RAILWAYS AND RACING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 3

RAILWAYS AND RACING.

THE _r__?ABTMfiNTAL PROTEST. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 6. The Wellington people, being comfortable, prosperous folk, accustomed to the vagaries of politicians and public servants, have looked on with easy tolerance at the inconvenience and loss inflicted upon the citizens of Christchurcb and Auckland and upon their own suburban neighbours by the Railway Department in the sacred name of patriotism. It is true they were moved by the most effusively loyal of the loyal mayors, ncrw a C.M.G., in recognition of his devotion to the Empire, to make a mild protest against the stoppage of a train which had been carrying the soldiers from tbe camp at Trentham to the capital city and to the various forms of hospitality awaiting them here; but this was simpljj a subsidiary manifestation, so to speak, of the admirable spirit which exalts the man in khaki to a first place in the land, and demands on his account everything the gratitude and resources of the country can provide. But the complacency of the good folk here, who have been regarding the sufferings of Christchurch and Auckland as matters of little consequence, has received a rude shock. Many of them have made a practice for years of running out to the races at Otaki on the King's Birth-Jay holiday, and have found the picturesque little town a pleasant place of resort. This year the railway authorities, in their new concern for the morals of the community, decreed that neither the New Plymouth nor the Napier express should stop in the neighbourhood of tlie racecourse on either the up or the down journey. Both trains are timetabled to pull up at Otaki, where the weary traveller has been accustomed to get his morning or his afternoon tea, as 1 the case may be, but on Monday and Tuesday, the Jays of the races, they both rushed through the station, leaving the passengers who would have alighted there to make their way to the racecourse or Levin at a cost of 20/ for the return journey.

When the Railway Department sets out upon a mission of this sort it does not do things by halves. Anyone who would impede it in its purpose must be prepared for the worst. A few daring spirits took tickets to Levin by the Napier express and dropped off the train as it slowed down to cross the bridge just before reaching Otaki, but this was an exploit which did not commend itself to the family man. A larger party conceived the idea of getting back to" Wellington before midnight by boardin- the slow train timed to leave Otaki at? 4.25 p-m.. and joining the New Plymouth express at Paekakariki, a margin of 22 minutes being in their favour; but when their purpose w__ discovered the slow train was delayed, and they missed the connection. In the morning "it was necessary to hold the two expresses for some time at Waikanae to make up the time they saved by running through Otaki. and when they did leave they were not more than one-third full.

Needless to say, the indignation at these proceedings was not cotrfined to race-goers and holiday-makers. Quite a number of the people who were anxious to get to Otaki by the first express had no intention of attending the races. .Among them were three soldiers on leave, whose friends had arranged to meet them at the station. Mr. W. H. Field, the member for the district, who was' subjected to a good deal of pointed raillery over the matter, travelled to town with the party that attempted to make the connection at Paekakariki, and was loud and emphatic in condemnation of the whole puerile business.