25 YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 8

25 YEARS AGO

Improved Sleeping Cars (From “The Dominion," December 18, 1914). A sleeping-car oi new design for use on the North Island Main Trunk line has been built in the Petone workshops. It is the same size over all as the ordinary express coach for the New Zealand railways, but a saving in. space is made bv the' absorption into the covered part of the car of the space usually taken up by the end platforms. The carriage will have to be entered always from the platform of an adjoining one. . This has made possible greater comfort m the accommodation for passengers Instead of four four-berth and two two-berth cabins, this car has five two-berth and two fourberth cabins, and the two-berth cabins which in the old-style are too narrow to allow full-grown persons to take easy postures when sitting up in the daytime! are quite a foot wider and of & very comfort’ able size. The carriage is ht throughout with electrict light, for which the current is supplied from a dynamo driven from an axle of one of the bogies, and storage batteries will suffice to keep the carriage lighted for 50 or 60 hours after the train stops, if necessary. Several other minor improvements make generally for comfort or greater cleanliness where such improvements were most desirable.

From inquiries instituted yesterday it was ascertained that the rise in price of bread in Wellington will probably date from January 1 of next year. Wellington bakers state that even if they could procure flour at the price fixed by the Food Commission (£l3/10/- a ton f.o.b. in the south) there is no margin of profit m selling a 21b. loaf at 4LI. If. as rumoured, the price will approximate 6/- a bushel, there will be every probability of tlie 2 lb. loaf being raised to sd.