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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2690, 9 February 1916, Page 5

A Email deputation, Tejnesenting.'the Manawatu County Council, consisting of Sir James Wilson (chairman), Mr. W. H. Field, M.P;, and Mr. A. K. Brew (clork), interviewed, the Ministef of Railways (the Hon. W. H. Herries) yesterday, concerning the access of certain property-holders to property along the Rangiotu-Foxton . road, where the railway follows the road. At the time the Department took the road for the railway, it also took a strip of land along the road-line, for tlio purpose of widening the road, so ' that it would be outside the railway. It is in conlioetion with this strip that the ! access dispute is concerned, as until there is a settlement of the matter titles to the propery are afferted. The Minister promised to go fully into the matter. Complaint has been made that railway excursion tickets for the recent, parade of troops at Auckland were only available for stations north of Taumarunui. When questioned on this point, • the Minister of Railways _(th& Hon. W. H. Herries) said that this was in accordance with the usual custom—excursion, privileges for any particular provincial demonstration were granted only in'that province, as for instance in the case of anniversary day celebrations. Sunday was the anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi. The question. of holding a. monster carnival at Easter at Petone in aid of the Wounded Soldiers' Fund, is to be considered at a public meeting to be held in the Mayor's Room at Petone 1 to-morrow evening. The question. of avoiding the use of service roads whore possible in railway construction cropped up during an interview on Saturday between the representatives of. the Auckland Railways League and the Minister of Publio Works. The Minister remarked that he had lately been asked not only to maintain the service roads that were used fthen forming the North Island Main Trunk line through the centre of the island, but also to convert them into motor roads, which' would compete with the Government's own railway! _An outstanding feature" of the reply given by the Minister of Public Works to a northern railway deputation was his condemnation of the route adopted by past Governments for the section of the North Auckland Main Trunk line m the vicinity of Maungaturoto (says the "Herald"). In the first tunnel beyond that settlement, said Mr. Fraser, the ordinary piles put .in to support the rotten country that was being penetrated were veritable young trees. Yet, with the swelling of . the soil from the rains of last week, some of even these had burst, and a considerable amount of ground had fallen in. However, ha had given ingtruotions that the .tunnels were to bo pushed on, and picked n. en, who had had experience as miners, were being employed to cope with the difficulties of the job. Necessarily, he pointed out, progress was slow, because only a limited number of men could be employed in a tunnel face. "Nerve-Shattered" writes"One of 1 these fine mornings no pity mails will be delivered at the Chief Post Office, and search parties will be dispatched in search of the body of the missing mailman. The tragedy will be attributed to the righteous lindignation of some citizen driven to distraction through being awakened out of his sleep with a violent shock occasioned by the terrific noise made by the rowdiest motorvan in the zone. There was a time when reasonable citizens were forced by desperation into demanding rubber tires for the old horse-drawn vehicle, formerly used to gather the midnight mails, bait the clatter made by that vehicle was as tlio silence of the tomb compared with the motoT-van, which nightly rouses hundreds of citizons from their early dreams. I -would respectfully recommend tho Postal Department to procure a 'Silent Knight* for the witching hours."