LYTTELTON TUNNEL: THE SMOKE NUISANCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 818, 16 May 1910, Page 6

LYTTELTON TUNNEL: THE SMOKE NUISANCE.

\ Sir, —I havo travelled through tha Lyttelton tunnel hundreds of times, generally with very little inconvenience from the smoke, although most of the windows miglit bo open. Occasionally, however, the smoko was very unpleasant, f and on these occasions shutting the windows did not effectually keep it out. I have also, on several occasions, watched a steamer going down the East Coast of Marlborough, and noted the regularity with which, every 15 minutes, great volumes of smoko would belch out of tho funnel for two or three minutes, while for the other twelve or thirteen minutes hardly any smoke would be visible. Now, it has occurred to me; that the smoke nuisance in the Lyttelton tunnel might' be almost wholly prevented by a little care and forethought on the part of the stokers or firemen. Tho firemen might be instructed to stoke up, as a rule, aa' soon as tho engine emerges _ from the tunnel, and never to do 60 just before the engine enters the tunnel. "Prevention is better than cure," and tie in. genious individual who devised the complicated time-table for the Hutt suburban trains ought certainly to be able to devise a time-table for the stokers. If necessary a special kind of fuel might ba used; but in any case I feel sure that some better method could bo devised than the tom-fool one of filling the tunnel with thick smoke and then blowing it out again l with an expensive apparatus costing £1000 to instal and £900 per annum to keep it going, as proposed by the Minister for railways (see Dominion, May; 4, page 5).—1 am, etc., COMMON SENSE..