ON THE EAST LINE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8, 9 January 1914, Page 7

ON THE EAST LINE.

IMPRESSIONS AND VIEWS OF AN ENGLISH VISITOR. (By A.U.K.) Being a recent arrival from England and having paid ray first visit to Whangamomona in connection with the Whangamomona-Kohuratahi sports on Thursday, I have thought that my impressions of the country will be of service to readers of the "Post," believing that the views of anybody used to English comforts and up-to-dateness will be of great value to colonists, who, naturally, have no

I means of forming a conception of how things in general should be carried on in order to get the very host results. It may he complained of me that I lay down the law on too great a variety of subjects; but it must lie 3 borne in mind that in a great and hustling country like England all tho inhabitants have an excellent opportunity (which is universally availed .of) to make themselves acquainted with the modus operandi of all tho human activities making for the creature comfort and the material wellheing of humanity. • A Noxious Wo.'se-Producer. A fairly large crowd of people joined the seven o'clock train at Stratford on Wednesday evening, and tr> the mind of one used to highly-or-ganised railway traffic the conclusion was forced that the Railway Department should have put on an extra carriage. As it was, the secondclass smokers overflowed into the domain of the first-class smokers. This of itself was annoying to the firstclass smokers, hut when one of the second-class smokers' is afflicted with a taste for the bagpipes and an inclination to make a noise thereon itmay i easily he imagined into what a state of nervousness and irritation a well-bred first-class smoker was thrown. The bagpipe is not a musical instrument; hut like its friend. the Scotchman, it lias crossed the, Tweed, and with a übiquity equal to that of its friend the Scotchman it has penetrated, seemingly, to all places where human beings can exist. 1 was sad when I had to leave London, hut T, consoled myself. I said: "T am forced to leave the delights . and comforts of London; but in the free, secular and compulsory country to which 1 am going T will not see the bagpipe: better a free, secular and compulsory country without hagpipes than London with them."' And ! then to travel in the same compartment with one! Alas! An Annoying Habit. I find New Zealanders a fairly reasonable set of beings on the whole, 1 though they have certain habits which are liable to annoy those who have been taught precision and exactitude in the public schools of England, on the playing fields of which, as that noted Englishman the Duke of Wellington says, the Battle of Waterloo was won. One such habit is a slovenliness about people's names. 1 had . a long and interesting conversation with a gentleman, who, later, left the compartment. I asked my neighbour who he was. .My neighbour said: "Oh, that's Tommie." I said: '"What's his nameP" He said: "Tommie." I said: "Tommy what?" He said: "No; just Tommie." At considerable length I explained that 1 wished to know Toinmie's surname. He said he could not say. He called out to a friend: "What's Tom-» mie's name?" The friend replied: "Why, Tommie, of course." My neighbour interpreted the remarks T had made regarding the surname, in the English language into the New- ZehI land language, the chief words in which seem to he and ; and I his friend had'to. admit that he did j not know. My neighbour's friend I then said he would ask as friend of his ; but I thought I had had enough of the matter, and T said he need not trouble. So Tommie must remain unidentified and unidentifiable. A Switchback Railway. In the conversation I had with the very much herei n beforeinentioned Tommie I gleaned some details regarding the railway. He told me that the original intention was to make it a light railway and, therefore, no particular care was taken to keep the grades "within the modest bounds of reason," as my countryman Shakespeare says. The grades oft each side (n* the Kiore tunnel very much annoyed one used to the good old English railways, and when through traffic sets in on the line, 1 thinlc, ami T can hardly be wrong, that those and a few other bad grades on the early part of the line will have to be dealt with in some manner. Switchback railways are very good in their way, , and for the edification of the young are very useful. Either tho present line will have to be turned info a regular switchback or the grades softened. I recommend the latter course. Waits by tho Wayside. Li Old England the "waits" are a popular institution, but, they operate on purely musical iiisfruinenis fit Christinas!ido and are no! used to any great extent on the railways. On the East line, hoAvever, the wait:? by the wayside constitute a big propor- I tion of the programme and are by : no means pleasurable. At Te Wer.i j there is a big wait, at. Pohokura there \ is a longer one, and the unfortunates } who proceed to Kohuratahi have to '| change trains and have ample time to /| admire the scenery of Whangnmo- | inona. No doubt the railway srafF \ do their best; but that is not up to E much. Some acceleration would he | a boon to travellers, «