RAILWAY TICKET-CHECKING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4100, 29 April 1892, Page 3

RAILWAY TICKET-CHECKING.

A newspaper published in the Lower Wairarapa has been converting bare possibilities into case-hardened facts in the most thoughtless manner, und alleging that numerous people travel on tho Wairarapa Railway free of coat owing to the defective system of ticket-checking in vogpe. According tp t]ie journal in quesijon the plan adopted by these ingenious travellers is to take a ticket at the commence* ment of their journey for only a suf-> ficient distance to carry them past the point where examination of tipkets takes place, Thoy still retain their seats for the unauthorised portion of the trip, but alight a station or tno before their destination is reached and purchase another short-distance ticket with which to negotiate and pass the final examination and collection of tickets before arriving at the end of their journey, which is, say, Welling* tCS. T!i?i'e is thus tho central portion of the trip made without a ticket of any kind.

IJow thprq really is not much in this after all, Possibly such ai) evasion may have occurred in isolated in" stances, but for it to havo happened often as this new authority on railway customs asserts it has done, there need to be far more rogues in our district than do at present exist and there would havo to be a contributary degree of laxity and carelessness on the part of the railway guards which certainly does not obtain wjth the trustworthy men at present on the staff.

There really was no need for arty notice to have been taken'of the statements made by this fanciful and space-filling writor at alj except th(it the ; .%% Brtsi, hj a sfip of tli'e scissors in a uioment of inadvertence, re-printed the concoction,and rescuing it from deserved obscurity, brought it out into the glaring light of day, whore it was seen and read, Then the sword fell, and this is how the j Traffic Manager pours forth his wrat|i on the devoted head—or what takes

the place of that member—of that little country paper:—

[copy] The Proprietor, Wairarapa Standard, Greytown North, Bin—Attention hns been directed to a paragraph published in a recent issue of your paper, whorcinitis alleged, in effect, that owing to defeotivo supervision, persons are enabled to travel by train to and from the Wairarapa free of ohargo, and that such dishonesty i 3 largely practised, It is not supposed that any rospcotable journal would mako such allegations in othep y flian toed faith, and for vour fearless endeavour to protect the public revonuo you will no doubt got the credit your efforts merit from all | well-disposed persons! Fortunately for tho honour of the settlers of tho Wairarapa as woll as for tho railway revenue, the publiowdl bo pleased to learn that tho allegations contained in your paragraph can be conclusively proved to bo absolutely otfd entirely false, and it will, uo doubt, be regretted that your paper has been made tho medium forgiving prominence—though happily not a very wide prominenco-to a mischievous aud malicious iuspiration. Those persons who may applaud your good intentions will regret that you should hove permitted your paper to bo grossly libol tho residents of the Wairarapa, and thoso of your own town in particular, without first applying for confirmatory evidence in support of your assertions. In the regular users of the railway, I will a6k you to givothis thosamo prominonco iu your paper as was oxtended to tho paragraph complained of, Yours faithfully, (SignedJ B.DAWSON, ' Traffio Agont,

Wo do not suppose all this has done I nny harm, nor for that matter much good; but it would bo far better I if, when people have a complaint to make or think they have a valuable idea, they wou Id writo straight to the Railway Manager instead of prompting exaggerated effusions of tho kind under notice. Wo feel certain that their communications would receive careful attention, and although (heir suggestion might not be.of so brilliant a character as they supposed, still we hope Mr Dawson would not be so inconsiderate as to tell them so; and as regards the complaints, we are aware that 110 trouble is spared to remove any ground for them, when it is Bliown that they are welMoundetl,