ABOUT A TRAIN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 15, 13 October 1919, Page 4

ABOUT A TRAIN

A QUARREL IN PARLIAMENT When the Railway estimates were being considered in the House of Representatives early on )?alurt|u.y morning, Mr. G. J. Anderson (Mataura) asked again for the restoration of through express trains between Lyttelton and Invercargill. Ho urged tlmt the Railway Department was not saving coal by requiring southern people to take two days over a journey that could be completed in little more than twelve hours. Mr. Massey replied that a new timetable was going to come into operation in December, and it would make provision {'or 'through trains on the South Island trunk line. Sir Joseph Ward (Awarua) said he was very glad to get that information. But was it necessary for thb people to wait until December before they obtained a service that they should never have laekedr The breaking of the journey at Dimedin had not saved coal. The'shortage of coal had had nothing whatever to do with the stoppage of the through trains. ilv. Anderson: What was the cause? Mr. T. M. Wilford (Hntt): There would not Have to be a reason, Sir Joseph Ward: To .say that the shortage of coal was the reason for tho trains not running through from Lyttelton to Invercargill is to make a statement contrary to fact. The through train was stopped because a Minister of the Crown wanted a mail carried tc his electorate. The train that would have run from Christchurch to Invercargill in the ordinary way was stopped for a night, at Duriedin because if it went on to Invercargill it did not suit a brunch line. Jt was stopped deliberately to go the next morning in daylight in order to enable mails to go with it and get to Lake Wakatipu that day. . . . Tho through train was stopped originally because it did not suit tho constituency of a Minister of the Grown to have the train run right through. The people of tho whole of the south have been put to enormous inconvenience for that reason. .... The thing is absolutely indefensible.' The Hon. W. Nosworthy, speaking a little later, said that the statement made by the member for Awarua was very unfair. Mr. Wilford: la it incorrect? Mr. Nosworthy replied that the Union Company and the I'. and 0. Company had something to say oil the matter. ' fir. Wilford: Is it incorrect? Mr. Nosworthy: I.know it is incorrect. Mr. Wilford: How do you know? Mr. Nosworthy: I know it is incorrect. Will the honourable member accept my statement? Mr. Wilford: But you are not accepting his. statement. Mr. Nosworthy: No, because I know it is not correct. The reason is that, the service conducted by the Union Company is so unsatisfactory through want of coal and want of firemen. That is the secret of tho whole thing. There js no use making such statements as tiio honourable moniber has just made. Sir. Joseph Ward was out of the chamber when Mr. Nosworthy spoke, lie returned within a few • minutes anil referred again to the matter. He said he stood by {.Tie statement he had made. Tho Union Company had nothing to do with the matter. Mr. Nosworthy: I say they had. Sir Joseph. Ward: Tou don't know anything about it. Mr. Nosworthy: I say ldo. ' Sir Joseph "Ward (loudly): I say you don't. ' Tho- chairman called for order. Sir Joseph Ward said the ferry services had nothing to do with the through train at all. The train was used chiefly by southern people who were not coming to the North Island. The people of Otago, Southland, and Canterbury bad been put to a vast amount of inconvenience. Mr. Nosworthy insisted that tho through train had beon stopped because of the break in the ferry service. "Ho was not going to sit silent in the face of the reflection that had bean oast on a Minister.

Sir Joseph Ward: You don't know what you are talking about. • Mr. Nosworthy: Yea, I do. _ Sir Joseph Ward: You think you do, but you, don't Sir William Fraser, who did not get an opportunity to reply in tho Houso, told a reporter later that ho had nothing whatever to do with the alteration of the trains. Tho facts were that the througn express had stopped only at certain stations, tho intermediate Stations being served, before the cut, by other trains. When the reduction took place, the Railway Department realised that tho express trains must stop at more stations, and the best arrangement in tho genornl interest was to cut out the through express, especially as passengers and mails from the North Bland so frequently niissrd the connection at Lyttolton owing to the unsatisfactory ferry service. The proposal came before the National Cabinet, of which Sir Joseph Ward was a member, and was agreed to. Later tliero urosc an agitation for the roinHtatement of the through express, even if inconvenience was indicted on intermediate districts. Settler.; in the Waimc.'i, Oueeiistown and Arrow town districts strongly resented this proposal, and Sir William Fraser, as their member, voiced their claims, as he considered he had a perfect right to do.