An Alarming Statement.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 31, 6 August 1894, Page 2

An Alarming Statement.

The Lyttelton Times states that a correspondent, a gentleman of high commercial standing, baa supplied it with a series of alarming statements | concerning the condition of the south- | crn railways. Many of the bridges ure alleged to be dangerous, the timbers being quite rotten. There is one I bridge, it is stated, from which the piles simply hang. The ends from which they hare been severed are still firmly embedded, and as the trains pass over their weight presses the suspended piles downward so that the two parts meet. Bridges in other parts are said to have been iv a dan* | gerout condition for some time, temporary patching has been going on, some of it with rery old timber, which looks as if at some stag* of its existence it had done duty in bridge work, and been removed on account of long service and failing health. Reference it made to the Hakateramea branch line, where the sleepers are said to be rotten, and the bridges all require at tention. Instead of the usual staff of five men for every seven miles, there are on this branch only three men for nine miles. During the summer the train ploughs through thistles and weeds up to the floor of the carriages.