IMPROVEMENTS IN ASHBURTON.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2590, 26 July 1882, Page 3

IMPROVEMENTS IN ASHBURTON.

Under the above heading a correspondent writes from Ashburton :—Following in the wake of the great enterprise at present manifested by many of the business men and residents generally of this rapidly advancing inland town, the Hew Zealand Government have just completed the lengthening of the present temporary railway platform by adding 50£t on to the entrance end from Christchurch, and 100 ft on to the approach from the opposite direction, besides carrying out the work of some much needed additions and improvements to the station building itself. The completion of this work has considerably added to and increased the facilities for affording comfort to the numerous passengers who are daily set down for a short time for rest and refreshment, when on their way to or from either of the groat metropolitan centres of the Middle Island o£_ this bright spec of the universe. In addition to the improvements just noted and recently executed, it is gratifying to record that the railway authorities have at last been awakened to the pleasing fact that amongst the many other useful articles of local manufacture there is suoh a thing as gas manufactured within a stone’s throw of the railway station, and that the kerosene lamps up to the present time used to illuminate the station after the setting of the sun have served their purpose sufficiently long, and that theso relics of the pilgrim days of the colony should now give plaoa to the more useful and brilliant illuminating power produced by the consumption of gas. To effect this object, pipes are now being laid all over the station premises, and with the commencement of the reign of the new station matter will dawn the era of the use of gas for lighting the Ashburton Railway Station and its several approaches. It is to be hoped that this more effective means of artificial light will aid the authorities in seeing the great necessity that exists for the entire removal of the present building and the placing in its stead a structure of a character more in keeping with the many substantial and handsome business premises now in various stages of progress in the principal thoroughfares of the town of Ashburton. Elaborate plans have long since been prepared, and a small sum of money has already been voted, for the building of a now station, and it is to bs hoped that the day is not far distant when the Government will see their way to according Ashburton the well-merited promotion it deserves by raising it from its present secondary position and placing it on the list as a station bearing the rank and title of “ first class.” The town itself is rapidly developing into a large and important commercial inland centre, and it is now time its importance began to receive a due share of recognition, and that the present unsightly railway station was made to give place to a more ornamental and useful structure. It is believed the member for the district" has the matter in hand,” and may he continually dangle the claims of Ashburton before the eyes of the Government till they actually call for tenders for the new building. It is said they intend to put their plans in execution as soon as the building of oueortwo otherlarge works nowundercontract is completed, and the hearty wish of the Ashburton residents is that their “ one or two

large works ” may be completed with the quickest possible dispatch, end that the contract for the proposed station for Ashburton may be put in hand while the Government are in the possession of sufficient funds for carrying out so important and necessary an undertaking.