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county councillor, laid the foundation stone in the following year and in August 1902 the men moved to their new home. The chairman of the Charitable Aid Board described it as the finest building of its kind in New Zealand.⁷⁶ He was probably justified, but at such a late date it hardly reflected credit on his board.

Harper suggested the new name, ‘Tuarangi’. He understood incorrectly it seems that the word meant ‘old’. All the leading men in both local councils had interested themselves in the home. Friedlander was the local representative on the Charitable Aid Board. Wright had urged the purchase of a new site as a jubilee memorial. But Harper had been most attentive to the needs of inmates. In 1897, he reported the great improvements which the new master and matron, Mr and Mrs T. M. Morrissey, were effecting, most particularly in their tactful handling of the often cantankerous old men. In 1903, Harper and his wife expressed appreciation of the work done by the Morrisseys by relieving them so that they could take a holiday.

The presence of this institution inside the borough, therefore, almost spans the period. In its new premises, north-east of the town it not only continued to attract the philanthropy of the citizens but also became a show place for visitors.

The railway story of this period opens and closes at Rakaia. In 1878 construction began on a branch line to Methven. Twenty-one years later, the first great railway tragedy in New Zealand history occurred at the Rakaia station.

The branch line was the only one made under the provisions of the District Railways Act, 1877. This Act laid down the conditions under which branch lines could be privately formed with assistance from local rating. The landowners of the Rakaia district understood—so they averred later—that all branch lines must henceforth be constructed by commercial enterprise. Very understandably, they were anxious to secure further benefit from improved transportation and early in 1878 launched the Rakaia, Mount Hutt and Alford Forest Railway Co. Ltd. The list of provisional directors included the majority of the more highly regarded of the local landowners, Hugh and James Mcllraith, Wason, Murray Aynsley, C. S. Alington, Norris Mackie, Charles Reed, Edward Chapman among others. However, the first directors of what became known