NEW ZEALAND'S CONCUSSIONAL RAILWaY SYSTEM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1795, 21 March 1888, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S CONCUSSIONAL RAILWaY SYSTEM.

Cur Matakoho correspondent ("says tho *'NZ. Herald") thus writes respecting ilia torture the New Zealand -Railway Department duily inflicts : —

Mo one travelling by the Auckland railway d can fail to notice tho fearful jerks and bumps which break the monotony of ti.e journey, r.ivl sometimes com© ne-r breaking the limbs of tlio passengers. These ccncussionß are caused Uy tbo bar- j barous ruelhod adopted of coupling the' carriages — a method ro counlry, A think, but oa^y going Jngw Zealand would tolerate. Everywhere elso m the civilised world the couplings of railway carriages are screwed up tight, so that the buffers sro not only m constant contact, bat tbe springß they actuate ure always more or k as m compression, thua rend< ring a rude shock impossible- In the Auckland carriages fully four inches separate the buffers, the result being that the starting of a traiu creates a most tremendous j. rk m every carriage, and shutting-off steam, or putting the brake on the engine, causes a concussion at times sufficiently violent to dislodge passengers from their seats. While the human victims of our railway mismanagement, who have hands to hold on with and seats to sit upon, thus suffer, who can gnage the agonies ot fear and pain endured by cattle while undergoing a journe> on a New Zealand; railway. The poor creatures are packed m a sort of 10038 box truck, and every jerk throws thorn from end to end, and tumbles them over m heaps, maiming some, and bruising all. Mr B. Ooate3, of Matakohe, the well-known cheep breeder, has lately suffered a eerloua loea, caused, it is believed, by the defective rolling atock employed on the railways m the transport of cuttle A few weeks | back he purchased two pure Canterburybred rams from a gentleman at Hamilton, who two years ago had paid 25 guineas a piece for them, The rsraa were duly forwarded, and arrived here In a deplorable condition, cne with three ribs and shoulder-blade broken, and the other with a badly fractured thigh. Thu report got about that tbe rams were suffering from scab, aud on its reaching Mr Goatee' ears he immediately sent for Mr A. Elliott, tho inspector m charge of the district, who came up to luapect ihe Buffering animals. One he fouud dead on his arrival, and the other so badly Injured that he considers its recovery doubtful . He, however, did not discover the slightest trace of ecab or any disease, and was fully of opinion that the animals were injured during transit In the railway trucks. So muoh, Mr Elliott informed me, do the Waikato farmers dread the railway journey foe their sheep and cattle, that the bulk of them are cow driven to Auckland, the batchers stating that those cent by train arrive la each b damaged condition as to render a considerable portion of the meat unsaleable.