PUBLISHED MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1916 RAILWAY MATTERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 137, 26 January 1916, Page 2

PUBLISHED MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND FRIDAYS.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1916 RAILWAY MATTERS.

" We nothing extenuate, nor te.t dov/n auoht in malice."

The visit to the district next week of the General Manager of the New Zealand Railways, Mr E. H. Hilev, promises to provide him with plenty of material lor subsequent careful thought before arriving at a definite decision on the many important matters that will be brought under his notice. It can hardly be contended that in the past, anyhow ot late years, the Lower Wuikato has received adequate consideration from the Kailway Department. The old order of things has, despite repeated protest?, remained unaltered although the railway revenue has been all the time steadily increasing. The appointment of Mr Hiley to control the railways of New Zealand was proclaimed by the Government as necessary to put the railway system of the Dominion on a business fouting, and we are quite content to accept Mr Hiley as a competent railway expert, but we look to him to remove old abuses and to administer th 3 service according to the wants and requirements of the people in accordance with financial returns.

Mr Hihy is to be waited oa by Manurewa and Papakura deputations, who on the strength of a largely increased population in both localities seek an improvement in suburban traffic arrangements.

The battle of stations between Drury and Kunciman will att'orci a knotty problem for Mr Hiley to solve, the Drury residents being agreeable to the central station proposal whilst Kunciman people are keen to retain a station in their midst, chiming that Kunciman eerves a much bigger district and population than does Drury. At Pukekojii ssrveral items art to be put forward for Mr consideration. He is to be asked, for instance, to so arrange that par angers should be enabled to travel from all stations by the evening goods train that now leaves Mercer fjr Auckland about I) p.m. This should be easy of adjustment as already an unjighted pasuenger ■ jach is attached to the tram, and moreover on Saturday evenings it is lighted and passengers make use ot it. Additional facilities for travel tj Auckland are also to be asked fr"in Drury, I'ukekohe and southern statio:s by the morning "mixed goods ' tiain now leaving Puk r kohe at 'J.IS a.in This train is timed to reach Papakura at 10.07 a.m , and a suburban train leaves Papakuri for Aucklind six minutes earllier. The suggestion to be made to Mr tlilcy is the» this Buburbaa train -houki make Drury its starting point, ihua enabling passengers by the "mixed goods' train to avail thcnir. Ives ol it at Drury, ami to reach Auckland an hoy earlier than they are able to do under existirg conditions.

Another reasonable request to be brought Inrward is that, as in other iimilar n -.tnncei\ the afternoon express train for Auckland should slop at Pokeno on sale days. lhen, again, it will be urged on

Mr Hiley that the extent of the heavy goods traffic at Pukekohe station warrants the installation of a travelling crane in the goods shed. The absence ol' such an appliance entails considerable unnecessary labour both cn railway officials and local importers cf the town, and of the large district that Pukekohe station sarves, but so tar the reply of the Department has been that the business does not warrant the expenditure, and this despite the fact that Tuakau station, with a much smaller return of heavy traffic, possesees machinery of the kind. The main application of the deputation to interview Mr Hilev, at Pukekoha will, however, be in regard to th° Main Trunk express trairs making a stop at Pukekohe. It will be urged on him that since the trains styled "the second expresses" now cross at Buckland about 145 p.m., only two miles from Pukekohe, one or the other of the traits naturally stopping there, it could easily be arranged tor Pukekohe to be made the crossing point, and Mr Hiley should have no difficulty in recognising that Pukekobe is entitled by reason of tha volume ot its passenger trade with the south for these trains going in either direction to stop to set down and pick up passengers. 'lhe growing importance of the Pukekohe district should, however, convince Mr Hiley that it has just claims for BOTH expresses either way to make a halt at Pukekohe. The contention of the Kailway Department on this point has hitherto been that if local traffic on the Main Trunk trains is catered tor the carriages are filled up to the discomfort of long distance passengers. With or-ly one express train running north and south as was the csss previously there might have been something in this argument, but now that two trains either way divide the traffic the contention has certainly lost weight. Then, again, the expresß from Auckland for Wellington oil Sunday night is admittedly the most popular tram cf the service, carrying mure through passengers than any week-day train, but the Kailway Department find it advantageous from a financial standpoint that it should convey passengers from Auckland to Pukekohc, whilst the express from Wellington arriving in Auckland on Sunday morning eimilarly picks up passengers at Pukekobe, Mr Hilcy's mission in New Zealand is to make the railways a profitable concern and if it can be demonstrated to bim, as assuredly it can, that the calls at Pukekobe every morning of th2 Auckland bound express and similarly every evening of the train proceeding to Wellington would bring about increased returns he should not hesitate to take advantage uf extra revenue and at the same time cater for public convenience. But we would Ijv stress on another important pbasj of the question, and that is facilities in other directions. The absurdity has presented it.elf in the past that although they are both Government organisations the Hailway and Postal Departments fail ta work one with another in the public interests. Thus we have the really grotesque position that in a town of fair size (Pukekohe), only 30 miles from Auckland, the last mail for the city closes daily at 5 p.m., and inward letters are not available until ten o'clock each morning. Wi h the stopping at Pukekohe of the express trains alluded to this anomaly would disappear, and we would suggest that Mr Hiley, as an astute business man, should not only pay heed to his particular Department, but shout j study the welfare arid interests ot a community, which, comparatively small though it may be, only exist 3 for the good of the Dominion ard contributes its ijuota to the national exchequer.