RAILWAY SIDINGS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 140, 15 June 1909, Page 3

RAILWAY SIDINGS.

Some matters in regard to railway sidings were brought before the Minister for Railways (Hon. J. A. Millar) by the member for Eiccarton (Mr. WittyJ yesterday. Mr. Witty urged the need for concessions in regard to railway sidings. He said that there were no facilities provided for farmers to store their grain. They had to pay £75 to obtain a siding, and £25 a year for the right to use it. He pointed out that if at country stations where there was no shed accommodation the Minister allowed the farmers to put up sheds alongside the line, and run sidings into them, the department would be able to take their time in sending trucks to transport the grain, and in many cases it would save handling the stufb twice. The Minister said that it was a, practical "suggestion which could be worked effectively, but there was this objection — that the department obtained considerable revenue from sidings put up by merchants, who paid £50 a year for them, and who might object that the department were subsidising farmers to store their grain elsewhere. Mr. Witty said that he only asked for sidings where none at present existed. The Minister said that these proposed sidings would have to be run as co-opeia-tive affairs amongst the farmers themselves. If by providing them for £10 instead of £25 a year, he could save tht cost of building one hundred trucks, it .vould be a. good thing from the department's point of view. Messrs. Witty and Craigie remarked, in reference to' the shortage of trucks, that next season there would probably be 50 per cent, more grain to be transported than this sea.?bn, owing to farmers going in moie for grain because of reduced prices for frozen mutton, etc. SAID IN A SENTENCE. "The things that make for the prosperity of a country are plenty of good' land and liberty to manage its own affairs. — Mr. J. Duncan. , "I was talking over this matter with a farmer, and he said : 'We don't want a Dreadnought; we want more railway trucks.'" — Mr. J. C. Thomson. "One of the most remarkable steps ever taken by a public man in New Zealand." — Mr. Herdman on the Premier's offer of a Dreadnought. "I calculate that the proposals of the Leader of the Opposition, with regard to navy contribution and compulsory training, would run this country into an expenditure of close cm a million a year."' — Mr. J. C. Thomson. "A very" high authority has said that the man who sent our volunteers to meet an invading force would bo guilty of minder." — Mr. .1. C. Thomson. "A great deal of dissatisfaction exists amongst s.ailors of the Austiahan squadion because colonial sailois are paid at a higher rate. That is a very dangerous thing." — Mr. J. Allen. 'Hie Orerman Navy League, says Mr. J. C Thomson, has branches in eveiy village and hamlet, find contiibntcs moie for the spread of its piopnganda than does the British Navy League.

A twelve-year-old boy was charged at the Magistrate's Court yesterday, before :Mr. W. 14. Riddell, S.M., with breajdng and entering v private residence at Pelone. The case was dismissed. Sergeant Forster, of Petone, proxecuicd, mud Mv, V. \\. Jackson dei fended. *