‘K’ and ‘Ka’ – chugged and whistled their way through the town, often shunting goods around in the junction’s central yards.

The importance of rail declined throughout the country as demand lessened and the economics of services were scrutinised more closely. Stratford’s twenty-year old railway station ceased being a regular passenger stop in January 1983 when the train service between New Plymouth and Taumarunui was curtailed. Taranaki’s rail passenger links with the rest of New Zealand had been summarily stopped after almost a century. The region now joined Northland as the only areas linked to the country’s rail network without passenger services.

Since then only a few passenger excursion trains have briefly brought life back to Stratford’s station platform. For several years Stratford Aero Club led by Alan Breen raised funds by organising successful ‘High Country Flyer’ round trips on the line eastwards to the Main Trunk and back to Taranaki via the Marton junction. More recently, rail excursion trips have become more popular over the scenic Stratford-Main Trunk line, and annual Whangamomona Republic Days have attracted trains from Auckland, Hamilton and Palmerston North.

During the mid-1990s Taranaki local government and tourism interests sought to reinstate a passenger service between New Plymouth and Wellington and also a regular excursion link to Taumarunui. In 1995 a combined approach to rail authorities was made from the region’s three Mayors – Claire Stewart (New Plymouth) Mary Bourke (South Taranaki) and David Walter (Stratford) as well as Taranaki Regional Council Chairman Ross Allen.

However New Zealand’s rail services, administration and ownership were undergoing great changes and upheaval, and negotiations proved frustrating and fruitless. A few years later a proposed ‘National Parks Express’ linking the Tongariro, Whanganui and Egmont National Parks was promoted as a Year 2000 millenium project by Stratford District Council Promotions Officer Stuart Perry, but these plans also failed to advance.

The economic benefits of rail to Stratford also declined. Into the 1970s there were over 100 railway staff in Stratford, as well as resident gangers living near outlying stations. Railway houses were built off the western end of Page Street in the 1920s, and other workers lived in huts near the line off Juliet Street. Staff numbers were then decimated following the restructuring, corporatisation and eventual privatisation of rail from the 1980s.

Today in 2004 the empty sheds, derelict huts and other unused railway amenities are stark evidence of Stratford’s past vibrant times of rail. Even so there has been some return of activity, as around 2002 Stratford junction took over most of the goods marshalling functions from the New Plymouth Smart Road yards. About 14 engine drivers and 10 rail operators are based in Stratford, where trains are now made up to travel in each direction. A massive increase in containerised dairy exports from Port Taranaki over the three years from 2001 now requires up to eight daily trains through Stratford from Whareroa factory south of Hawera during the dairying season. One or two trains use the Stratford-Okahukura line daily, which also provides an alternative route should the Main Trunk line be closed.

The southern part of the railway station was leased for Stratford’s Information Centre between 1995 and 2002, and more recently has been occupied by Stratford Leisure Ltd.

The Taranaki Line

A railway line through the province was first proposed in 1864. The concept was authorised in 1870, but despite sums of expenditure being voted for it to proceed from the early 1870s, progress was slow. The first surveys for the New Plymouth-Waitara section were done in 1872, and construction started the following year. After this section opened in 1875, work started from Sentry Hill southwards to reach Inglewood two years later.

Public meetings were called from time to time in an attempt to speed up the construction. In 1877 a meeting in New Plymouth attended by MPs supported a resolution from Colonel Robert Trimble: ‘that this meeting learns with deep regret that the continuation of the railway beyond Inglewood is not being formed with that rapidity which the community has a right to expect, and that the moderate sums appropriated by parliament for this purpose have not been spent’. In response Thomas Kelly MP said he was unable to explain why the government had not spent the Taranaki appropriation and assured the meeting that he would take the first opportunity of enquiring into the position when parliament met.

Subsequently the rate of progress further south towards Stratford quickened. Some ‘petty’ contracts were let, enabling new settlers along the route to gain extra capital to develop their bush holdings, while larger works including several bridges went to specialist contractors. The total cost for the New Plymouth-Stratford section of the new line was around 200,000 pounds.

As the formation continued south into Central Taranaki, railway gangs requiring board and sustenance provided good business to the few local stores, hotels and boarding houses of Waipuku, Midhirst and Stratford. The line actually reached Stratford two months before it was officially opened, and people were allowed to travel to Inglewood in either a ‘second-class’ carriage or contractor’s open trucks.

