CATHEDRAL SQUARE STATION.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 584, 3 May 1876, Page 3

CATHEDRAL SQUARE STATION.

To the Editor of the Globe.

SiK, —In the discussions that have ensued Upon the Railway from Addington, many persons have stated that land would have to be bought, and that I should have stated so in my estimate. The fact is that not an inch of soil in the whole seventy chains needs to be purchased. The Government possess a piece of land connecting the Railway at the back of the Addington platform with the corner of the South Belt; this lane inclines at an oblique angle to the Belt; the main question is to obtain a right to cover in the Park drain, and to put the rails upon it. •That side of the road could never be a path, dor it would be always wet, as it is under 4he shade of the thorn fence; then the river reserves complete all the rest of the distance. Just opposite Dr Coward’s surgery the river makes in both banks a very convenient bend, which quite does away with the necessity for an oblique or skew bridge; a plain girder is all that is necessary. The line then traverses those dreary, stinking mud flats, where our city dirt carts have for years discharged their refuse. Past Councillor Turner’s new store; and though some say that the Terminus should be at that point, yet in justice to the residents on the Papanui road, and the city generally, it should reach the present Council Yard, between the Clarendon and the Club, where eventually a large iron and glass passenger and parcel station, within a pistol shot of Cathedral square, could do the travellers from the South 4ihe justice of really bringing them into the city. The whole of the Malvern ;Southbridge land STrunk Line travellers are greatly interested in this question. The Jong wearisome journey from iimaru can be shortened to their comfort, and the difference of fare from Addington to Madras street should cover the sixpence. Hundreds of people signed a petition to the (Superintendent respecting this route, but the said petition being informally drawn could not be presented. I obtained five hundred signa tures in three weeks in the city and suburbs, and that without sending it for signature (as I had intended) down the South Trunk Line and branches as far as Timaru. I believe I speak within reason when I say that the whole of the province on the South lane wish to see this or its equivalent carried out. Some of the most influential people backed up the matter, but the refusal of the School Committee for a public meeting, and the fact of there being no Town Hall, put the matter back, then the furious excitement of the elections intervened, and now that the public are somewhat calmed perhaps they will take up a matter that is really of more

importance to Railway Travellers and to the city than even Abolition. The city is quietly trotting away to the hills ; ruled by the traffic, trade flies the Victoria Bridge and its environs. Soon you will see asphalte pavements, glass verandahs, gaslit shops down by the Agricultural Show Grounds, and the poor Councillors talking of their fading Rate Roll. Those who knew the Papanui and Lincoln roads in the days of the coaches, must confess that ‘ ‘ Fading away ” is an appropriate ditty for those parts, but the Central Terminus would alter all that. Then there is the Timaruite, after seven hours of a weary jolt in the Narrow Guage, which perhaps makes him feel rather narrow in his internal affairs, and perhaps makes him take a narrow view of Government Railways, he is dropped in a pelting southwester outside the belt. Hi! Sir ! Cab ! Sir ! Ho ! Sir ! Bus ! Sir ! No, perhaps he is poor, and has forgotten his umbrella, so he tries to stretch his numbed legs, plodding away through the rain, and the wind, and in about twenty minutes, he stands in the Bank cashing that little cheque, then does what business he has come to do. And after work, at the end of a soaking walk finds himself in the train dripping, can sit down and catch rheumatics, lumbago, tic-doloreux, cramps and spasms. Oh ! what a lively city this is ! Turn the picture. The train slips into the Cathedral Square Station, he can do that little cheque round the corner, if he wishes for a warm, there is the Clarendon, or if a member, the Club. Before him the grand civic offices in which our August Council improve the city, the Magistrate’s Court, with the rain drip, drip, drip on the floor before his Worship’s nose, with the tumble-down mantel piece in the clerk’s office, and that wee wee passage with a dozen doors to bungle and obstruct the public business, all these and the other beauties of the city he can see and admire without the trouble of walking through the rain, or getting a wetting. Surely if the City Council should attend to anything, it should attend to this. Yours, &c, J. W. TREADWELL.