The Manawatu Hearald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1880. RAILWAY TIMETABLE. INCONVENIENCES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 17, 29 October 1880, Page 2

The Manawatu Hearald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1880. RAILWAY TIMETABLE. INCONVENIENCES.

■ . » The people of Foxton received another slap in the face from the hands of the Manager of the railway yesterday, wbo evidently considers that anything is good enongh for this district. Yesterday was the day for the Wanganui Cattle Show, which is now one of the chief institutions on the "West Coast, and veiy great interest is annually felt in it by the farmers of this district. Yet what did MrEotheram do to accommodate those who wished to go ? He not only did nothing to furnish them with extra conveniences, but actually took off. the line altogether the only train by which they could have gone to the Show. The seven o'clock train from Foxton went only as far as Halcombe, and consequently the railway communication between Foxton and Wauganui for both yesterday and today (for the same timetable is iv force to-day) has beeu confined to the afternoon mail train, reaching Wanganui at 10 o'clock at night. The notice given of this alteration has been of the most meagre desci'iption. Air Eotheram inserted au advertisement in one issue of the Manawatu Herald (last Friday), stating that a train would " leave Foxton for Halcombe at 7 a.m.: leave Foxton for Wanganui at 4.25 p.m.," which was the only notice givan to the people of this d strict, who were supposed to read the advertisement, keep it in mind, and act upon it. When the advertisement was received, we glanced over it, and understood that no alteration whatever was intended in the timetable. The Foxton train a'ways stops at Halcombe.aud though the Wanganui train was referred to irmnediately after, we never supposed for a moment that a distinction was drawn, oue beiug a through train and the other to stop at Halcombe, especially as we saw both trains 1 started at the usual time. We there fore thought Mr Rotberam had simply inserted the advertisement as a matter of form, and that the chief alteration was in the employment of an additional traiu from Palmerston, leaving there at 6.25. Other people have evidently taken the same view, as a considerable number of residents of this district have been misled in a similar manner, and have lost the chance of witnessing the Show. If Mr Eotheram had had the faintest desire to consult the convenience iofithe settlers who live between Fox\or and Palmerston, he could have arranged for the morning train to have left Foxton at 6 o'clock, reaching Wanganui shortly after noon. This would have allowed visitors to the Show five and a half hours in Wanganui, and the settlers at this end of the line would not, we are sure, have complained of tha little inconvenience of starting an hour earlier than usual. By this means Mr Eotheram wonld have prevented the necessity of the second train running to Halcombe from Palmerston, and in addition to this eoonomy (an important matter in these times) the public throughout the whole district would have been served, without inconvenience to any part. If, on the other hand, Mr Eothera m had made up his mind that it was desirable to effectually remove the oniy chance the .people who live between Foxton and Palmerston had of visiting the Cattle Show, he might certainly have apprised the public of his intentions, by a slight addition to the advertisement, cautioning the settlers resident in tne Foxton, Carnarvon, and Karere districts that the morning train wouid not run through to Wanganui. This Would not have cost the Eailway Department another penny, and would have prevented all the annoyance Mr Eotheram's action has caused. 'Possibly Mr Eotheram prefers doing his good deeds by stealth, and did not wish the people of Foxton and the district between it and Palmerston to know howr.highe his estimate was of them until the Cattle Show was passed ; or again, be may havo thought that if he gave too much publicity to his intentions,

KffiNf'wQ^ld be a slight shaking^ |X*o n gsis the dry bones he takes the Itjliton people to be. >Jlo\^erts|ough by a coty he h&s^j^ne;a^his 2g9Bttt this time, and caj£^blo# his vWjtisfcle triumphant, ho niay yefc find itirathor costly, as wo mistake our .estimate of the Foxton people if they pfro«^tl|s iustance of Official. hum- : bugginglo be passed over without a direct appeal to the Minister.