CARRYING CATTLE BY RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5394, 1 March 1879, Page 6

CARRYING CATTLE BY RAILWAY.

TO THE EDITOK. SiK, —Now that the carrying of fat cattle from the Waikato by rail is the principal means adopted, it behoves the railway au thorities to retain the monopoly by taking every precautionary measure in order to prevent injury to the cattle wnilst in their charge. At the present time I regret to any that very little trouble is taken to prevent the cattle from being severely bruised, very often to the serious lass of the consignor, and more frequently to the butcher who i* the subsequent purchaser. 1 will try to point out briefly wherein thcevil Ht\s, and hope those whoso duty it is to do so will provide a speedy remedy. Every person acquainted with the matter knows that trie cattle take very little, if any, harm whilst the train is in motion, and it is only when stopping and bhuntiug that the injury is sustained, lience the desirability of getting tlu-m out immediately the train stopd, and you, air, would think it only reasonable for a person to get his cattle whenever he went to receive them. Under existing circumstances, however, this cannot be done—at any rate, it cannot aa far as I'emuera, the principal station for fat stock, is concerned. The train with fat cattle leaves Ohaupo at 0 o'clock p.m., aud is due at lieinuera some time after midnight, and the cattle have to remain in the trucks until daylight, which, a3 the winter approaches, will be after 0 o'clock a.m., or over live hours after arrival, aud a person ha* only to be somewhere in the vicinity to full}' realise what the cattle suffer during that time. lam fully aware that the stationmaster at Kemuera has plenty of day work to do, and cannot be expected to get up in the night to let cattle out; but if the authorities arc obliged to ruu traius at night, they certainly ought to make provision to give the cattle up in the night if people go for them. One morning last weer. a largo bullock was down iu the truck and seveu others were trampling over him. The result was a depreciation of £5 in the value of that bullock to the butcher. On one or two occasions it has been found necessary to leave two or three trucks of cattle at Mercer, the load was too heavy for the engine ; but they brought on dead merchandise (at least I am told they did), and left the cattle for the tirst morning train. rforne of those cattle were consigned to me, and X hapc it will uot be repeated with auy more that I have to do with. Then, sir, a good number of the cattle truck* have smoota bottom*, and when they b'come wet, iu consequence of no foothold, the cattle might almost as well b»standing on ice, and if one happens to get down, there is very litile likelihood of his getting up agaiu. I have been complaining of those trucks for a long time, and hoped gentlemen m»»re interested than X am would nave taken the matter up ; but the trucks are still without battens, aud unless some protest against the evil is lo.'lged, they are likely to remain so. There are several other matters that require alteration, but I have no time just now to write about them; but the evils t have already complained of require immediate attention, and I hope the railway authorities will be prompt in suggesting and providing a remedy.—X am, &c., F. Lawiiy.