THE NEW RAILWAY PASSENGER STATION.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 344, 20 July 1875, Page 4

THE NEW RAILWAY PASSENGER STATION.

Messrs S. P. Andrews, M.P.0., and W. Pratt waited on the Government yesterday as a deputation to present a petition praying that the new railway passenger station might be erected at the foot of Colombo street, as being a more central position than the present site, or that its erection might be delayed until a better site had been determined UP The deputation was received in the Superintendent’s room by his Honor the Superintendent, the Provincial Secretary, the Secretary for Public Works, and the Minister for Education. ~, . , Mr Pratt said that he and Mr Andrews hoped to have been accompanied by the Mayors of Lyttelton and Kaiapoi, and Messrs H. J. Tancred, Chas, Clark, Geo, Hart, and E' B. Bishop, who had arranged to be present that morning. He had received a letter of apology from the Mayor of Kaiapoi, who expressed his cordial approval of the object of the petition, and he (Mr Pratt) thought that the civil session sitting that morning no doubt prevented the attendance of many others. The petition he held in his hand contained 2836 signatures, and the returns had not yet come in from Akaroa, Pigeon Bay, Southbridge, and several other local districts. Mr Pratt then read the petition, and said that he had discussed the matter with many of the other members of the deputation, and would express their desire that though they did not think Colombo street the best site, they still considered it would be more suitable for a passenger station than the present one, and would like the question of its erection at least delayed until a more suitable site than the present one could be procured. The petition was not expressive of the Christchurch people alone, as it contained a large number of signatures of residents in the up-country districts. His Honor said that he was not yet aware that the Government had determined on a site, nor had the question been formally considered by them. That was the second petition the Government had received, and in matters of this kind the number of signatures to a petition was not a safe index of the course it would be right to adopt. However, from the signatures, it was seen that the subject was one the public took great interest in, and the petition would receive earnest consideration. The question was one that deserved very great consideration, and should be determined upon with a degree of finality. The action of the Government affecting largely the interests of the people of Christchurch and country, should not be a field for speculation; and, moreover, the matter of economical railway management must seem a very great loss to to the public while uncertainty prevailed. Daring the last few years changes have been made with works which had caused much expense, without any very beneficial results being attained. The question was one affecting both passenger and goods traffic alike, and any determination of this question ought to be to connect and adopt a general system with regard to working the railway. In all public institutions, a system of economy should be adopted, by means of a general plan the general design of which should be maintained. In their gaols, hospitals, and other institutions, this should have been done, and worked up to as required; and it was, he thought, a pity that this had not been followed with regard to the railway station. The Government had, however, determined to adopt this course, and the question of the permanent site of the passenger station should have their oest consideration. The petition, as he had before said, was not a question of numbers, it would be considered in view of general benefit, but one thing he felt certain of was, that the public of Christchurch would not tolerate long the Northern traffic coming three miles round the city instead of direct into it. The subject, he would repeat, would have the earnest consideration of the Government, and the deputation might depend On it that the question would be considered irrespective of any interest of speculators. Mr Pratt was glad to hear what had fallen from the Superintendent, but he did not think the present station would afford the facilities desired by his Honor. It had been rumored that the Government were going to spend the vote for a passenger station on the present site, and this had alarmed the majority of the inhabitants. As he had said before the petitioners did not desire to bind the Government to the Colombo street site, but wished the matter deferred until a better site might be procured. The Secretary for Public Works asked whether any difference in the advantages between Colombo street and the present site had been calculated. Mr Pratt said that as Colombo street was in a direct line to the centre of the city, the inhabitants would derive greater convenience, besides the expense to passengers riding in busses would be considerably lessened. The Provincial Secretary asked if the convenience of the approaches to Colombo street had been compared with those of the present station 7 Mr Pratt said the advantages of approach from other streets would be equally the same, and communication by all the direct streets was also equally available. His Honor said the whole question of laying out the line, including stations, was one on which it was necessary professional advice should be obtained. Mr Pratt said the public would be satisfied to leave the matter as suggested by his Honor. The Secretary for Public Works and Provincial Secretary did not think an engineer should know better than themselves where it would be of most advantage to erect the station. The Secretary for Public Works said the Government had intended to determine a site, but hearing that two petitions were coming in, had deferred doing so until they were presented. Mr Pratt said that the present station had merely been erected at the time as a convenience, and as being on the nearest road to the city in those days. Since then interests had grown up, and though the city had now wended westward, it would be found hard to break through those interests, though doing so would be to the benefit of the public. The Provincial Secretary said it was the duty and intention of the Government to study the general interest alone. His Honor said that economical railway management and the public convenience were very much bound up together. By studying the one the other was benefited. There were many considerations in connection with this subject of which laymen were not qualified to advise, and the Government should, in his opinion, have the beat profesliooal advice obtainable.

