THE THROUGH EXPRESS TRAINS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14982, 30 April 1909, Page 3

THE THROUGH EXPRESS TRAINS.

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —The Minister of Railways has notifiod Mr Buxton that the through express trains will not. be allowed to stop at Orari as requested, and his decision will be received with great regret and dissatisfaction throughout the districts affected. In his reply he states that his decision to omit Orari was only arrived at after mature consideration of the whole of the local conditions prevailing. Now, I venture to say that if Mr Millar had permitted the deputation which was appointed by a large meeting at Geraldine to wait on him, they could have brought very forcible arguments to prove that whoever is responsible for the new arrangements knows very little about the requirements of this particular district. The deputation wero prepared i at their own expense to go to Wellington to meet Mr Millar, if inconvenient to him to meet them elsewhere, and one cannot help siuunising that the reason of their not being allowed to do so, before ho came to a final decision, was that tho Minister of Railways thought that any arguments that might have been adduced to get the train to stop at Temuka could be brought to bear with greater force with respect to Orari. And here I would say that the people of Geraldine do not wish to interfere in any way with tho facilities that Temuka has been fortunate enough to obtainbut Orari, being approximately lialf-way between Timaru .and Ashburton, serves tho largest district not reached by these two- centres. f lit has beeq freely stated that had this district returned the old Government member, Orari would never have been omitted from the list of stoppingplaces. This is possibly so, but I cannot hold with those who think that Mr Millar would bo a party to depriving any'community of its rights simply on this score. In my opinion the reason is to be found in the fact that ho ha 3 no local knowledge of the district, and has been badly advised. Had Geraldine had the branch railway which

she should have, and Orari been a junction, no doubt the trains would have stopped; but because she has not got this connection, the railway authorities have lost sight of the fact that Orari is none the less a junction, and a very important one, though the journey to Geraldine has to be made in coaches. It is not likely that an attempt to side-track Geraldine is going to bo allowed to pass without very determined opposition. The volume of business conducted there is much greater than in most tdwns of similar size. Its stock sales are amongst the largest outside of Addington, while, apart from business considerations, it is becoming one of the most favoured residential districts in South Canterbury. Whether the railways should be run for the benefit of the people as a whole, or, for the convenience of a few tourists, is a matter of policy I need not dwell on, but it is pertinent to remark that one of the conditions .claimed for the fast services is the quick despatch and receipt of mails. Well, Geraldine gets the “ Lyttelton Times” and her letters at 2.30 p.m., and has no mail on the same day by which she can reply to them! I should state that the' mail for Geraldine is such a bulky one that they cannot throw it off (as they do, I believe, the mails of every other station at which the train does not stop), but it is carried on to Temuka, and then sent on by slow train. After carefully considering the circumstances, I am inclined to tho opinion that the trouble might be met in this way. Let the down-express stop at Orari. This will afford us an opportunity of receiving and replying to letters, and also allow passengers from Christchurch to return the same day, and will mean, probably, very little alteration of the time of the train reaching Invercargill, which cannot be of great importance. The up-train could, thoough it would still be inconvenient, omit Orari, thus allowing it to have full time to make its steamer connection at Lyttelton, which is, perhaps, one that would not admit of dolay.— I am, etc., ( Y. MALING. Geraldine, April 27.