LITTLE GREY NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 22 July 1901, Page 3

LITTLE GREY NOTES.

(OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Timber traffic Arrangements. A public meeting is shortly to be held at Ikamatua to impress on the Bailway authorities the urgent necessity of improving traffic arrangements at that place. The main grievance is that the storage space for timber, especially 'railway sleepers, is quite inadequate to the requirements. The sawmill proprietors and and the various parties of sleeper cutters, are. under contract to supply a large number of sleepers per month, and are very much hampered by having to leave the sleepers lying at the mill, or in the hush, owing to want of space at the railVivay station. A few hundred sleepers, or a thousand or two feet of timber left at the station, so completely blocks the yard that it is impossible for the tSher waggons to turn. The want of sufficient trucks

adds to the hardship, but as this is a

general complaint all over the colony and appears to bo immediately irremediably, business men are willing to put up with it for a time. The matter of space, however, is one which conld be set right m a week bv the employment of a ballast train and an energetic gang of men. Some months ago Mr Burnett, Inspecting Engineer, visited the district and promised that the yard should be enlarged, Mr Crombio, the Traffic Manager, has also been interviewed on the matter, and he, likewise, gave those concerned reason to hope that the matter would be attended to. Nothing has been done, however, and the grievance has become unbearable.

In a short time the Public Works, Doi partment will be calling tenders for' the h repairing of the Big Grey bridge, and i 1 when these repairs' are affected all the | traffic of the Upper Grey, such as dredg- £ Ing machinery, coal, etc., will pass through * Ikamatua railway station instead of Totara Fiat. In these circumstances it is imperative that something should be done, and the residents are determined to make their influence felt in the matter. Station Master for Ikamatua. Another want which is to receive the 'attention of the meeting is the establishment of a station master at Ikamatua. This station serves a very large district, c nnprising Nobles, Upper Grey, Little . Grey Junction, Ikamatua, Blackwater and other places, and has a goods and passenger traffic quite equal to such stations as Ahauraand Totara Flat which are accommodated with a station master. As there is an unoccupied residence attached to the station, very little expense would he incurred by the Department over and aboveV the salary of the station master. It seems probable also that the Post and Telegraph department would pay part of the salary as the official could act also in. the capacity of postmaster. The meeting is sure to be well attended, and it is sincerely to be hoped that,its representatives will meet, with the success they deserve.