Te Kuiti Station.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 292, 7 September 1910, Page 5

Te Kuiti Station.

To the Editor. Sir,—The letter from the Hon. Mr Millar, Minister for Railways, addressed to the member for the district, as published in your issue of Saturday re required alterations at Te Kuiti railway station, must have been read with feelings of surprise and disgust by ail who are in any way acquainted with the disgraceful state of affairs which prevails at the local railway station Had Te Kuiti been one of the many small flag stations along the Main Trunk which have been provided with up-to-date yards and station buildings although doing very little business in either goods or passengers, one could understand a Minister declining to spend any further money, but on the Minister's own admission, Te Kuiti is the one station that has advanced at a greater rate of progress than any station in the North Island, and to-day the business is known to be developing far beyond any other station on the line, so much so that the present facilities for handling the enormous business have become absolutely inadequate, whilst the liability to accidents and loss of life is so glaringly apparent that it has become a by-word and a reproach, and sooner or later unless the present disgraceful arrangements are altered murder will be done, in the loss of some valuable life. For over three years the people have been agi tating for some more adequate accommodation and have been patient and long-suffering to a degree, and having accepted in good faith the definite promise made by the Minister to a recent deputation that the work would be proceeded with so soon as the men could be spared from other works on hand. This latest pronouncement on the part of the Minister has come as a rude shock upon an all-too-confiding public. It raises the unpleasant question "what reliance can henceforth be placed on the word of the Minister?" Either the definite promise made by the Minister was bluff, only intended to throw dust in the eyes of people, or it was made in good faith only to be broken at the will of the Minister. In either case the effect is the same, and no self-respecting individual will care to trouble the same gentleman for a promise a second time. Are the people of this town and district going to submit quietly to this sort of treatment without further protest? Can the member for the district do nothing? Is there no appeal on this vital and important question from an autocratic head of a department to a political Caesar? Surely the local Chamber of Commerce or the Borough Council will give a lead so that the people may have the opportunity of expressing their indignation, and their determination to resist in every possible way this continued refusal on the part of the Minister to sanction this most necessary and urgent work. —I am, etc., RESIDENT.