MASTERTON STATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1938, Page 6

MASTERTON STATION

INADEQUACY OF PRESENT CRANE.

“LONG TIME SUFFERER’S” REPRESENTATIONS.

The publicity given recently in the “Times-Age” to the need for the installation of an up-to-date crane at the Masterton Station prompted Mr C. E. Daniell to write on the matter to the General Manager of Railways. Mr Daniell wrote as follows, under date May 13:—

“Dear ' Sir,—Re Masterton Station Goods Siding—Since December 1880, when your first train came in,' aye, indeed before, I built your first coal shed here, I have been a user of the New Zealand Railways. As a new chum in January 1880, getting to London on a Midland Express, then from Cross Creek to Featherston by New Zealand Railway and returning to Wellington, I was charged double fare to climb the Hill. This to show I have been an ob-

server. As a business man using, or trying to use, Masterton yard, the aptitude of the Department and the ineptitude of appliances for ordinary business, has both irritated and surprised. My firm has time and again asked for a crane, a simple everyday appliance, to lift say three tons, and for some means of getting a truck where a lorry could load or unload. Today I note that carriers seeking to work with the New Zealand Railways are asking on the same lines —a little tractor of some kind, such as we got on to the Wellington Wharf twenty years ago, would be the thing. Now, in these days of progress, what is the user’s hope? Pardon a long time sufferer’s intrusion.”

Mr Daniell received a formal acknowledgment of the letter on May 16.