For some reason the eventual opening of the railway line to Stratford on December 17th 1879 attracted little local attention, possibly as by then the locals had become accustomed to the trains. A report stated: Only two flags were flown and there were very few people about. Even the host of the Stratford Hotel did not trouble himself to stroll across to the station. No entertainment was organised for the 150 people on the first train, and in the afternoon they were soaked by a downpour, effectively checking any desire to explore that may have seized the visitors.

Despite this, Mrs William Tisch produced the first flag flown in Stratford for the occasion. It was made out of a shawl, with a white body and red border, and had blue stripes across it combining the red, white and blue colours. It was flown from the new hotel to celebrate the arrival of the first train.

A ‘commodious’ station was built in the middle of town, with a clerk’s office, waiting room, a lined and varnished ladies room connected to a dressing room, conveniences and a telegraph office. The goods shed was the largest in Taranaki, due to the anticipated large volume of freight passing between both Hawera in the south and New Plymouth in the north. A report in 1880 showed that timber, firewood and merchandise were the main goods carried on the line, as well as grass seed when required. No sheep or cattle were railed, as this was considered too expensive.

The daily trains running each way between New Plymouth and Stratford brought a faster and more regular service for people and goods. The link between the raw inland bush settlement and Taranaki’s main town on the coast was far more reliable. Mail now arrived daily from New Plymouth, an improvement on the thrice-weekly service.

Rail progressed further in 1880 with the Patea River bridge completed by prison labour and the line opened down to Ngaere. A year later the first train ran to Hawera, and the Superintendent of Railways revised timetables so that passengers leaving New Plymouth at 7 a.m. would be able to reach Wanganui by 8 p.m., allowing for travel south of Stratford by coach to join up with the railhead beyond Hawera. Eventually in 1885 the last stretch to Manutahi was completed, giving Taranaki a direct rail service southwards to Wellington.

On 15th March 1895 the first special excursion train from Stratford took between 1,100 and 1,200 school pupils, parents and teachers from Stratford, Toko, Cardiff, Pembroke and Rowan schools to New Plymouth for the day - the start of such annual ‘school picnic’ trips that carried on for decades.

‘Standard’ diesel railcars were first introduced on the New Plymouth-Wellington run from April 1939, and from around the mid-1950s powerful diesel engines replaced steam, enabling longer freight trains to be hauled. Railcars replaced the thrice-weekly overnight express to Auckland in 1956, and then in 1972 ‘Blue Streak’ railcars from the Main Trunk line were brought to the New Plymouth-Wellington run, until this service was withdrawn in 1977. A Taranaki Rail Passenger Action Group chaired by J.B. Henderson was formed to resist the abrupt termination, but despite support from the public and local body leaders the protests were to no avail. Together with the growth of air travel, buses had now replaced rail as a public transport link with the capital.

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Battle for the North Island Main Trunk Line Route

For over two decades up to 1900 Taranaki leaders and public bodies took a keen interest in the possible routes for a ‘Main Trunk’ railway line linking the two largest North Island cities of Auckland and Wellington. In 1878 Premier Sir George Grey told a public meeting at New Plymouth that he was enthusiastic about the possibilities of a railway linking Auckland with Taranaki. He added that almost 30 years earlier in 1849 he had taken the trouble to travel from Taupo to Taranaki in order to find a possible line for a railway.

Grey prophesised that: Thousands of people would use such a railway to see Mt Egmont, and many would come to reside permanently in the settlements of Taranaki.

The value of property would increase, many farmers would consider their holdings too small and would put them on the market, taking the proceeds to develop larger possessions in the interior.

Later in 1878 the New Zealand Herald reported: It is stated that the Ministry intends to propose to the House a vote for the construction of the Main Trunk line of railway from Waikato to Taranaki.

Also around this time the Minister of Public Works James Macandrew delivered his annual Public Works Statement, saying that he saw the construction of a railway from Te Awamutu to Inglewood, a distance of 125 miles, as ‘the’ great work for the future in the North Island.

However the Daily News in an editorial of 7th September 1878 favoured Waitara as a junction, claiming that route would be shorter and cheaper compared to the other two alternatives of Inglewood or Stratford, with less engineering difficulties. But little further progress was made by the government as there were difficulties obtaining land from King Country Maori.

