A MINISTER AT MOSGIEL.

Evening Star, Issue 14633, 1 August 1911, Page 10

A MINISTER AT MOSGIEL.

HGN. T. MACKENZIE WAITED OX. The H*n. T. Mackenzie, Acting Post* jnaster-Genera] and Minister of AgncoJiurej arrived at Mosgiel last evening from Kaitangata. Jk deputation of Motnona settlers waited upon the Minister with a request that the Government should give them a Coronation grant towards the cost of erecting a public hall in the district. Messrs A. Mpynihau, Maxwell, and Melville were the speakers, and pointed out the necessity for a hall, wlijch would cost from £3OO to £350. Mr Mackenzie, after congratulating the residents 1 upon the spirit which had prompted them to go in for a hall, said they could depend upon his doing all that he could do for them, and if others were receiving these grants they would get their share. Other than that he could not say anything of a mom definite nature. At 9 o’clock the Minister attended a public meeting in the Exchange Hall, the object of which was to impress upon him the necessity for some train communication with' Mosgiel township. Mr A. F- Quelch said it was considered that the time had arrived when some if the trains from Dunedin might to Mosgiel Township railway station. A great number of the employees in the factory came to Mosgiel by train, and had to walk a mile or a nolo and a-halt from the station to the factory. A large number of their townspeople went to Dunedin by train each day.’ and the majority of them had to walk long distances to and fro. The workers’ train had been a big success, and if they were to bring those trains to the township that also would ho a decided success. Mr Mackenzie first returned thanks for the cordial welcome given him, and then said that when be returned to Wellington he would place the whole matter before Mr Millar. He would point nut to him the distance the workers wore from the station, and the fact that a great number of people travelled hetweeu Mosgiel and Dunedin, and between Mosgiel and Green Island, and also that the requisition was supported by the workers, who had to be considered. After the public meeting had dispersed a deputation consisting of the Mayor of the borough (Mr H. H. Inglis) and several councillors waited on the Minister. They also requested that the workers’ train should go to Mosgiel Township, and asked that the present site of the railway station should bo altered. Mr Mackenzie stated that the question of moving the railway station had been taken into consideration before, and he did not think it would be done. If they could not get the site altered when the work was being done at the station, it was hardly likely that the Government would now alter their mind. As for tho workmen's train, that seemed to be something that would make for the development of the place and the convenience of the people, and the matter would be placed before the department.