HAWERA RAILWAY STATION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 36, 2 July 1914, Page 4

HAWERA RAILWAY STATION

DEPUTATION TO THE MINISTER. A deputation fom the Hawera Chamber of Commerce waited on the Minister of Railways on Tuesday and pointed out tbe urgent necessity of carrying out several improvements at the. Hawera railway station. The deputation, which waa headed by the president (Mr. E. Dixon) and the Mayor (Mr. 11. K. Whittington) pointed out the necessity for a new station. Some ten years agci they had been promised that a comprehensive scheme would be carried out iirrebuilding the station and enlarging the 'yards at a cost of thousands of pounds, but nothing had been done. They asked that the refreshment rooms should be enlarged, that the parcels and luggage offices should also be enlarged, so as to give accommodation for tlie staff, and that the sheep and cattle yards, which had caused such a nuisance, should be removed some distance away.

• In the course of the remarks by the various speakers it was pointed out that the town, with the wonderful growth in the dairy industry, had outgrown the station altogether. Mr. L. A. Bone also referred to the advisability of making 'Hawera a locomotive centre, seeing that there were about 30 men (drivers, firemen, cleaners, etc.) at Jlawera. The Minister, in his reply, said he would admit $ once that the Department had recognised the importance of improving the Hawera station, but it was a question of £ s. d. He was hopeful of asking Parliament to sanction a loan, which would be spread ovtr a number of years, to enable him to do similar works to that asked for by the deputation, throughout the Dominion. It would all depend upon the amount of money voted by Parliament as to whether he would be able to do -ill that was required in the country, but Hawera would be one of the first stations to receive consideration. It would not be fair to take the money out of revenue, because there were numerous stations in a position similar to that o! Hawera.—Star.