MAIN TRUNK DISASTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2605, 12 July 1923, Page 2

MAIN TRUNK DISASTER.

QUESTIONS ASKED IN PARLIAMENT. As a result of the Main Trunk railway disaster, Mr W. H. Field (Otaki) lias given notice in the House of Representatives to ask the Minister of Railways: (1) Whether the Railway Dejmrtment has any settled rule as to the position to lie occupied by tirst and second class carriages respectively on passenger trains? (2) Whether second class carriages are invariably placed next to the postal van on the Wellington-Auckland express, as was the case with the train which met with disaster at Ongarue on Friday morning last? (3) Whether some method cannot he devised for fairly dividing the risk between the two classes? (4) Whether it is true that second-class passengers after the accident paid additional fares on the ill-fated train to obtain the greater safety offered by first-class carriages? In the Legislative Council yesterday the Hon. W. J. Geddis gave notice of the following question:— “Whether, in view of the occasional land slips on the route of the North Island Main Trunk railway, the Government will take into consideration the advisability of utilising the unemployed who are at present clamouring for work to cut back the overhanging earth banks at those points where they constitute a menace to the safety of the travelling public in the excessively wet periods of the year?”