Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

By the end of 1880 – or within 10 years of the adoption of Vogel's public works policy – nearly 1,200 miles of Government-owned railway had been constructed and brought into use