Te Aroha-Paeroa Service.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2110, 16 June 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha-Paeroa Service.

We have heen asked if there is any truth in the statement contained in our contemporary, the “Waikato Times,” to the effect that Te Aroha will soon cease to be the terminus of the Upper Thames district railway system. The statement in question is in the ‘ Paeroa News Notes,’ and to be exact reads as follows : “ I understand that the present train service to Te Aroha will shortly be discontinued.” A question may be asked in a dozen d iff rent ways, and the way in which this question was asked led irresistibly to the conclusion that an emphatic denial was expected in reply. Happily, however, for Te Aroha’s and all our sakes we are not able to contradict it. No chauge will be made in the timetable for some time, but when the line is completed to the Thames—a matter of 6 months—the local S' rvice to Te Aroha will be altered very materially to Te Aroha’s advantage. We are perfectly sure on that point. The paragraph in our contemporary goes on to say : “Paeroa will ultimately be the terminus, and the present arrangement of returning to Te Aroha after arriving from Aucklaud will be discontinue!. At present .there is very little traffic between the two'"places; in fact it does not pay.” The writer may have good authority for the declaration that Paer@a= will ultimately be the terminus, and at the same time he may not. That is not a question into which we care to go. The undisguised partiality of the travelling public for = le Aroha as the return train enabling tffim after transacting their business ift4he Ohinemuri Valley, to spend the night at this attractive health resort—rwould alone lead us to believe that in the interests of that important class, from a railway manager’s point of view, no change is contemplated until after the completion of the Thames-Te Aroha railway line, when we understand the facilities for visiting Te Aroha will be consider a r b!y increased, and'that if. any change is made' with regard to the terminus, Te Aroha will not suffer; The prob.ibi I by is that the Auckland train, after returning to Te Aroha of an evening, will again proceed to Thames to connect with the steamboat service to Auckland from Kopu.