PALMERSTON NORTH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5233, 31 December 1877, Page 3

PALMERSTON NORTH.

(from our own correspondent.) December 27.

The returns of the Foxton, Palmerston, and Fielding railway for this month will be much increased by yesterday’s passenger traffic. Three trains ran each way, and return tickets were given at single fares. The result was that all the trains, though much longer than usual, were simply crowded as full as they could hold. I think this shows tolerably conclusively that the Government would find it pay well to often run cheap excursion trains and to puton extra trains for the accommodation of passengers when there is likely to be sufficient inducement to do so. At present the high fares and the inconvenient times at which the trains start prevent much friendly intercourse between the towns on this line.

The sports both here and at Feikling were I understand very successful, the fineness of the weather materiallyassistingtomake themso.

The bridge across the Manawatu is shown as a curiosity to all visitors to Palmerston. Imagine a really fine bridge, built at a cost of between £6OOO and £7OOO, which is utterly impracticable for anything but foot passengers, as there are only two planks roughly fastened together connecting it with terra finna at each end, and which absolutely leads nowhere, there not being a foot of road on the Fitzherbertown side of it. Towards the end of the session we were promised that £2OO would be voted to complete the approaches to the bridge, and £IOOO to form a road on the other side. The former, I believe, has been voted, though there are no signs as yet of the work being done ; but the £IOOO was withdrawn, so the bridge might as well never have been built for all the good it is to anybody. Probably when the bridge is rotten a road will be formed.