Page 4 Advertisements Column 6

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3753, 24 January 1898, Page 4

Correspondence- i ♦— S TRAIN ARRANGEMENTS. 1 TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — As I anticipated you have not complied with my request and pulled my letter to pieces on public ground, and wore it not for a lew inaccuracies in yo'ir almost colorless foot note I should not have replied. My facts and arguments have proved unanswerable and have not been shaken, and now you descend to banter and poor attempts at wit to cover your retreat, in place of what I wished at the outset would have been a fair and instructive argument on facts and reasonable deductions. Firstly you say "For instance in his first letter he said we had begun our letter by explaining that there was a desire for change all along the line except at Hawera. We did not either commence or end by so explaining or admitting." Understand I did not as I have just done profess to quote your exact words. You did say "an agitation is being worked up at^Patea, Stratford, and New Plymouth to get a re- ,, arrangement of the railway time-table." Common sense will tell you that in fact although not in words, you did say what I attribute to you, and your contradiction is only a play on words. Does not a re-arrangement necessarily involve a change ? and considering that Patea commences on the water's edge and New Plymouth ends on the water's edge, and Stratford is about the centre, omitting Hawera as I did, are not my words exactly true to any persons wishing to arrive at the truth and not to quibble at phrases. "With regard to dodging the financial aspect, as you have required an impossibility of me, namely, to prove a success that which has rot been tried, it is in logic you who must fail and not me, as having arrived at an impossibility we cannot go further. I will, however, give facts again to prove that your axle greasing suggestion is useless as an argument for or against. The train was started to run through about February, 1886, and ran till September, "1886 — all through the autumn and winter months it left here at 6.15 a.m. For many months intending passengers had to get up in the night and get breakfast and reach the station, nearly a mile from town, before daybreaK — hardly a fair trial as far as passengers are concerned, and certainly ; no trial as far as goods were concerned. Tho ordinary imports for 1887 (I cannot get 1886, but they were even smaller), omitting coal and stock, were 2§53 tons. ' Last year they were 6452. The exports in 1887 were valued at JE33,186, for 1896 they were JG113,784,and last year (1897) there was another increase of 786 bales of wool alone ; hence the volume of trade in grass has much more than trebled itself. Now apart from the vast increase in population and the necessity for intercourse with the Land Registration Court and Education Offices, etc., how can an honest debaetr put before your readers the axle-greasing argument and conceal such facts as these which you were in possession of. That convenience educates to requirement constitute a sufficient ground for recommencing the service, and not as it was last time as a temporary measure on iti trial, and apparently intended to be killed, but as a permanency which the public can calculate upon. As the various points regarding the time table have been fully debated and reduced to facts, I will not labor the point by replying to your " fudge." Plainly we have no right to detain traffic and passengers at Hawera or auywhere else four hours on any day in the' week, and words will not enable you to prove the contrary. You make a joke (the stock method of getting out of a tight place) with regard to a drum being beaten to organise the Chamber. No such thing occurred. As a matter of fact, the Chamber was well organised with good solid men before you thought of organising such an institution, (sic) and it was Hawera that formed there not I trust from the narrowest of local motives, but openly and fairly to conserve the commercial interests of the districts and all matters of interest to the West Coast. I may perhaps be pardoned for feeling some pride that amongst the " constant attacks on Hawera from north and south " mine has been of a sufficiently telling nature to be chosen for answering and at such length and pains. It has not, however, been time wasted if it has educated the public in the facts and arguments brought out and which, so far as the views of this Chamber are concerned, are now satisfactorily fought out. — I am, &}., Gervase D. Hamerton. Chairman Chamber of Commerce Pateap [We are glad to» leave Mr Hamerton a proud man at having received so much attention, but it was due to his official position and may be taken as an earnest of our desire to treat his town and the body he speaks for with respect. As to the discussion itself the public must judge who has had the best of it, but we venture to say that Mr Hamerton will have to be more specific to the Minister of Railways than he has been in his letters. — Ed.| SANDERSON'S SCOTCH." Established 1896. Original blenders of Whisky in bond. DIADEM TOBACCO. T. C. Williams' Finest Aromatic. Ml" /CAMPBELL, • O . V^AMPBELL, GENERAL STOREKEEPER, High-sreet, Hawera. Has just opened up two crates of Crockery and Glassware, suitable for Xinss trade. Children's Tea fiets : real good value. Now currants, elmes, sultanas, &c, Puro date vinegar Jordan and Valencia almonds Muscatels Try (she Excursion Washer. Thoroughly washes the clothes without the labor of rubbing. Presents given away to purchasers of 3 packets. Chinese Laundry Glaze Blazorinu Stove Polish To arrive — Canterbury hams and Daeon. M. J. CAMPBELL, ' General Storekeeper, | High-street ... Hawera. i F H V I T. AND CONFKOTIONEKY IN LARGE VAIUIiITY AT j.l W. CA X TENTER'S, tho Kuroptun Fruiterer. Nrxt M. .1 O'Pnni'cll, Draper, High Strot't - - Hawera CHIEF Brand Worsted and Serge Suits in newest shades ami styles for bpring.