WAIRARAPA RAILWAYS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10584, 15 March 1912, Page 4

WAIRARAPA RAILWAYS.

The railway chickens of the Hon. J. A: Millar are coming homo to roost. A year or (two back this Minister,, for some" reason best.';known' to himself, diverted the express train and other, traffic from the Wairarapa, and converted the Wairarapa trains into what he was . pleased ...to'• term ■•■'■' a branch service." 'Although it was proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the Wairarapa -ervice was paying handsomely, the Minister found it necessary -to divert the whole :'f the traffic from Eketahuna northward to the West Coast. We now find that the Palmerston "North station cannot cope with the traffic, which has increased by 76 per cent, during the last five years. In reply to a deputation, which asked for a new station, the Minister candidly admitted that the increased, traffic was due to the fact that trade had been diverted from other places, notably the Wairarapa. His own common-sense should teach him that the West Coast line cannot take the traffic of both. Coasts, as he would have it do, and that the only solution of the problem is the restoration of the East Coast trade to its legitimate channel, even though tihe deviation of the Wairarapa railway be involved. A new station at Pahnerston North is one of the smallest of the charges which will fall upon the Government as a result of Ministerial muddledom.