Then in 1883 it was decided to survey four prospective routes for the Main Trunk line; from Te Awamutu to Hastings via Taupo; two alternatives between Te Awamatu and Taranaki; and a central route from Te Awamutu to Marton or Feilding.

Surveyor Harry Skeet was instructed to find a suitable route inland from Stratford to join the railway at Ongarue, both for a road and a possible route for the Main Trunk railway.

His report to the Committee of the Line of the Central Railway in 1884 termed the Tangarakau section ‘rough’, though towards Stratford ‘the country was better’.

One of his assistants, Morgan Carkeek, stated: from 40 km east of Stratford‘a goat could not live on that land - it is fit for nothing.

He also noted the lack of stone for ballast and timber for milling.

A sketch plan of the Western Route railway line between Stratford and Te Awamutu explored by Carkeek and engineer R.W. Holmes referred to in the 1883-84 Annual Report of the North Island Engineer in Charge also showed a North Taranaki Coastal Route. However the North Island Main Trunk parliamentary committee in 1884 recommended John Rochfort’s Central Route between Te Awamutu and Marton as the best alignment for the Main Trunk.

Though formation of the line southwards to Ongarue commenced in 1885, there was still great speculation and interest on the Main Trunk route. Stratford interests obviously felt there was much at stake, as between 1886 and 1889 the small town instigated several petitions to parliament urging that Stratford be the Main Trunk line junction. Hundreds of signatures were collected under the names of Garlick, Cranwell and others; Thos Penn and others; and James Lysaght and others. Stratford, Hawera and Auckland interests sought the Stratford route for the Main Trunk, while a ‘Vigilance Committee’ was formed in New Plymouth with the same intent.

Further assessments and estimates of the relative merits of alternative ‘Main Trunk’ routes were conducted until in 1892 a committee was appointed by parliament to investigate the best method of connecting Auckland to Wellington. The committee, who were given only four weeks to report, failed to give a clear choice. While it outlined some points in favour of the western route to Central Taranaki and discounted some of Rochfort’s low estimates for the central route done in 1884, it finally recommended that further exploration and survey was necessary before the location of the North Island Main Trunk Railway could be determined. The committee also stated that no consideration had been given to the Taupo and Waitara routes on the grounds of cost and ‘poverty of the country to be traversed’.

Supporters of the Central route believed that it would open up more land for settlement than the Taranaki option, and it was also shorter - 432 miles compared to 480 miles. However the estimated cost for the Central Route at this stage was almost a third more than the Western Taranaki Route. This opened up even more debate. While Auckland and Taranaki people continued to strongly support the Stratford route, various influential Wellington interests backed the Central route.

More investigations by engineer R.W. Holmes began to tip the scales in favour of the Central Route in 1898 when he put forward the Raurimu Spiral concept to overcome the problems of ensuring a gradient of no more than 1 in 50 for the ascent up to National Park and the Volcanic Plateau. When he had completed this work he submitted a report on the relative merits of the Central route compared to three Taranaki alternatives – the Ngaere, Waitara and Awakino routes.

Though it seemed the central route was gaining more support for practical, financial and political reasons, agitation and argument between the two camps still persisted. The New Zealand Herald stated in a leading article on 15th July 1898: such is the lack of progress on the Main Trunk line that people’s great-great-grandchildren will not see it finished. The polarisation continued as the frequency of mass meetings, deputations, newspaper coverage and parliamentary discussions intensified.

On 27th September 1898 there was a heated meeting in parliament on the relative merits of the routes. Minister of Public Works William Hall-Jones stated in the debate: In both Auckland and Taranaki the agitation for the deviation to Stratford continues, adding to the difficulties of the situation. Though he seemed to personally favour the central route, he claimed no decision had been made as yet, and that the matter still required further careful consideration.

The following day the Auckland paper New Zealand Herald headlined: The Battle of the Routes over the North Island Main Trunk Railway has begun in earnest. Mass meeting to be held at Marton. At the gathering a week later a band led an enthusiastic procession in Marton with a banner at the front reading: The Central Route is of colonial importance - the Stratford Route is of local importance only.

