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Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 604, 9 April 1878, Page 2

The local railway authorities are doing their utmost to meet the requirements of the farmers in regard to the transport of their grain, but it is quite distressing to watch liow lamentably they fail in accomplishing the object for which they labour almost unceasingly. The railway lines of the district are still dotted here and there with grain awaiting transport, and which may at any moment be transformed from the" finest "wheat into fowls' feed. It is vain, we suppose, to hope for a clearance to be made along the line until some trucks are to hand, unless the primitive method .of bringing it in by means of drays is resorted to. This is now being done to a very great extent, and Harbourstreet has been blocked throughout the day with drays loading grain into the stores in that locality. In some instances, where the distances are not very great, and the amount of grain to be transported large, drays may answer the purpose very well : but otherwise this means of transport would be tedious, and productive of considerable loss to the grower. For instance, there are few farmers now-a-days who are possessed of sufficient drays to devote tlie necessary number to the purpose of conveying their produce to market, for, since the establishment of railwars in the district, they have very reasonably deemed drays unnecessary. It matters not how the question is viewed, difficulty, damage, and loss seem to threaten all parties concerned. Not ,i day passes but we hear of fresh instanc.s of the hardship which is being suffered by iiraia growers, in consequence of the inability of the railway department to carry their" grain. One farmer on the Papakaio line' has 2000 bags awaiting the convenience of the railway department, more or less exposed to the weather. which seems rather whimsical now, and may at any moment change to torrents of rain. Finding that the officials here are utterly helpless for want of rolling stock, he vesterday wired the Government. We hope that the reply may be favorable, and that his action may have the effect of relieving not only him but others from similar difficulty. The general impression is that we are" not receiving justice, but that Canterbury has more than her fair share of trucks on her lines.