Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1894. A LOCAL TRAIN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4623, 16 January 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1894. A LOCAL TRAIN.

One oE the requirements of tbo Waid rarapa district is a local train. The department provides for a through service between Wellington and Eketa buna, and apparently allows local . traffic to adjust itself to this through service without much consideration as to whether its business oould not be extended by cultivating local traffic. It is quite content for bussrs, traps i and horses to supply convenient tran- / sit between Featherston and Mast-r----ton, and never seems to realize that a 3i very considerable percentage of the passenger trade of the district is lust to it for the want of a convenient local train, And yet we believe that it is a cardinal principle of railway management that local traffic is more profitable than througli traffic We do not see ourselves why a local train should h. not be ran every morning from Featherston about nine o'clock and return in the evening. Such a train would be .a great convenience for Featherston, Greytown, Carterton, Masterton and Eketahuna. We ask business men in these towns to conR sider the advantages which they would derive from a local service of such a character and jfthey areof theopimon that the time has arrived when the department should concede such a "■ convenience, toco-operate in demand- • ing it, Some year? ago when our population was about half what it now is a local train was run and we believe, did not prove remunerative. But because a service of ibis c'ass did not. pay tenyeata ago it does not follow that it would be unprofitable at the. present time, It is the W'airarapu traffic that bas made the district railway one of the best paying branches in the Colony, siill wo have 5 never had very much consideration extended to us on this scoro. We might also point nut that a local train could be run very economically hpcause the special bugbear of the line, the expensive transit over the ■" Eirauiaka range, would not be an item in its cost. Business men in Masterton ate strangely apa- / thetic, possibly because they are ablo to do a remunerative trade without any very great effort, otherwise they would not take it tor granted that the railway depattment gives them all conveniences which they need for the development of the { district, Many advantages might be gained from the department if they were only sought for in a proper maimer, and we question whether a local train is not the one.that is of the first importance, At the Wellington end of the line, local traios are a speciality and their importance is duly recognised, It is only north of the Rimutaka that local requirement are overlooked.