The arguments still simmered on, and on 27th June 1900 the Stratford newspaper Egmont Settler expressed clear views in an editorial:

The ‘New Zealand Times’ claims a decided win for the Central route. How it arrives at this decision by other than self-interest we really fail to understand. The real object of the line should be to develop the resources of the country and to bring the products of the interior within easy access of a port of shipment.

Such being the case we consider the Stratford route has pre-eminent claim. Commencing from Kawakawa junction and travelling south it would pass through thousands upon thousands of acres of splendid land on which agricultural and dairying pursuits could be carried on to a very great extent, and after travelling a distance of 136 miles, a port of shipping would be reached at New Plymouth.

Doubtless the preponderating influence will be against the Stratford route, and the government will be compelled to push through with the Central route. To do this Wellington agitators propose to commit the country to a loan of five million pounds.

The alternative view from Wellington had been set out in a leading article in the New Zealand Times the previous day, 26th June 1900:

The timber resources of the country to be opened by the line and dairy produce that would be raised along the line would come to Wellington, at any rate from a point right up to Taupo; while this city would also secure the business of sending supplies to the numerous settlers who would be placed on the land. If our leading men do not follow up with energy the movement started yesterday evening they will be wonderfully blind to their own interest and blamably neglectful of the welfare of the city and district.

In August 1900 parliament once more appointed a third (and supposedly final) select committee to make such recommendations to the government as the committee may deem best in the interest of the colony.

This time the terms of reference focussed more on the cost and likely completion time for the Central route, indicating that this option had already won the battle.

The committee recommendations supporting the Central route were those already concluded by Holmes; that it would be shorter and quicker, and could open up much new country in Central North Island.

Future Prime Minister William Massey stated in parliament on August 30th 1900: the route was practically decided upon – the central one – and it would open up vast areas of land for settlement and timber of the Waimarino forests.

Despite more petitions and deputations, the concerted efforts from Stratford people for more than a decade to gain the advantages of being a key junction town on the Main Trunk had by now proved fruitless. The Central route won the decision, and the Main Trunk line was finally completed in 1908.

The Stratford versus Ngaere junction contest

While Stratford and Taranaki had lost the Main Trunk decision, there was no question that a line connecting the province with Auckland would be started early in the 1900s. However another more localised debate surfaced when it came to deciding the point for western junction of this inland connecting line. The 1900 select committee report recommended that the Ngaire (as it was spelt until around 1908) route was the best.

The towns of Stratford and Eltham had already become embroiled in debate, as the junction point south of Ngaere was earlier favoured over Stratford. Stratford’s suitability for the junction had first been questioned by Holmes and Carkeek, as their report following the 1883-84 survey suggested that it was too far to the north for the junction. Later in 1894 Stratford County engineer Henry Climie reported on concerns over the steep gradient between Stratford and Toko near what is now known as Sangster’s Hill where the Taranaki ring plain ends.

Then in 1897 a private tramway syndicate led by Sid James, James Barleyman and T.H. Penn and promoted by Toko sawmiller W.L. Kennedy gained permission from the Stratford County Council to lay a tramway from Stratford eastwards to Toko after commissioning Climie to survey the proposed line. The wooden tramway was sought mainly because of the ‘desperate’ state of the East Road at Sangster’s Hill for ‘nine months of the year’.

The project did not proceed, mainly because Parliament refused the required authority to joining the line at Stratford, stating that they were not prepared to allow any private company to construct and operate a railway. However the proposal did show that a suitable grade for rail could be found, despite the 400 feet rise over the six and a half miles between Toko and Stratford.

Meantime the competing alternative route branching off two miles south of Ngaere was surveyed, and land set aside for the line to run eastwards to cross the Patea River and along the Makuri and Mangaotuku river valleys through Huinga and Strathmore; the proposed junction was much closer to Eltham than Stratford. In fact reports to parliament in 1889 and both the 1892 and 1900 committees referred to the ‘Ngaire’ route, rather than Stratford, as the central Taranaki option.

Feelings between the two towns apparently ran high. Premier Richard Seddon was allegedly tripped by a rope placed in a dark aisle at a political meeting in Eltham, prompting speculation that the rope had been placed by Stratford people. Their quest was said to alienate Seddon against Eltham, thereby influencing him to support Stratford as the junction.

