THE RAILWAY REFRESHMENT ROOMS.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 50, 2 March 1881, Page 2

THE RAILWAY REFRESHMENT ROOMS.

Tenders are being invited, we observe, for the erection of refreshment rooms at the Upper Hutt Railway Station, in lieu of those at Kaitoke shortly to be closed. We have already expressed our deoided disapproval of this course, and we hope the intended change will even yet be abandoned. Upper Hutt is a great deal too near town for a refreshment room to be needed there at all, while a refreshment station is certainly needed between Upper Hutt and Masterton.' The journey from Wellington to Upper Hutt occupies only an hour, and nobody wants refreshment" so soon after leaving 'town. But it takes three hours and a half to travel from Upper Hutt to Masterton, and there are very few passengers who will not need something in the way of restoratives — whether solid or liquid — during that wearisome drag. We do not say that Kaitoke is the best place for a refreshment station, in fact we know it is not, because it is not midway, and there is nothing in the working of the line which renders necessary a long enough stay to be made there for refreshments to be enjoyed. Still, the chief objections to Kaitoke apply with tenfold greater force to Upper Hutt, which is still less of a midway station than Kaitoke. If railway exigencies reqnire the removal of the refreshment rooms trom Kaitoke, then the Summit or Cross Creek would be the proper place to transfer them to, but certainly not Upper Hutt, which would simply mean practically abolishing refreshments along the line altogether, except in the case of those persons who will drink anywhere for the mere sake of drinking, for assuredly passengers could hardly grow very hungry or thirsty in one hour after leaving town. If then it is considered undesirable to have a refreshment station at the Summit or Cross Creek, then it should be retained at Kaitoke. A refreshment station at Upper Hutt will be useless for any practical purpose, and can never be more than a mere drinking bar. It will be a monstrous thing if the comfort and convenience of passengers are deliberately disregarded, as will be the ca3e if this plan is carried out.