Napier-Gisborne Railway

Abstract

The lot of the pioneers on the East Coast of the North Island was the familiar one of a struggle to burn a home out a wilderness of bush and scrub, and to obtain satisfactory communications with the rest of New Zealand, and later with the world, for the export of their farm products. Following the pattern of New Zealand settlements the earliest arrivals established themselves on the coast. Missionaries found their way to the East Coast in 1834 and were followed in 1845 by Captain Read who opened the first store for trading with the Maoris. Slowly the number of Europeans increased until they formed a considerable community at Ormond, some miles inland from Turanganui, as the early settlement on the site of Gisborne called. However, because its position on the coast gave it an advantage over Ormond, Gisborne very soon far outstripped the latter to become the definite center for the whole of the East Coast north of the Whareratas and east of the Raukumara Range. The sole method of communication for the area at first was, of course, by sea. However, in 1874, three years before Gisborne became a borough, J. Rochefort surveyed a possible road route between Napier and Gisborne. Sir Julius Vogel was in office at the time and such a survey was in line with his policy of opening up and developing the country as much as possible by roads and railways. Rochefort reported that a satisfactory road could be made along the route surveyed by him. However, as if showing the shape of things to come, the Government did nothing, and for the next half century the East Coast had to rely upon the sea as the means of communication along its length. Little or no interest was shown in Gisborne to this attempt to improve the communications. In addition to the road, Rochefort reported that in all possibility a railway also could be built between Napier and Gisborne.