NO ROLLING STOCK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21945, 13 February 1946, Page 6

NO ROLLING STOCK

PICNIC FUNCTIONS GISBORNE WEEK-ENDS DEPARTMENT’S STATEMENT “The exolanation of .the department, in its second letter, appears to be quite reasonable. Obviously we cannot expect the railways management to send carriages empty to Gisborne to cater for picnic excursions,” said the chairman of the R.S.A. social committee, Mr. A. H. Berwick, at a meeting of the committee held last evening, when arrangements for the annual picnic of Diggers and Kiwis were under review. The committee was discussing two letters from the Railways Department in reply to applications for a special .train for the annual picnic.

The committee had made its original application some weeks ago, offering to provide the necessary coal to run the train. The reply to this letter was purely formal, and intimated that owing to the shortage of coal it was not possible to consider the application. The letter took no cognisance of the offer of the committee, made in anticipation of just such an answer. Journey Without l’ay-load

When the Minister of Railways made his recent statement that .the department was in a position to provide trains for occasional public outings, the application was renewed The answer on this occasion was that no rollingstock was available at Gisborne at week-ends, the district of carriages being in use on the GisborneWeilington express run. To cater for the committee’s proposal to run a special train to Te Karaka on a weekend date, it would be necessary to transfer carriages to Gisborne over long distances without pay-load. _ This, explanation was considered sufficient by the committee, which agreed that it would not be possible to conduct a week-end function depending on railway transportation from town, In view of the difficulty of finding suitable picnic-grounds within convenient range of Gisborne, the committee decided not to proceed with the annual function, but to concentrate upon organising a fancy-dress ball or similar function for the children of Diggers and Kiwis in place of the picnic. The function is .to be proceeded with as soon as the Army Hall is available for public use, after the removal of the surplus wool which now fills the building and debars all public organisations from using it.