Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOV. 80, 1897. Our Wharf.

Manawatu Herald, 30 November 1897, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOV. 80, 1897. Our Wharf.

That Foxton is the port of a very large district appears overlooked by the local body that has the interest*of the Borough in their care. Just a little paragraph as the following, taken from the Pott, makeß thfwholfe thing plain. " There are 70 tons of material for the gasworks, Dannevirke, ex ship Taranaki, gome to Foxton by the Opawa this after noon." Going to D*nnevirke, which within a fortnights time will be connected with Wellington by train, on^y shows, once again, that water carriage can compete with railway carriage any day. Again we note that all the coals used by the railway from Marton, Foxton and Hastings are brought into Foxton. Thes^ things are onlj repetitions of facts, but in our little hurly-burly our obief claim to recognition and our best support, the port, getß over looked. As a visit to the wharf wi'l show there are many additions which would make the duty of loading and discharging easier, and thus cheappr. and would therefore tend to furth< r popularise this route. The Bight Honorable the Premier never used a more true statement of the difficulties the colonists laboured under, as when he declared we had been cursed with bad engineers. We pity biß experience, but claim that we in this district have suffered the most, and we can therefore appeal for assistance to undo, what has been ill done, through no fault of our own. Our wharf accommodation is a fitting example. The receiving sheds are set back from the wharf so that a'l goods discharged have to be loaded into trucks and then taken to the sheds and discharged. Though* there is plenty of ppace, it has never entered the mind of an engineer that a shed placed so as to receive the goods direct from a vestal would be t

more advantageous, they do these things better in Wellington, aa there the sheds are close handy to every berth. But in Wellington the Harbour Board have the courage of their own opinions and those of their own engineers, and have been saved the tidvioe and help of the government ones. It has been forced upon us that surely the Borough ' Council might interest themselves in this matter, and urge upon the railway department the necessity of erecting a proper shed for the berths. It is not a local matter so far aa any authority is possessed by the Borough Oounoil, but it is more than a local matter so far aa convenience to shippers go, and ft very important local matter in making our port attractive. Aa a precedent, we may remind Councillors that it was through the. Council that a weighbridge was erected, though very much against the wishes of the department, yet it has proved itself a good profit making addition to the station. So would other improvements after they had been in force a short time. We hold to the opinion that a receiving shed is of the first and most pressing necessity and that no time should be lost in urging its erection. The department will possibly claim that we have done so long without it, that there cannot be any need for it, but this is no reply, as we did onoe without the railway and its army of officials, but as the revenue increases so is the department bound to increase the facilities to shippers. The income from the wharf is a very handsome addition to .the railwae traffic, and most of the labour gets unfairly charged to wharfage to simply to help to swell the takings of the line. We have other improvements in view, but we withhold the olaim for these until the first instalment, a shed, is accomplished.