SHELVED!

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1087, 28 March 1911, Page 4

SHELVED!

RAILWAY STATION FOR WELLINGTON. Interlocking gear is being installed at tho Thorndon (Mauawatu) railway station, on indication to many observers that the Government has remote jdfaa about the erection of a terminal railway station in Wellington, the plans for which have been prepared months ago. The Minister for Hallways (tho Hon. J. A. Millar), when consulted on tho matter, stated that the gear was only being installed for tho working of goods traffio at'Thorndon, and that 'tile matter of th» new station "had not yet been boforo Cabinet." So that whilst the Minister says that tho installation of new gear at Thorndon lias nothing to do with tho new station, Cabinet is not, it seems, troubling its head about the new station at all. Wellington docs not demand an elaborate station—an expensive architectural monument—but it floes need a structure worthv of tho southern terminus of tho Main Trunk lino and tho Empire City, and neither lean-to at Thorndon or Lambton answers that description. Sub* urban residents were under tho impression that when tho new lino down the grad» from the embankment at Kaiwarra was laid (consequent upon the alteration* necessitated by the latest reclamation; works between ICaiivarra and tho Thorndon Esplanade) that it would run into tile Lambton Station, and so convey pooplo into tho town, instead of depositing them at the extreme end of tho city, with a long shelterless road between tlwin and Lambton Quay—a bad bit of road to over oil winter mornings and clonings; livery visitor who arrives by the Main Trunk express gains a poor impression^of Wellington, by being under tho necessity of taking a cab or a car to reach the nearest hotel which caters for tho travelling public. A correspondent, "Suburban, states that they wore led to bolieve that the Jolinsonville-Khandallah-Ngaio trains wero to run into Lambkin soon after the Government took over tho line, but rocont developments hav'o killed that hope, and the Minister's dictum that Cabinet has not even considered the new station is a nail in its coffin. As Mayor of Wellington and member for a suburban seat, he desires to. call Mr. Wilford's at tentiou to tho Minister's statement.