The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume III, Issue 353, 24 November 1882, Page 2

The Star.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24., 1882. THE HAWERA-NEW PLYMOUTH RAILWAY.

It is to be hoped that visitors to this part of the colony do not form their judgment of the qualities of the residents by the couditiou and management of the railway. If they unfortunately do, it were no wonder if we should gain a reputation for slowness, sleepiness, and dirtiness. In the first place, an unconscionably long time is taken to do the journey between Hawera and New Plymouth, and vice versa. The distance is 48 miles, the time occupied in travelling it three hours and forty minutes, so that the travelling is about thirteen miles an hour. No doubt the line, like all the others in New Zealand, is light, and therefore a high rate of speed in not to be expected. We do not complain about that. It is the settled policy of the country that the railways shall be of light construction, in order that a greater length may be laid down, and a greater number of persons given the benefit of railway communication, hut 13 miles an hour, and that on a comparatively level line, is beyond a joke. The Wanganui lines are not very much to boast of, but between Wanganui and Foxtou and Wanganui and Waverley the trains ruu two miles an hour faster than on our local line, averaging about 15 miles an hour. The fifty miles between Wellington and Peatherston, over the tortuous Hutt section and across the huge Riinutaka range, with its heavy grades and ponderous Fell engines, was for a considerable period done in three hours and fifteen minutes, and perhaps it is now done in less time. We cannot help thinking that much better time could be made on the local line' were there more care over the minutes. On an average, we should say that nearly a minute could be saved at each of the stations. Occasionally shuntiug would take up the full time now allowed, but in such cases, considering the very slow rate at which the trains run

when travelling between stations, tliere sliould be no difficulty in making up time without any risk. I£ the savings we have indicated could be made, the journey might be brought clown to three hours and twenty minutes, and perhaps to the quarter, a circumstance that would be very comforting to travellers. But not only is the journey long, but very uncomfortable. The carriages must be the refuse of all the other Hues in the colony. They shriek and creak and rattle, the doors and windows work so stiffly as to be extremely provocative to profanity, and the matting on the floors is ragged and tattered In fact, there is a general air of poverty and dirt. Then, is there any particular reason why, when the train does start from the numerous stations at which it rests, it should do so with a rush and a violent bound which almost throws the unwary passenger to the floor ? If we except Hawora, the stations are in keeping with other appointments. Broken windows and dirty floors are the most notable features. New Plymouth ha? been, and still is about the worst of the lot, and although a penurious G-overnment is now doing that which should have been clone years ago, and building a station worthy of the importance of the town, the present inconvenience to travellers is almostbeyond endurance. The condition of the line is not at all in harmony with its surroundings, for all the way from here to New Plymouth, energy, enterprise, thrift, and cleanliness are veritably making a wilderness of bush to blossom as the rose, and transforming the fastnesses of the forest into a chain of thriving well-to do settlements. Let the railway management wake up to a sense of its duties. There is plenty of room for improvement. The civility and attention of the officials with whom the public are brought into contact, form the only redeeming feature of the concern.