By the census of 1911 Auckland and its suburbs had 102,600 people; it was the largest urban centre in New Zealand and the country's largest industrial centre, The second town of the provincial district was Gisborne (8,196) centre for a sheepfarming hinterland, while Waihi, a gold-mining town, was third with 6,436 people. Hamilton was, as yet, no bigger than Thames (3,500). The completion of the main trunk railway in 1908 gave Auckland its first effective land links with the rest of the North Island but completion of the provincial railway network was long delayed. Rotorua had been reached in 1894.and Thames in 1898, but the scattered sections of the Northland system were not linked until 1925, and the Bay of Plenty line reached Taneatua in 1928.