Meantime the two adjacent MPs joined the argument. The Stratford junction was supported in 1899 by the local member for Egmont, Walter Symes.

As well as representing people in the town, he also pushed for the growing Toko and Douglas settlements, through which this route would run.

However Felix McGuire, the Hawera member, strongly backed the interests of his constituents further south who obviously favoured the Ngaere junction. Late in the night of August 20th 1900 he urged parliament to authorise proceeding with the Ngaere route, stating: A railway line made through such magnificent country would be in the true interest of the colony. The country is settled with the right class of people all along the proposed line. The soil is fertile and the land is in every way suitable for pastoral and other purposes.

However the Minister, William Hall-Jones, was far from receptive, responding: The honourable member in a very artful manner, with barely a quorum present, attempts to get a motion through committing the colony to expenditure of a million pounds. I doubt if one member of the house understands what the honourable member has been trying to do in this almost secretive, silent and surreptitious manner. There are more proposals for making connections to the Main Trunk than by way of Ngaire. There is a proposal to connect from Sentry Hill, and it is very questionable whether that is not as good a route as the one now advocated by the honourable member.

Finally there was sufficient support in parliament by late 1900 to authorise commencement of the line from Stratford rather than Ngaere. The political decision came with realisation that the gradient between Toko and Stratford could be overcome, and that there was more settlement east of Stratford than through Pukengahu and Huinga. These factors probably influenced the junction choice more than any impact the alleged rope incident may have had upon Seddon.

Before turning the first sod for the new line at Stratford in 1901, Hall-Jones explained to the assembly that the engineer’s report had favoured Stratford over Ngaere for the junction because the grades were easier and the distance to the first station – Toko – was a mile closer. He also said the report had pointed out that if Ngaere was chosen then produce from the east would have to be railed further to get to New Plymouth.

The Stratford – Okahukura (Main Trunk Line) (SOL)

Stratford duly celebrated when the Minister of Public Works, William Hall-Jones, turned the first sod for the eastern Taranaki line on 28th March 1901. It was a fine day for the town to party, according to a correspondent: The morning broke as all mornings fraught with such important results ought to break, clear and cloudless, and gave promise to a real summer day in which to bathe the ‘content’ of Stratfordites (after Shakespeare).

The town was decorated in every portion of the proposed route from end to end of the Borough, and everybody was ‘full and o’er flowing’ with joyful anticipations of the day. A look down Broadway was enough to satisfy everyone that at least for once Stratford was itself, was unanimous, was ‘en fete’, and meant, in every way, to do justice to the occasion.

Victoria Bridge in Broadway was bedecked with triumphal arches at each end bearing scrolls reading ‘Now is the Summer of our Content’, and ‘For this relief much thanks.’ A massive parade thronged the streets, and even the politicians took part. Walter Symes told the crowd how pleased he was to see this work he had been battling for really begun, and Felix McGuire was sufficiently charitable despite the defeat of his cause to observe in glowing terms the effect the railway must have on the future of Stratford.

It took a further ten years before Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward turned the first sod on the eastern Main Trunk junction on 22nd November 1911 at Okahukura. The point was finally shifted there to save six miles of construction, also after some debate, as it had earlier been planned further north at either Kawakawa, Ongarue or at Te Koura.

Construction camps looking like tent villages - or ‘calico towns’ as they were known - shifted eastwards from Stratford as the line progressed. Another workforce of around 80 men ran a quarry near the Patea River that supplied much ballast and later made concrete blocks for tunnels - it was serviced by a branch line from east of Skinner Road. The town of Stratford gained significantly from the major railway project, which around 1911 was said to be employing more labour than any other such work in the country.

In 1921 Primitive Methodist Minister and temperance evangelist Herman Foston’s book At the Front was published describing his earlier experiences visiting construction camps on the line. Foston described how the decision to fund the new line was greeted at Stratford (which he called Stopford, as he used pseudonyms for all place names):

Bonnets were thrown on the green. The Railway League was more than delighted, and predicted great things for the future. A land boom set in. Property owners divided and sub-divided their town sections. Houses went up in all directions. People flocked from all parts of the country. Work was plentiful. Stopford was having the time of its life.

