THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1916. MAIN TRUNK TRAINS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 226, 14 November 1916, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times

PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1916. MAIN TRUNK TRAINS.

The Official Organ ot : The Franklin County Council. The Pukekche Borough Council. The Tuakau Town Board. The Karaka Eoad Board. The Pokeno Road Board. The Wairoa Eoad Board. The Papakura Town Board. The Waikato River Board. The Mercer Town Board. The Manurewa Town Board

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down auaht in malice."

In securing, as it did last week a visit from the Hon. W. H. Herries, the Minister of Eailways, the Pukekohe Chamber of Commerce well justified its existence. Mr Herries was making his first acquaintance with the district and probably the insight he gained of the rapid development Pukekohe is making will in due course result in the town securing more favourable consideration from the Eailway Department than has been the case previously. In a motor-trip over Pukekohe Hill Mr Herries secured a personal knowledge of a district, which has the distinction of having over a limited area an output of agricultural commodities greater than any other part of the Dominion. A series of requests was put before Mr Herries but the main plea submitted was for one or other of the Main Trunk express trains to stop at Pukekohe every day instead of only on Sundays as at present. Powerful arguments were adduced to show that the reasons of refusal put forward by the railway officials in the past were no longer tenable. For instance, it was explained that Pukekohe was the •largest centre of population on the line between Auckland and Wellington, outside the suburban areas, at which the Main Trunk expresses did not make a call, and it was also pointed out to Mr Herries that as the result of the grade-easement works the long climb over the old Karaka bank was now dispensed with affording a saving in time of quite five minutes if taken advantage of by the trains. Then again the somewhat surprising fact that the J Franklin electorate, represented by the Prime Minister of the Dominion, was not deemed worthy of the expresses making any stop within its borders, was instanced, whilst advantages that would accrue in postal facilities by the night trains making a halt at Pukekohe were also brought under Mr Herries* notice. Since the Minister's visit the census returns have been issued and these undeniably prove that Pukekohe has a claim on the Eailway Department, which it is to be hoped will be recognised by Mr Herries. The census statistics show that the borough of Pukekohe nnrt the two ridings which immediately adjoin the borough, viz., Pukekoho and

Mauku ridings, hare a population of just upon 5000, and when these figures are rubmitted to Mr Herries he, bearing in mind the other facts with which he was made acquainted, should not hesitate to see that Pukekohe comes into its own.