A DEAD END.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1192, 29 July 1911, Page 10

A DEAD END.

DEAD DOCK AND DYING RAILWAY STATION. (By Sylvius.) That cemetery of dead 'hope—the old dock site at To Aro—prwents a particularly mournful and desolate fright at Hie present time. To note the grey weatherbeaten buildings, unteuantod save by tho keen southerly which shrieks through a hundred crannies; the crumbling concrete blocks—tombstones on the grave of a great project; the stacks of water-stain-ed pino piles, drawn from what was to have been tho bed of tho dock; the rustcaked tram-rails, and concrete boxes; and tho live docks which spring fecund from tho graveside of ono that was blasted before its bloom—all seem to indicate that this is "Wellington's dead end. Strangely enough the peculiar atmosphere of the locality—the morguo overlooks the deceased dock—is reflected in and about the To Aro .Railway Station, where the grass grows between tho vails. Shades of tramway management' denounced by the blustering Minister for Public Works, what of this railway station? You may pass it twenty times a day and not see the vestige of a train, engine, official, or anything to indicate that it is a railway station other than tho double set of rusting rails which lie between the fences and station buildings. There is a great, over-track bridge, which is never used save by jm occasional undesirable who ' wishes" fi> sleep off the effects "of his potations. So little is the station used nowadays that it startles the neighbourhood to hear tho shriek of an engine's whistle. This order of things is hardly natural for a hundred yards away Courtenay Place hums with life and tho house agents will tell ono that thero is no residential locality so much in demand as the lower slopes of Mount Victoria. Yet tho southeastern corner of Lainbton Harbour is a depressing spot. Circumstances have produced causes which havo kept back the development of the water-front at this point forat least five years. A dog-in-the-manger policy has brought about tho existence in tho heart of the city of a railway station which merely has a bowing acquaintance with railway traffic. So little is this station—-tho practical terminus of the Main Trunk line—used that it is of loss moment than many a flag station on a trunk line, yet it is nearer the actual living and business centre of the town than either Lainbton or Thorndon Stations; it is quito close to tho theatres and Town Hall; is within a fow hundred yards of (he wharves; and is within a biscuit-throw of all the principal food and produce markets in the city. "With tho glaring anomaly of si practically unused railway, station so di ..-ably located, of wh at value can tho op- ions of a member Of the Cabinet who <-notions such mismanagement be in reflecting on tho conduct of our tramway S3'stem?