the appointment of three Commissioners in London “for the construction of railways in Canterbury.” The Commissioners were Mr. J. E. FitzGerald, at that time Emigration Officer for the Province, Mr. James J. Cummins, of the Union Bank of Australia (the only Bank then operating in Canterbury), and Mr. H. Selfe Selfe, who possessed valuable Parliamentary experience. Mr. FitzGerald had taken to London with him a model of the range of hills between Christchurch and Lyttelton, and his local knowledge was invaluable in the promotion of the work. Associated with the Commission was Mr. W. B. Bray, C.E., a former member of the Provincial Council, whose professional experience and local knowledge were placed unreservedly at the disposal of his colleagues.
Mr. FitzGerald was, from the outset, opposed to the Tunnel, his preference being for the route via Sumner and Evans’ Pass, over which he had driven his tandem, and he urged a high level railway, with steep gradients and a comparatively short tunnel, instancing some of the railway engineering then being carried out in America as proof of the practicability of his scheme. But the choice of route was for decision by an expert, and, in due course, the three Commissioners submitted their proposals to the greatest living authority on railway engineering, Mr. Robert Stephenson. Mr. Stephenson, possibly on account of ill-health (he died the following October, and was buried at Westminster Abbey), passed them on to his cousin, Mr. George Robert Stephenson, an engineer of almost equal eminence. The London Commissioners had also to report on the finance of the undertaking, and at first favoured borrowing only £70,000 in London, there being authority in existence for a loan to this amount, and paying for the remainder of the undertaking out of the Provincial revenues, or, if need be, by a mortgage on the undertaking itself. Mr. Stephenson’s report, dated London, August 10, 1859,
