THE CULVERDEN TRAIN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9815, 26 August 1897, Page 3

THE CULVERDEN TRAIN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THK PRESS. Sir, —The settlers of this district were informed a couple of months or so ago by two gentlemen who presumably spoke with official knowledge, as one is an M.H.R. and the other a well known Government servant, that it was only a question of a few months before a morning train will be running from Culvorden to Christchurch.

This was welcome news, especially to the smaller settlers.'who are not, in a position to pay a two-nights' hotel bill in town, but whether it will really prove a boon or not to the rapidly increasing Amuri population will very much depend, on the hour the train in question will leave Culverden.

If the present morning train leaving Waikari at 6.50 is to start from Culverden, necessarily starting at 5.30, it will I fear be of little use, as tbe greater number of settlers live some little distance off the line, and even in summer time could scarcely catch such an early train. Unless indeed, the train i 3to consist of empty coaches it should not leave before 8 a.m. at the earliest.

Why do not the Department, at all events in the summer months, adopt the plan followed in Auckland with the Rotorua

line, and run a fairly fast train on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays to Culverden, leaving Christchurch say at 10 a.m., and returning from Culverden at 8 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays ? Such a train need only stop at a few stations for the first part of its journey, say Kaiapoi, Rangiora, and Amberley. It would be an immense boon to northern people, including Cheviot settlers, who sigh to have their tedious journey shortened, whilst it certainly would lead to hundreds more visiting the Springs, for tbe present hour of departure from Christchurch is altogether too early for invalids.

It is to be hoped that the Department will see its its way to do something towards encouraging the efforts of those who are doiug so much at Hanmer to make the Plains the Sanatorium \>f the South.— Yours, 4c,

Frequent Traveller.