WELLINGTON'S NEW STATION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 26, 31 January 1923, Page 4

WELLINGTON'S NEW STATION

"» IBS EDIIC*,

. Suy-Wift much pleasure I We read X ? of the Sydney "Sun" that Wellington ,is at last to have its long-looked-for and much-needed new railway station. Yet just how very much it was needed I never fully realised during my many years' residence in one of the city's suburbs. My first visit to the Sydney Central Railway Station, with its huge, and lofty assembly hall, its grill, dining,, and tea rooms, soda fountains, fruit and sweet stalls, nnmeroos book stalls (N.S.W. Bookstall Company), showcases front leading firms displaying charming creations in frocks, lingerie, etc., and recently a, chemist's shop, haß been installed in one corner of the hall, -which, needless to say, is much' patronised by the fair sex, who find it very convenient, should they decide that their pow-der-puff requires replenishing before retiring to, the privacy of the ladies' dress-ing-room, with its many mirrors, tiled vails, many Wends of perfumes, and charming giris, c-ach one diligently engaged in trying to make herself look still more charmhu;. Pm afraid I've given more spacs to the damsels than I intended, and was about to say that at my first visit, remembering that it is commanded "that he who hath eyes, It,t him see," I lifted mine eyes;, and 10, I beheld those things which I huve described. An-i it eamo to pass that my fieart was filled with shame, -for I beheld, as in a vision, across the sea which is called the Tasman, and in the city which is named Wellington, and which is. the capital of the land of New Zealand, a little wooden shed (I nearly said hut). And verily, the shed which I beheld in .my vision was the railway station of the capital city of the land of New Zealand. And the inhabitants of the city of Wellington numbered about 80,000 persons, Anyway, it /all seems very unreal to me now, and seems to be something looming nightmareishly out of the dim and distant. ' Do, or did, the huddled, waiting passengers really flee and scatter before a truck load of goods, propels led by "a porter, who cried, " 'Way, please," and who would relentlessly run. into Hie hind leg as "ole Brer Fox" would have it, "the behine laig" of tb« Dreamy Daniels? And is, or was, that funny little black board, with the pointing finger (of scorn?) indicating everything still hung up and removed after the departure of a train? And were* tha porters, guards, and even the stationmaster pursued by frantic- and despairing persons, wanting to know about the next train to "Somewhere" ? Well, now, is it not pleasant and satisfying after the above disturbing,throughts, to reflect that there is "corn in Egypt yet," even unto the extent of over half a million pounds, which sum I understand is to be expended in the erection of the newstation; indeed, it ought to be some station for that amount —one worthy of the capital. " See it? Sure I'll see it— and come back here to brag* At present I'm like poor Brer Rabbit, first got to lay low and say nuffin—and keep en sayin' nuffin."

But I can brag about a few things ; the florists' artistic windows in Wellington, for instance, compared with—but that is another story for another tims. I must not forget to mention before closing of the very simple yet aU-sufficienii indicating-board at the Central her*. It is divided into eighteen parts, to represent the eighteen platforms. Over each part is a clock, and under the clock the name of a particular line, and under- that again a list of all the stations on that line. The hands of the clock point to the hour at which the train leaves ou its journey through these stations. A board on much the same lines indicated the arrival of trains. Porters ! They're hardly ever seen, doing their vrorie "below," where the luggage goes down to them in lifts. Professional porter* appear at the departure and arrival of. such trains as the Melbourne express, but they do not receive wages from the Railway Department. A tram-line run-i ning right into the station is very convenient for those with slender purses, and a garden for the public right in front is very restful, and lends a not* of colour to the building.—l am, etc., A NEW ZEALANDER IN SYDNEY, Sydney, 23rd January.