The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1890. Railway Experience.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3483, 12 April 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1890. Railway Experience.

It is just twelve months since Eketaliuna become a terminus of our district railway, and w'e fear this ' settlement has not been more fortunate than many others in its realisation of the benefits expected from railway communication." Man never is but always to be blest," sang a poet iu the last century, and the . same sentiment is equally applicable to an up-country township, Just before the railway finished an up l)il} and down dale march over the liimui taka, "the sweet Auburn," ill? loveliest village of the plain was ' Featherston, But when once the , iron horse panted'through the village . the price of. land went down, build- - ings became empty, and the village i almost a wreak, Greytown, too, had ' its dark hour from the same cause, ' though it was very nearly fortunate 1 enough to escape railway communication, 3))(J Jma never been quite itself since, Perhaps at Carterton the opening of the line did give a slight spurt, but very many people discounted the temporary advantago to such an extent that their last state became worse than their first. In Masterton, business was never bettor than just, before the line reached here, and now Eketahuna records the same experience, and perhaps the only district town mailing rapid etudes at the present time is Faliiatufo ft place fortunately out iu jiio sold us regard? a railway. Of couraepailwaya arefto£|ip)tigated eviis, they carry people and produce for a fourth less than the old coach and waggon rates, and frou) tliot point of view ought to bo a benefit, Still they drain money put of the district. In • the old days almost every settler benefitted by tlio coach and waggon traffic.. The station proprietor bred mobs of good horses, for which he could always command 4 remunerative rate, the farmer got a big prfe fpr Lis oats to feed the horses, saddlers, poflcjpitbs, and blacksmiths throve all along the line, and homely and comfortable hostelrieß dotted the road to Wellington. Coaches and waggons tend to make the country, tally/ays {he big town,. Our district lino has been a . real. and substantial help to Wellington, for whatever produce we [ make in this district iB rapidly cleared away to the Empire City, and is not as of old retailed for a local market. The twenty-five per cent,foo, which we may save in freights and fees, js more than balanced by our propertytax payments, which wo required for deficient railway revenue, xjio moral

is tbat good roads pay-in New Zealand, but expensive railways do not, and it is necessary to watoli closelyeven attbisjbourthedperations of the railway ringd of tlie Colony.