RAILWAY MANAGEMENT IN THE SOUTH.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10538, 27 December 1899, Page 6

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT IN THE SOUTH.

A passenger by last night's express from the South states that he never saw anything so scandalous as the tram arrangements in it-be South yesterday. The local arradgef ments in comparison are perfect. It appears that there was a large Maori fete at Puketeraki, twenty-six miles from Dunedin, but ! owing, it is alleged, to mismanagement, there was only one excursion train, which a large number of people missed. . Thousand* came down to the express, whiclrteok them all on board, and did not leave till 11.10. It consisted of thirteen carriages, and waited at oawyers* Bay, seven miles from Dunedin, from 11.30 to 11.50, for no apparent reason. At Waitaki the express waited from 12.22 to 12.49 in order to allow an empty returning excursion train, to pass. The.excursion train, so far as any ordinary person could have seen, might have waited at the previous station until the express had passed. Palmeraton was reached at two o'clock, about an hour late, and left twenty minutes later, having been detained for that time for no apparent reason. At Maheno, which was reached at 3.50, there was another wait of nearly a quarter of an hour, the reason for which was to allow another excursion train to doss. Oamaru was reached at 4.10, instead of 2.45, and left at 4.24. "Pukeuri was reached a* 4.42, where there was another wait till an excursion train passed, and the express continued its journey at 4.51. Coming across the Canterbury Plains same of the lost time was made up, and the express arrived at Christchurch a few mlnotesf before ten o'clock. Apparently the arrangements at Dunedin were muddled, as those gpin-3 to the station there were unable to find porters tq direct them, nor were, there trains to convey them away until a quarter to eleven o'clock.