for Lyttelton to discharge its remaining cargo. Bombing and result In 1951, during the New Zealand waterfront dispute and strike, six sticks of gelignite were detonated on a railway bridge near Mahuta, at the Rotowaro end of the Glen Afton branch line, three miles from Huntly. While the bridge was severely damaged, the explosives had been set against the grain of the bridge's hardwood timbers in half-inch diameter holes, causing bridge piles and stringers to be dislodged and splintered, they remained intact. Had the explosives been set with the grain, the bridge might have been demolished. Although residents as far away as Huntly heard an explosion about 3 AM on Monday, 30 April 1951, and some men boarding the 7:30 AM train from Huntly to the coal fields were talking about the explosions they had heard, overnight, the train crew were not aware the bridge had been damaged before the train rounded a bend in the track and the driver saw warning sleepers laid on the track. Although he immediately applied the brakes and slowed the train, the locomotive struck the sleepers and crossed the bridge, which rocked noticeably, along with the leading three waggons, before coming to rest with the guard's van, which was in front of the passenger carriages, on the bridge. The train crew inspected the bridge and saw it had been damaged by explosives, only then realizing it was the result of the early-morning explosion. As they considered that most of the train's weight had already crossed the bridge safely, the crew decided to continue, but stopped and inspected the remaining bridges, before crossing them. Since the branch line connected the four open-cast mines and several pits in the Waikato coalfields with the Huntly township and the railway line, newspaper initially reported the railway line had been cut. While the government's position was that the attempted sabotage of the bridge was intended to disrupt coal supplies, local police suggested it was more likely an attempt to frighten and intimidate open-cast mine workers. Although police made extensive inquiries in the area, noting that high explosives were used in the mines, and elsewhere, so would not be hard to obtain, with many people keeping plugs of gelignite at home for various purposes, no arrests were reported. Trains were reported as running normally but with railway employees patrolling the line before each train. The bridge sabotage was thought to