The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 676, 26 January 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1881.

Our friends in Carterton, Greytown, andFeatherston take as much pleasure • in visiting us in Masterton as we do [ in going to see them. Tho railway arrangements, however, while they i favor the latter trip, make the former | impracticable. It was for this reason | that we called attention a few days a<*o ■ to the advisability of a local train once • a week, which would come up from Featherston to Masterton early in the forenoon and return late in the after-' . noon. We are so convinced of the advantage such a train would be to the district and the railway department I that we shall endeavor to press it on i the attention of both till they come to i our way of thinking. Between Wellington and the Hutt there are at least thirty-five local trains per week. Surely it is not too much to ask for one—a solitary one—between Featherston and Masterton. People in Wellington are at headquarters, and get their requirements promptly attended to. In 'the Wairarapa we are " remote, unfriended, solitary, slow," as the poet observed; and wo are, probably, supposed at the head office to havo no local requirements. It is time that we brushed up a bit, and waited on our masters in Wellington to demand those reasonable facilities for travelling to which we are entitled, Unless we stir up the railway department for our wants at this end of the line the railway will never pay. If Wellington' can support thirty-five local trains it is nonsense to suppose that the Wairarapa cannot support one,- If wo could get at the traffic manager and the Minister with the same facility with which they are approached in Wellington, it is not one, but six local trains a week at single fares for return tickets which we should he getting, We call the attention of the Chairman of the County to this concession, which, properly speaking, ought to be given without' asking. We think he will agree with us that it is one that is required by the district, and if so he would do us good service if he could arrange a deputation from tho townships to demand it from the Hon-the j Minister for Public Works. We believe that several of the leading public men in each township would willingly take part in such a movement, and that if a train were granted it would not only be a genreal convenience to all settler's in the Wairarapa, but would provo the best paying train on the lino. On a former occasion we pointed out the difficulty of attending meetings in-the different townships which were of more than a local character, owing to the deficiency of the train service. If, however, on one day in each weekthere were a supplementary train, that -day would practically be adopted for County meetings, pastoral meetings, Horticultural Shows, and other re: unions too numerous to particularisebut which are continually cropping up in one or other of our townships, If the railway department is not sufficiently enterprising to take up such

traffic it is tinie tliht coaches .were again riinuing on the road. : 'M, tow-', ever, we are taxed to maintain railways it is our duty to see that they take up all remunerative traffic, It" appears to us that the engine on the Grey'town 1 branch lino could, in addition to its present work, run once a week to Masterton and' back between 9 and 11 a.ro,, and between 5 and 1 p,m. If so, the department could do what is required. without fresh rolling stock, and at a nominal cost. The present position of the line between Featherston and Masterton is that railway employees have not enough work on their hands, and the public have to travel along the highway, We feol certain that better management would give better results,