THE WAIRARAPA TRAINS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1040, 1 February 1911, Page 4

THE WAIRARAPA TRAINS.

The reply of the Hon. J. A. Millar to the Wairarapa deputation which asked for improvements inthe present inadequata and inconvenient train service through that district was far from satisfactory. It can bo hardly necessary for us to repeat that we do not wish the Department to run the Wairarapa section, or any other section of the railways, at a loss, but we do not think the Minister has fully allowed for the increase of traffic that would result if the Wairarapa people obtained such a service as they are asking for. Ho does not realise how many business and other journeys whicli might !>o made ard not'made for want of suitable trains. .Residents of the Bush district who have business to do in Masterton, and Wairarapa settlers who wish to spend a few hours in Wellington arc very poorly served by the present .time-table. Ths Minister's summary rejection of the proposal that the 4.45 a.m. train from Wellington to Wbodvillc should ha reinstated was tha most definite and most unsatisfactory reply that ho made to any of the specific requests of the deputation. Wairarapa settlers quite reasonably regard this particular proposal as one of the most important. They know that, if the train were running, they could order goods in Wellington by telegraph this afternoon and have them on their farms to-morrow afternoon, whereas by the present 10 a.m. train the goods reach 'Masterton Station so lato that in nearly all cases they have to remain there until the next day.. The figures given by Mn. Millar will- interest others besides the Wairarapa people. He has on previous occasions been led by his unprogressive, desk-bound officers to take the position that ho cannot give

the finances of separate sections of the railways. We have as often urged that such figures should bo ascertained and published. .Now-wo have the Minister actually professing to do so in regard to the Wel-lington-Woodvillo line, which, he states, is earning £IGO,COO a year. This is interesting, but the public everywhere, and especially in . tha Wairarapa, v,'ill place, not the slightest trust in any calculations which emanate from the office which devised Iho too-memorable time-table of last year. We advise the Wairarapa to\ continue to agitate. By doing so they will force Mr. Millar to inform his hidebound and incompetent Head Office to tell him the real facts about the railways.