SOUTH AFRICAN TRAINS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4800, 21 January 1925, Page 2

SOUTH AFRICAN TRAINS.

LESSONS FOR NEW ZEALAND. EVERY STATION BEAUTIFIED. “New Zealand could take a lesson from the South Afric.an railways,” said an appreciative traveller to a “Dominion” representative the other day. “In accommodation, 5 n the service given to passengers, and in such little matters as the reserving of berths, they are amongst the finest in the world. Every ticket issued bears the number of a seat, and out of each window is sticking the number of the corresponding berth. The numbers are consecutive,, and seats are found easily. The first-class compartments contain room for only four passengers, the second-class six. As soon as the ticket has been purchased, clean bedding can be obtained for half-a-crown a night. This is fumigate-i in special chambers at Cape Tow’n and Johannesbti g. at the end of the journey. As two nights are spent on the train, it is a great advantage to have bedding without the trouble of bringing it. The dining car arrangements are excellent. and from my experience of trains in Australia, India, Europe, and elsewhere, the South African service is better. All the dining cai service is done by whites, including the cooking. Liquid refreshments (alcohol or otherwise) can be obtained on the train at any time from 8 a.m. till 9 p.m. At 6 a-m. a steward comes round all compartments with coffee if required, at 6d a cup. The lavatory accommodation is excellent, and if anyone likes to have his own towel and soap, it is provided for 3d. Tables under the windows in the first-class allow of meals in comfort for those who bring their own, and under the folding table is a. washhand-stand. Heavy portmanteaux, etc., are stow’ed on shelves in the corridors, and there are racks over each berth for lighter articles. The trains are lit throughout by electric light from the engine, and communication along all corridors permits of the summoning of an attendant at any time. "What struck me most was the care devoted to the beautifying of the railway stations. The whole ot the service from Cape Town to .the farthest northern station (Meccina), where at night time, after closing hours (12 p.m.), one can sit on the hotel stoep and listen to the jackals, lions, and hyenas, is remarkable for the attention bestowed on making the stations not only attractive, but beautiful. The main statoins, such .as Cape Town, De Aar. Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, and Pietoria, are too busy, and space is too valuable for gardening to the same extent as is noticeable in the sub-stations. At the latter, even to the smallest, all ground available is planted out in flowering shrubs and flowers. Often the name of the station is planted in shrubs or flowers, and the latter are so planted as not to spoil the design when some fade and are weeded out to be replaced by others. On the journey from Cape Town to Johannesburg I counted 75 stations (counting only, of course, in the day-time) thus decorated.

“This woi'k was encouraged by the manager of the service before 1914, now retired, who noted with pleasure the efforts of a few stationmasters in this d rection, and he became an enthusiast himself, influenced the Government to assist, and enlisted the active support of Mrs Louis Botha, widow of General Botha. The Government not only offered to supply stationmasters with seeds and plants, but started a competition with valuable prize-money allocated for the five best-kept and most artistically arranged station gardens .on the line. The judging takes place towards the close of the hot rainy season, when all is at its best, and the awards arouse the keenest interest.”