As construction proceeded he wrote: Stopford felt the benefit of the peaceful invasion, and the shopkeepers and tradesmen reaped the benefit, especially as the large quantity of provisions needed by such a number of workmen were purchased in the locality. Unhappily, on pay-days a great deal of money was spent on liquor. Many of the navvies cheques soon disappeared in the publican’s till, while those who represent the liquor trade had overwhelming evidence abroad of the character of the goods they manufactured on the premises.

The policemen had plenty to do, and the lock-up was soon filled, until the justices or magistrate held a special sitting of the court, inflicted the usual fine, and the men were discharged, and returned to get another cheque for the next ‘shicker-up’. They usually returned to the works ‘fly-blown’.

Progress on the new line was steady to Toko (1902) and Douglas (1905) but then slowed down with the hills - a large cutting was needed for the Huiroa ridge. Further east several more steep ridges were eventually pierced by a total of 24 tunnels totalling 10.5 km in length. The line opened to Huiroa (1908), Te Wera (1910), Pohokura (1912), and Whangamomona (1914) prior to the manpower shortages resulting from the 1914-1918 World War. As each community gained a rail service, grateful outlying settlers travelled to Stratford more regularly for their goods and services. Matau settlers switched their business to Stratford from Inglewood as the Kiore road tunnel was formed with the arrival of the rail, while the Aotuhia settlement south of Whangamomona no longer required river transport to Wanganui.

Construction eventually reached Kohuratahi in 1918, and the next length to Tahora was formed by 1920, but not handed over from the Public Works Department to Railways until 1924. By then a service road was formed down to Tangarakau. Because ballast supplies were short, work stopped on this length in February 1921 and a number of men and huts were shifted to constructing the Te Roti-Opunake railway. By 1923 a shell-rock quarry recently opened up near Te Wera was able to supply ballast again, but massive damage from a severe rainstorm in 1924 caused major disruption - the Whangamomona tunnel was closed for months.

Then it appeared that completion of the link with the Ohura end and Main Trunk line had stalled. Only the four miles from Whangamomona had been finished during the war, and in 17 years less than 50 miles had been completed. In exasperation at the halt to construction, a deputation representing every local body and Chamber of Commerce in Taranaki waited upon Prime Minister William Massey and Minister of Public Works Gordon Coates in 1924, urging that the work be ‘expedited to the utmost extent’.

This followed persistent agitation and lobbying from the Stratford Railway and Progress Leagues as well as from the Whangamomona County Council and the two Stratford councils, ever since Coates had suggested in 1919 that the Tahora line be stopped. The snail-like progress was constraining Stratford’s potential, and had earlier led to the formation of a Railway League in 1919 with William Kirkwood, a Stratford businessman, as President. The league held regular meetings and lobbied with determination to secure more public funds to complete the connection with the Main Trunk line. It went out of existence two years later, but in 1923 a Stratford Progress League was formed to advocate for the town on this and other issues of importance.

Massey was reported as agreeing with the 1924 delegation that the line was one of the most important in New Zealand. As the Depression deepened again from 1925, the Reform government, now led by Gordon Coates, brought in an active public works programme in an attempt to reduce unemployment. When it was then announced that completion of the Stratford-Main Trunk line would proceed as a worthy project, Stratford and Taranaki people were jubilant. According to a press report, completion of the line was predicted to increase the value of Taranaki’s exportable commodities, and prove a great scenic attraction. In fact the development and prosperity of the whole of Taranaki are bound up with this important railway, it stated.

Men and huts returned from the completed Opunake line and hundreds of other workers shifted from around New Zealand to the makeshift mushroom railway town of Tangarakau east of Tahora. To assist completion of the last difficult 24-mile stretch through rugged bush-clad country tunnelling machinery used at Otira in the South Island was shifted up to the site.

Stratford businesses were again boosted by the purchase of supplies for the work force, and some even set up branches or salesmen in Tangarakau, including drapers Manoys and R.H.White, and the Bank of New Zealand. The isolated railway settlement peaked at a population of around 1,000 before disappearing again as buildings were gradually removed after the new line opened.

Soon after the last tunnel, known as No. 3, was broken through in July 1932, Stratford Mayor Percy Thomson led a group including engineers through the small hole and called together the tunnellers who were enlarging the opening. In the light of acetylene lamps and under the roof still ‘dripping’ huge flakes of papa, Mr Thomson made a brief speech before producing a bottle of whisky to mark the occasion properly. After consuming the whisky, the tunnelling gang embedded the empty bottle in thick concrete they laid on the ceiling.

