RAILWAY STATION GARDENS

Mataura Ensign, Issue 19, 13 August 1895, Page 2

RAILWAY STATION GARDENS

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, — A pleasing practice, originating first on the Continent of Europe, and afterwards introduced into England— the beautifying of railway premises by the forming of wardens— has of lata years been inaugurated in Australia and New Zaaland also. At Home, substantial prizes are yearly offered for competition among the stationmasters of the United Kingdom for the best kept station garden, for which there are hundreds of competitors. These gardens are made and maintained by the railway officials after business hours, and it is here where an important difference occurs between the customs in England and thoso prevailing in parts of New Zealand that I wish to strongly emphasise. I will take the case of the garden at the Gore railway station, not as an isolated example, but one in which the taxpayer who has to pay for this luxury can more readily follow the thread of my argument. When it was decided by the railway officials concerned to make a garden at the Gore station, it was found that the soil— or rather, absence of soil — was unfavorable to the successful growth of plants and shrubs, consequently supplies of tha required commodity have been drawn from all points of the compass— from Thornbury, Wyndbam. Conical Hills, liutnsden and elsewhere I believe— the regular surfacemen have been taken from their usual duties to fill waggons, and others at Gore have been employed emptying them. Tbe waggons thus employed were used during the busiest portion of the railway year— viz., the grain season, a time in which even the Hon. J. G. Ward himself would not be allowed to keep a single waggon more than a couple of hours without using it — a time, moreover, in which farmers had to stack their bags of grain outside in the open air through lack of room in goods-sheds, risking, it may be, irreparable damage to their solitary source of revenue should a storm appear on the scene ; and all this time waggons were kept running back and forth, carting earth for the Goro station garden, when they might have been earning pounds sterling to tbe Department, in conveying freight which would yield a monetary return. Another and more serious aspect of affairs is involved in this question. It is well known to all that no branch of the Railway Department—particularly the Maintenance Department—is over-manned, and in the natural course of things, surfacemen have their time fully occupied in attending to, and keeping in repair, the permanent way. What than, I would ask, is the logical supposition when surfacemen are taken- from their proper duties te enter pro tern into the nursery and horticultural business? Why, that the permanent way' ia being neglected to the danger of the public and its own detriment. If an outsider had formed such a garden as we have at the Gore station, it would have cost him considerably over LSOO, and although probably not one-half of this, sum has been actually disbursed upon it by the Government, labor, haulage, material loss of revenue through the waggons referred to, in value considerably in excess of the sum I quote, has to be provided by the taxpayers of the colony. -•' I also believe as soon as this garden is put in a thorough state of cultivation; that one of the permanent staff is to devote portion of his time to its caro during regular hours. By this— if true— it would seem as if the Government placed more value upon the existence of macrocarpas, violets and pansies, than the safe conveyance of their patrons who have occasion to use tha railway. If a gardener is required, why is one not engaged, instead of throwing the whole onus of the thing upon an already hard^worked set of Officials ? Then again, this garden to be a success must be fenced— additional expense— as at -present, tha station yard is open to tbe depredations of horses and cattle at all hours and seasons. In conclusion, I would suggest that the Department improve the condition and accommodation of their rolling stock before they spend large sums upon useless— if ornamental— wotk such as I have indicated. — I am, etc., BtUEQUJI.