Mr Pratt said the public had not the advantages he thought they should have from the proximity of the railway to the city, as many passengers got out at Addington and Papanui rather than go on to the terminus, and in this there was something radically wrong. The Provincial Secretary and Secretary for Public Works said there seemed to exist a very great misapprehension in this matter, as applications had been made to the Government to give increased facilities to passengers getting out at these stations. Mr Pratt thought the station should have been erected on the drill shed site. The Provincial Secretary agreed with Mr Pratt, and felt it was a pity that this was not done at the first. Mr Andrews said this was a very vexed question, on which each one held his own views. One great point the public would like to know was whether the Government intended to erect a permanent or temporary railway station. The country people considered it would be far more convenient for them to get out at Colombo street than to have to walk a round to reach the city. He felt, however, that if the Colombo street site were determined upon for a permanent station, it could only be patched up, as that street would eventually have to be widened, the same as Princes street in Dunedin. If they must have a temporary station, Colombo street would be the most central. They need not then interfere with the engineer’s offices, but would have to do, as was done in other places, separate the goods from the passenger traffic. He did not think that eventually the public would be satisfied with anything but a central passenger station. He regretted that this matter had not been left in the bands of the Government; and though both petitions represented many of the inhabitants, he did not think the one presented that day would have been got up if the other had not been first moved in. A member of the Government said this petition had been moved in before the one presented last week, Mr Andrews said if this were the case he had been misinformed. After an assurance from his Honor that the petition should be thoroughly considered by the Government, the deputation retired, The deputation, composed of Messrs Wm. Wilson, T. D. Jones, Henry Sawtell, Wm. Strange, Fredk, Jenkins, J. Grierson, W. Schmidt, A. J. White, J. Hale, and Wm. Langdown, waited on his Honor and Executive on Monday, 12th instant, and presented petitions signed by 1950 persons, praying that the new Christchurch railway passenger station be retained in the immediate vicinity of the present site. Mr Wilson, on presenting the petition, among other remarks of an extended nature said, that had the deputation felt it desirable to prolong the period for obtaining signatures, instead of having so many hundred names, thousands might have been obtained. Mr Sawtell spoke at length, pointing out the great advantages the route from the present station possessed over that of Colombo street. Mr T. D. Jones drew the attention of the Government to the extended accommodation of the present route from the cab-stand at Cobb and Go’s to opposite the Scotch Stores, the only available places he might mention in the city, in the direction of the railway station, for cab-stands, which the public—if the present passenger station were removed—would lose the benefit of, as no such open spaces existed on the Colombo street route. As the travelling public received very great facilities from the use of cabs to catch trains at the last moment, he thought this though, apparently a small matter, had more in it of greater importance to the public that whether the station should beat the foot of Madras or Colombo streets. He considered this part of the question a contest between interested parties, for who on either route could say with truth that the distance of one site from the centre of the city gave more advantages than the other. He spoke as an interested party, of interested parties, that he objected to being despoiled of his interests merely to help the private interests of other parties on another route, that route not possessing any advantages whatever to the public over the present one. Therefore, on public grounds, the last paragraph of the petition, viz:—‘‘That, whereas, it is at all times ‘highly objectionable and dangerous to have a line of railway crossing a thoroughfare on the same level, this evil would be immensely augmented in the case of the Colombo street crossing, if the passenger traffic were collected in its immediate vicinity, and at any sacrifice the assembly of a large passenger traffic at such a point should be carefully avoided,” In conclusion, he would finally express his public objection to the removal of the passenger station for the reasons he had already stated, His Honor and members of the Executive present—viz, the Provincial Secretary, Secretary for Public Works, and Minister for Education, listened with attention to what had been advanced by the deputation, and promised that the question would be carefully considered at a special meeting of the Executive. The deputation then withdrew.