Four special excursion trains took three thousand people out to the remote site at Heao when Prime Minister George Forbes hammered in the last spike on 7th November 1932. The ceremony took place in a festive atmosphere, with Stratford and Taumarunui Mayoresses Mrs Thomson and Mrs Boles holding a ribbon that was broken by an engine. A celebration luncheon was held at Tangarakau, followed by a lavish banquet at Stratford that evening.

Despite Hall-Jones’ initial predictions of a ten-year construction period, the 89-mile Stratford-Main Trunk line took 31 years to finish at a cost of almost 3,000,000 pounds.

Even before construction was completed, the economics of the project were being questioned. The 1930 Royal Commission on Railways stated that its operation would result in a heavy loss without any apparent increase in revenue unless by the development of a coalmine at Tangarakau. An Egmont Colleries company, supported by Stratford businessmen, had taken over a coalmine in Tangarakau Gorge in 1928 and constructed a tramway line four miles alongside Tangarakau River to join the railway at the village. However the venture failed, partly because of the high ash content of the coal, and in 1934-35 the plant was transferred to a new mine at Tatu, near Ohura.

On September 4th 1933 the first New Plymouth-Auckland express train stopped at Stratford, the occasion being reported by the Stratford Evening Post:

Stratford turned out in force last night to see the first Taranaki-Auckland express pass through, and by the time the train arrived the railway station was crowded with a jostling, curious throng. There was nothing unusual about the train, which consisted of the usual first and second class cars, a sleeping car, and guard’s van, drawn by a big Ab engine, but the public seemed to get a thrill out if it. Small boys placed pennies on the line for the train to run over, and one lady secured the autograph of the engine-driver as a memento.

Even if the viability of the line was being questioned, Stratford certainly profited from at last becoming a major rail junction with the Main Trunk link. A Daily News article on July 31st 1939 observed: to Stratford and Stratford businessmen the line has brought economic benefits as the junction of two of the principal railway lines in the North Island. The town has been given a status that it would perhaps not have achieved without this help for a great many years.

Both railway station and yards became busier as passengers and goods finally had direct access northwards to Auckland. Volumes of outward traffic on the Stratford-Okahukura line in 1937-38 clearly show the importance of rail to Central and East Taranaki during that period. The figures included 68,829 passengers, 29,931 cattle and calves, 172,632 sheep and pigs, almost 5 million super feet of timber and 31,917 tons of other goods. Stratford station alone shifted 22,519 cattle and calves in 1935-36.

Along with rail trends nationally, use of the line declined from the 1960s. Local ‘gangers’ near the many small stations were phased out and replaced by Stratford-based teams, and ‘Da’ diesel engines replaced steam in 1963 after major track and bridge upgrading. The tri-weekly night express to Auckland was replaced by a daily 88-seater railcar service in November 1956, though the timetable – it arrived at New Plymouth at midnight and left again at 2.20 a.m. - drew criticism. However the provincial morning paper Daily News found this service ideal for morning delivery to its readers in East Taranaki and the King Country. The Auckland-Taumarunui section of this service was stopped in November 1971, and from December 1973 a daytime service between New Plymouth to Taumarunui was brought in.

In 1978 the railcars were replaced by a diesel engine pulling a railcar unit, and a year later the Saturday service was cut. Then in 1982 New Zealand Railways Corporation triggered an outburst of protest by announcing that the service would cease because it had become uneconomic. New Zealand Railways District Traffic Manager Ron Harris told a public meeting organised by Federated Farmers in Whangamomona that the service was losing $316,000 annually with an average of 25 passengers daily, stating: We can operate it if the government wants us to, but NZR is now a corporation charged with making a profit.

Fifty settlers at the meeting strongly condemned the decision, stating that the train’s timetable should be reversed, allowing back-country settlers to travel to Stratford in the morning and return later that day. Stratford County Chairman Paul Cook called the process to abandon the service a ‘sham’, saying: The Corporation asked local authorities what they thought about the cancellation of the service, but in the end it seems they didn’t listen to what we had to say. I believe Railways had virtually made their minds up even before they asked for our opinion. Eastern Taranaki communities will feel the loss of the link very keenly -the service historically has provided stores and people in the area with small goods, mail, papers and bread.

