The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 624, 3 May 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1878.

The late Saturday train to Moerak Junction " will be discontinued durim the winter months"—so says a notifica tion that appears in our advertising columns. The settlers will not like this because the late Saturday train affordec them an opportunity of spending a fev liours a week in Oamaru, not only with out to any appreciable extent interfering with their work at home, but with de cided advantage in a business sense. W( do not wonder at the railway authoritiei disliking to travel on the Oamarn-Moerak line after dark. It is not plain sailing 01 a line -with so many cuttings, heavi gradients, and bridges, to say nothing o the danger that arises from cattle stray ing on the track. Indeed it would havi been difficult for the artist that selectee the route for the line through fron Oamaru to Dnnedin to have selected i more difficult one, for along it the lin< has not only been difficult of constructor and expensive, but it will either take ai alarming amount to maintain it, or—a: appears to be the policy of those ii charge—+oo much risk must not be run where but little is spent in keeping this toi line in repair. If the department canno now travel at night over our lines, wha will they do when Christchurch is linkei with Invercargill, and the increase o traffic demands it ] The permanent wa; will not improve ; on the contrary, it wil deteriorate. Then will be presented tin pitiable spectacle of the civilising trail crawling along at a speed of which tin driver of a well-appointed coach would hi ashamed. The line was constructed alon; the seaboard, and of course it was natu rally expected that it would be able t< compete successfully with steamboats but there is now a great deal of scepticisn on this point. To be candid, we do no believe it can be dono. The proposal i to bring into use powerful engines but there should be strong vails secure bridges, and solid embankments for them to run over, or the extra speec wiii be purchased at too much additiona risk. We can scarcely imagine, withou a shudder, a ponderous, powerful engim and train travelling over the Blueskii section, and yet, in order to ensure ani reasonable speed, powerful locomotive: must not only be used, but they must bi made to travel. Now, we are told tha the journey between here and Dnnedin i. .0 be made in four hours or so. How ii x to be done, peeing that faulty place: ire bo numerous ? for speed could scarce!} >e got up on a good section before h vould be necessary to slacken it in ordei o creep along a bad one. The general elic-f is that, so far as passenger traffic is concerned, the line will be a failure. The A'uitaki will not only occupy no more ime on the journey, but travellers would oel themselves rather more secure in her :abin than they would in a railway

carriage, steering round sheer precipices, where passengers close their eyes rather than behold the dizzy height, but cannot shut out from their imagination the possibility that a pebble on the line, the disintegration of a small piece of the line's foundations, or a land slip, might hurl them to the depths below. It is scarcely to be wondered at that the railway authorities are careful not to run too fast, and that they prefer daylight on such a line.