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Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1924, Page 2

Ai’ltot’os of railway reform, this district stands in need of urgent attention. All through the Exhibition period, the hundreds of visitors Hocking •o the. district have been complaining about the indifferent service provided. Ir is really too had. It would appear as though the Department wore penalising the district, so outstanding is the allront put upon Hokitika in part initial under the railway management. Every little concession, gnidgingly given by the authorities, has had to he hogged for cap in hand as it were, and yet all the concessions were to the benefit of the Depart men I, in the improved running of the tiuins. The district is icing complimented on ail lides on the remarkable degree of enterprise it showed in organising; the Kxli il it ion. The event has been responsible fur bringing a large influx of visi-

tor.- and much trade, yet every concession made by the railways has had to be begged for. The natural business spirit one would expect the Department to show in an endeavour to eater for trade is absent. And this absence of enterprise is not only nil injury to the district, it i.s a national loss also, reducing the aggregate return from the railways.

Till’ injustice heaped upon this community by the Railways Department is well example'll by the train service between Hokitika and Greymouth. This is painfully slow, and the subject of ridicule by every through traveller. It i:- a thousand pities that the Minister of Railways, instead of rushing through the country in specials, does not do iho Lips by the ordinary trains. He would then got a clearer insight of things as they are. The .slow train connecting with the Christchurch express has become, during tho period of the Exhibition. an insult to the people. The traffic has been ample enough to justify express speed. Instead, the train is not only slow; it. is invariably late: while accommodation Is often at n premium. It would appear as though the railway service were out to depress Lie feelings of tho people and so prevent them travelling by rail to Hokitika. Tf, as we have surmised. Mr Coates is out to bring about infernal reform in the railways, there is a fine field for fmmciliate notion, in Lie Hokitika-Greymouth service.

Another grievance the townspeople here have against the Railway Department is the easy going methods adopted in the alteration scheme to cope with the extra traffic, as a result of the opening of the tunnel. Tho various works about the station yards are proceeding painfully slow. Tho gangs arc here one day and gone the next. Tho overhead bridge has been restarted occasionally hut is still in abeyance, while as often as a train is due to depart, peedstrian traffic is blocked—often very inconsiderately many minutes ahead of necessities. Hie hack shunt up tho quay is hastening no more quickly, with the consqeuence that roads are being covered unduly by stacks of timber, and exporters have so much more cost to hear in loading. Street crossings where fresh rails were put down aio left very humpy, and the pathway for pedestrians is allowed to remain a quagmire in wet weather. The Department is so generally inconsiderate to t’> • townspeople that we must in selfdefence detail this catalogue of local grievances to indicate how tho people a-e being treated in return for the assistance they promptly gave at the outset to this “improvement” scheme.