Back in 1976 then Stratford County Council Chairman Len Harrison had suggested a light ‘rail-bus’ similar to overseas prototypes to replace railcars on the New Plymouth - Taumarunui service, but New Zealand Railways once again discounted the proposal. The axe fell despite the outrage, and even though the route ran through three Cabinet Ministers’ electorates. In due course tickets for all seats were sold for the last passenger train of eight carriages and a guard’s van that ran on January 21st 1983.

A subsidised daily light freight service then commenced between Stratford and Tahora in a truck known as the ‘Muncher’, operated by Cliff and Dawn Dreaver from Whangamomona. This was later taken over by Alan Gooch of Midhirst Motors, and the subsidy was withdrawn after a few years. Subsequently New Zealand Post introduced an East Taranaki rural mail delivery from Stratford, currently run by Gerald Hammersley in 2004.

Waipuku-Mt Egmont Branch Railway

In 1900 the Minister of Public Works, William Hall-Jones, was urged by Stratford and Taranaki interests to construct a railway to Mt Egmont to bring down rock for quarrying into metal for rail, road and marine use. Stratford businesses and the two local councils gave the idea strong support for the employment and benefits to the town they foresaw from the project.

Prime Minister Richard Seddon approved the venture after investigations on the suitability of the rock in 1901. Then followed surveys and bush clearance for the track, and by 1907 the line was formed six miles from Waipuku. Adjacent local farmers provided much of the labour, including many of Polish descent who had settled the area. A crusher and quarry were built at the end of York Road near the Manganui River, powered by water-driven turbines, and on-site barracks were erected for the workforce that reached around sixty men.

However the undertaking proved to be unsuccessful, for as early as 1909 the rock was proving unsuitable for quarrying, often turning to dust. Some was used on reclamation work on the seafronts at New Plymouth and Patea, as well as in swampy areas of the Stratford-Main Trunk railway line.

The Stratford Evening Post on August 22nd 1932 described the line as ‘one of Taranaki’s White Elephants’, as by then the whole system had fallen into decay, with equipment and rolling stock rusting or rotting. During the 1939-1945 World War metal was needed, so in 1941 upper sections of the track were removed and used in the North African desert for transport purposes. The remainder of the line was lifted and auctioned off in 1951, and the land eventually sold to adjoining farmers a few years later.

In recent years the Department of Conservation has opened up tracks around the quarry and crusher area on the fringe of Egmont National Park near the end of York Road, providing signs with historical information on the ill-fated Waipuku railway line. The steep incline of the line through the Egmont National Park reserve to the mountain rock face is sometimes known as the ‘Denniston of the North’.

The Opunake Line

As with the Main Trunk and inland Taranaki lines, there was also early debate on the alternative routes for a line towards the west of Taranaki and the port at Opunake. In 1906 surveys for routes were done from three choices of junction - Te Roti, Eltham and Stratford.

In 1912 a commission recommended to the Minister of Public Works that Te Roti should be the junction, but the Stratford County Council resolved to oppose the new line, stating that: because of the small area of country that would be greatly benefited, such a large sum of public money being spent by the government was not warranted. However the County also drew the attention of the Minister of Public Works to Stratford’s growing importance as a commercial and distributing centre, and the necessity for the early completion of the Stratford-Kaponga branch railway - obviously this line never proceeded.

The Te Roti-Opunake line of just over 22 miles was officially opened in October 1925, after which a number of the construction workers transferred to Tangarakau - some had worked on the eastern line earlier. By the mid-1970s use of the line had fallen off and the Opunake-Kapuni section was closed.

The remaining section provides transport for the Lactose factory products at Kapuni and LPG from the Natural Gas Company complex. In 1981 the Stratford County Council lobbied successfully to have urea from the new ‘think-big’ Petrochem ammonia-urea plant at Kapuni transported to Port Taranaki by rail rather than trucked by road. Strong concern was expressed at the potential damage to local roads from 50 large truck movements daily, and the possible disturbance to the residents of Stratford, Inglewood and New Plymouth from the rigs, particularly during night.

From the unedited manuscript of ‘Stratford, Shakespearean Town Under the Mountain’, by David Walter (2005)

dewalter@xtra.co.nz