The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 602, 6 April 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1878.

Whis are we to have fair play meted out to us in the matter of railway trucks? Instead of the difficulty which lias attended the transport of grain from the farms to the port gradually disappearing, as it was hoped it would, the dilemma thickens as the season progresses.- It is no exaggeration to assert that the railway requisites of this portion of the Colony are not nearly what circumstances demand they should be : indeed, we can go even further, and state that very considerable dissatisfaction exists at the failure of the Railway Department to nearly keep pace with the traffic, as well as at the make-shifts which are resorted to in order to do the comparatively little that is done. We are far from blaming the officials of the Department, for tliey do wonderfully well, taking into consideration the meagre appliances at their disposal; in fact, it is not with the object of complaining that we are now calling attention to the present unsatisfactory state of affairs, but with the desire of securing a whole or partial remedy. We contend that there is not the least necessity for the deadlock that is now occurring in the transport of grain by the Railway Department; or, if there is, then more shamo to those who have brought it about. Is if right that a vessel should be compelled to remain eight or nine days in harbour before she can commence to unload ? It takes all the gilt off the gingerbread to have to maintain a crew for a week or more whilst doing nothing. Somebody must pav for it. and the burthen generally falls* upon the growers. Then again we" have heard to-day of several instances in which farmers are suffering from the tardiness with which the Railway Department is performing its work just now. In one case tiOO bags of wheat are beside fho line awaiting transportation, at the risk of being damaged. We have a suspicion that the Canterbury farmers are being benefited by a larger number of trucks than in the present emergency should fall to their share, for there are no complaints from that quarter now, and their satisfaction arouses our curiosity. No other community would have been so long-suffering as that of Oamaru at the hardship which has pressed so heavily upon grower, merchant, and shipmaster, during the present grain season. The question is milly a very serious one, and it behoves the department to apportion a fair share of the rolliiig-Btugk for the use of this district.