RAILWAY STATION GARDENS

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1786, 26 November 1936, Page 4

RAILWAY STATION GARDENS

KIWITAHI PORTER’S HOBBY Travellers by train .on the Rotorua line often comment on the splendid display of flowers round about the little Kiwitahi railway' station, between Morrinsville and Walton. Gardening is one of the hobbies of Mr. Don Reid, the tablet porter who has been stationed at Kiwitahi for many years. He has made gardens •up and down the platform, with roses climbing about the detached waiting-room. The ‘ clay soil left when the station was formed did not at first look a likely placd for- a garden, but Mr. Reid now has more flowers round his. station than would be found on many householders’ quarter-acre sections. Behind the station, where there was once tall fescue, one-now finds more flowers and a lawn. Rock plants are now beginning to cover the clay banks around the station, and Mr. Reid is contemplating planting quick-grow-ing roses, such as are used for beautifying cuttings. Time was when the Kiwitahi sta4 tion was the chief outlet for Kereorie soldier settlers going to and from Morrinsville. That was in the olden days when unmetalled roads and horse-traffic made everyone realise the value of the railways. Nowadays everyone in the Kereone-Kiwitahi district seems to have a car, and the journey to Morrinsville by road is only a matter of minutes.

The Khvitahi station still carries on a brisk traffic in goods and live stock. Thousands of fat lambs will be trucked there during the summer, as sheepfarmers for miles around find it more convenient to load their lambs at the quiet Kiwitahi station than to drive them along the main highway to Morrinsville.