THE FIRST RAILWAY.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 187, 8 August 1919, Page 9

THE FIRST RAILWAY.

(To the Editor.) •Sir, —As a parallel to the railways as at present conducted in New Zealand, it is interesting to read a copy of the rules for travellers on the first railway, a document etill preserved among the archives of the company of the Manchester to Liverpool railway: "(1) Any person desiring to travel from Liverpool to Manchester, or vice versa, or any portion of the journey thereof, must, 24 hours beforehand, make application to the station agent at the place of departure,, giving his name, address, place of birth, occupation, and reason for -desiring to travel. (2) The etation agent, upon'assuring himself that the applicant desires to travel for a just and lawful cause, shall thereupon issue a ticket to the applicant, who shall travel by the train named thereon. (3) Trains will start at their point of departure as near schedule time as possible, but the company do not guarantee when they will reach their destination. (4) Trains not reaching their destination before dark will put up at one of the several stopping places along the route for the night, and passengers must pay and provide for their own lodging during the night. (5) Luggage will be carried on the root of the carriages. If such luggage gets wet the company will not be responsible for any loss attaching thereto." "' The above information I obtained some years ago from a Liverpool paper. It is surely a cane of history repeating itself.—l am, etc., THOS. IRELAND.