Haulage of Fruit.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4338, 16 December 1909, Page 5

Haulage of Fruit.

The Secretary of the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association (Mr W. G. Gould) has forwarded the following letter to the Minister of Railways (the Hon. J. A. Miller): — " Railway Siding at Te Aro for Fruit: I have the honour to bring this matter under your favourable consideration, as one of very great importance to members of my Association. We brought this matter under the notice of the Hon HallJones, while Mintster for Railways, and got a promise of favourable consideration, as the late Minister for Railways fully appreciated the reasonableness of the request. " Your Department has provided our growers with excellent waggons for the canveyance'of their fruit to Wellington, which have proved a great boon to shippers. But now that the chief Wellington fruit market has been removed to Courtenay Place, Te Aro, much of this benefit has been lost to us owing to the long haulage from the Wellington railway station, while Te Aro station is alongside our market. "We would therefore ask you to try and arrange that our produce may be discharged at the Te Aro station instead of at Wellington railway station, as at present. By so doing you will not only save growers considerable cartage charges, but also enable us to land our fruit in Wellington in better order, especially in the case of dessert peaches, grapes, nectarine's, apricots etc., which are easily damaged when carted over such a distance as at present is necessary. "In the interests of the H.B. Fruitgrower's supplying your city I trust you will see your way to making this further concession and convenience to the trade, for which we would certainly be willing to pay a small charge to cover the cost of haulage of the fruit waggons between the two stations."