IN DEFENCE OF OHAKUNE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 17, 20 January 1909, Page 8

IN DEFENCE OF OHAKUNE.

■IS POSITION EXAGGERATED. HEALTH OFFICER'S OPINION, <By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") HUNTLY, Tuesday. Interviewed at Huntiy to-night by a "Star" representative, Inspector Bennett of the Public Health Department, who was sent to inquire into the allegations made ; regarding the, accommodation afforded the travelling public at the stopover places on the Main Trunk line, said there h,ad been many gross exaggerations upon the subject. He visited Ohakune when the holiday traffic was at its height, and found no cause for complaint at what he saw. On the contrary, he is inclined to speak in commendatory terms of the facilities afforded the travelling public forced to spend a uight in this town, which two years ago did not exist, and is one of the "mushroom" cities which have sprung up in a marvellously short space of time along the most recently completed section of the Main Trunk. In Ohakune, Inspector Bennett found nine boarding-houses, two of which were «arp\ole of accommodating over 60 people each. The catering-' and, general accommodation he found to bo really excellent, and in his opinion compared favourably with any place between Palmerston North and Hamilton. The roads leading to the township from the station are perhaps a little rough, but the residents are doing their best to improve this inconvenience. The boardinghouses at Ohakune, Inspector Bennett adds, are capable of accommodating upwards of 300 people, and the night he was there 100 beds were vacant. Yet 60 people spent the night most miserably in the train. He suggested to the local town board a system by which some blight inconveniences could be got over, and also urged that steps should be taken so that porters might meet the trains and tell the passengers what accommodation there was and where to go. The scale of charges at the boardinghouses, the inspector adds, varied a good deal, but in the majority of cases good ■ accommodation was obtainable at a very reasonable tariff, and altogether the discomforts to which passengers have teen submitted at Ohakune as a stopover station have, in his opinion, been much exaggerated.