MUTT TRAINS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 4 December 1912, Page 8

MUTT TRAINS.

A PETONE DEPUTATION

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. WHAT THE ANGEL GABRIEL COULD NOT DO. Improvements in the train services to Petone" were asked for by a deputation from the Petono and the Lower. Hutt Borough Councils, which waited upon the Minister tor Railways (tho Hon. W. • H. Herries) yesterday. The deputation was introduced by Mr. T. M. Wiilord, M.P. Tho deputation urged that the trains by , which residents or the Hutt travel to attend theatres, and also to catch the south-bound ferry steamers, should start from Petone at 7.9 p.m.,, instead of. 7.11) p.m. as at present. This would give Hutt residents a better opportunity to get their seats in tho theatre before the performances commenced, and also it wouJ.d allow a little mora time ill which to catch the south boat in comfort. A bettor alternative, it was suggested, would be to allow passengers to travel from Petone by the Wairarapa express. . It would also bo a convenience if' the i.15 p.m. train from Wellington to Wairarapa were to stop at Petone. The deputation asked that the Sunday morning train from Petone to town should run so as to enable peoplo. to catch the train for Otaki, that the late train from Wellington to Petone should run an hour later, and that there should be later trains from Petono to Wellington than those at present provided. Complaint was made that passengers from Petone to Feilding could not check luggage to the destination at Petoiie, but had to take it to Lambton, then to Thorndon, and check from there to Feilding.Mr. J. Vt. M'Ewcn, Mayor of Petone, suggested that the laud acquired at Petono for workers' homes should be utilised for that purpose as soon as possible. Mr. ,E. P. Bunny, Mayor of Hutt, said that if the Wairarapa wain took up passengers at Petone the same request would be made on behalf of Hutt. Mr. Herries, in reply, said that if the Archangel Gabriel came down from Heaven he ootild not please the people of the Hutt. without annoying the peoplo of Wairarapa. He would place the views of the deputation before the responsible officers of tho Department, and have inquiries made as to what could ba done. He -was inclined, however, to. give somo preference to long-distance passengers. A motor train had been imported foi the line, but it had not been a great success. Other motor trains of different pattern had been ordered, but they would not be iu New Zealand until the middle of next year. On the question of workers' homes he referral tho deputation to the Prime Minister.