CASUAL RAMBLINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9635, 6 October 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

CASUAL RAMBLINGS.

Or A. TRAMP, ESQ. J

[WRITTEN FOR AUCKLAND WEEKLY NEWS.]

A RAILWAY RIDE ACROSS THE

ISLAND.

NEW PLYMOUTH-NAPIER SECTION.

(Continued.) A Libellous Pill-Mr. Milchelsoii Defended-A Tough Contract— Making Roads Without Money -On New Plymouth Station- Attentions Paid to

Strangers— Hungry Travellers—Familiar Paces-

Newton Kins— Masher Clark— £. M. Smith— Rail-riding M.ll.lt.'s—The Independent Member

—Toil' Walsh, the Guard — Dangerous FeatWhistle— Awaysentry Hill.

! Tinkle ting.' ling ling ting! Five minutes' bell, and we are on New Plymouth station ; ib is a Tuesday morning, and the train starts at seven a.m. The " Breakwater" special has jast arrived with the passengers off the Auckland boats, .and there is considerable bustle on the plat form. Our New Plymouth brethern and sistern—specially the sistorn—are a very warm-hearted and sociable set. No matter how early, or how late the hour, they will crowd the station to welcome the coming, and speed the departing guests. The solitary traveller need never feel friendless on arrival at New Plymouth. The crowd at most stations is influenced by idle curiosity; at the postal stations business is combined with pleasure, anil the go?sipers are waiting for their letters. But at New Plymouth it is the pure milk of human kindness towards the stranger, and the friendly interest they feel in the incomings and outgoings of their neighbours and acquaintances that cause the Kumikums to congregate upon the railway platform. Yes, they are always open to take in strangers—of course I mean in a Christian spirit. They will even take you in to have a drink, or a game of cards— euchre is their game—or to sell you a horse —you may never get delivery of the animal, but you will be asked to pay for it all the same, just as I was the other day by their popular auctioneer ; or they will take you in a cab for a minute's drive and not charge you more than at the rate of sixty shillings an hour. Their attentions on the station are oppressive at timea, but generally their cheerful looks and good temper have a rather soothing effect upon the anxious and hungry travellers. Empty stomachs, as everybody knows, ate apt to be irritable, especially after being "dumped" upon New Plymouth breakwater at five o'clock in the morning, and"a stiff sou'-wester's blowing Bill." The over-sea passengers are easily distinguishable after a rough trip, by their pale greenery, yallery complexion, their unkempt hair—if they have any—their woeful tucked up below-the-belt appearance, and the feeble state of excitement in which they flutter hither and thither after their luggage or their tickets. It is more than probable they have swallowed nothing since leaving the Manukau at one o'clock the previous day, and, such are the railway arrangements, the through passenger is not afforded an opportunity of obtaining anything more ■substantial and exhilarating than an indigestable sandwich and a cup of tea, of varying weakness, till he arrives at Aramoho on the following afternoon.

The passengers with the "shining morning face," bright with comfort and contentment, leisurely taking their seats and opening their " Daily News" paper, are Commercials from the Cri, full of kai, and local business men who have had a good night's rest and put themselves outside a substantial breakfast before starting. Among- the local "familiar faces and forms" may be noticed the round and rosy proprietor of the " Inglewood Record" going to business— he is to be seen every morning. There is the affable auctioneer, Air. Newton King— "a name to conjure with" in Taranaki— going to Stratford to hold his regular stock sale. Here stalks with slow and deliberate steps Mr. bank-manager Clark, up to his ears in starch, accoutered in the newest " tiff-toff" old chappie style, with his bank bag, his revolver, his hunting crop, his maud, his parti-coloured stockings— " ees got 'em on"Aucklanders will have no difficulty in recognising an old friend. Mr. Clark is on his weekly journey to Stratford, where he opens bank for the convenience of his clients in that district. He is the most urbane of bankers, delightfully goodnatured, and if he would only dress respectably, and not make a clotheshorse of himself, it would leave nothing to be desired in him as a man, a citizen, and a banker. There is the great E.M. too, fresh as the pink in his buttonhole, taking his seat for Wellington, " must be in the 'ouae to-night sir, that's me." By a small section of his constituents " the member" is thoroughly disliked, but that don't affect his spirits much, he is the man of the masses, and with them he is popular. To his party he is as true as steel from his own Taranaki ironsand.

Nothing disgusts a constituency more than bo be represented by a rail rider. Another unsatisfactory representative is the independent member. Save us, oh! save us, from the independent member. The constituency that returns an independent member sells its birthright for a mess of pottage. Look at Auckland's city independent member ; a spectacle for gods and men, neither useful nor ornamental,

E. M. 'aint built that way. He was returned to support the Government, and does it with all his might, and his constituents pat him on tho back, and say " Well done, thou good and faithful servant." He is a favourite with the House notwithsband-

ing his flippant egotism —more apparent than real—for beneath all his showman tricks lies a solid stratum of common sense.

His proposal that E. M. Smith, M.H.R., should be assisted Home for the purpose of convincing tho British capitalist that there i.« money in Taranaki ironsand, although it shocks tho political morality of the House, is not such an unreasonable proposition as it appears at first sightit is not the deed itself that shocks the House, bub the open and candid manner in which he does it. ~E. M. has conclusively proved that better and cheaper iron can be produced from Taranaki ironsand than can be imported. The advantage the colony will derive from t'o production of its own iron must b . admitted, and that Mr. Smith is the person most likely to succeed in floating a company for that purpose will hardly be questioned —l am willing to contribute my mite of assistance toward his mission. Besides tho largo sums the colony ha 3 spent in advertising itself in various ways, its heavy contributions to Buller's bird-stuffing exploitation, and the cost of John White's " Ancient) History of tho Maoris," the modest amount begged for by E. M. Smith is a mere bagatelle —l .vish he may get it. Seats ! that's Tom Walsh giving tongue. Tom has bnen on this run, New Plymouth to Ha\vera,ijfor a great many years. He considers overlooked when they were choosing a Chief Commissioner of Railways — due no doubt to his pronounced Homo Rule views. A good guard, bub inclined to bo tricky. As he has been shot out of his van head-first, more than once while the train was at full speed, and still lives, I take it he must have followed tho circus profession in his early youth. The wonderful facility with which guards and station-masters can alight on their feet from a train in motion is only acquired by long custom, and although it looks simple enough, it is an acrobatic feat that all railway passengers should rofrain from attempting. I tried it once, and can speak from experience ; I have- no distinct recollection which part of my anatomy I landed on, but by the time I found my feet, the train was out of sight. Seats! Stand back, there ! The stationmaster, Mr. Bass, having soothed and settled all the passengers and their troubles in his quiet, unassuming, good-natured way, and seen everything clear, signals " Due away,"Ting-ling-ling ! Travers, the engine driver, tightens his grip on the lever, Tom raises his hand and whistles, the engine replies, and we whistle our way out of New Plymouth. October '74, saw the first twelve miles of our east and west main trunk opened— Napier to Hastings. The next, Now Plymouth to Waitara, was completed a year later. It was added to piece by piece at various times, and the final gap, Woodvillo to Palmerston, closed about three years ago, so it cannot be said the line was constructed with ill-considered haste. The West Coast portion of it was laid off on the lines of a "light mountain railway." So far as tho " mounting " goes it realizes expectations, but it is anything but light in places. Before we are clear of New Plymouth there is a stiff grade to climb, which wo do slowly. Elliott-street passed, the pace improves, and we scoot across the broad terrace between Egmonb and the sea, rising gradually all the time, through Bell Block, till we come to Sentry Hill junction, where wo back down and take a rest. Here we meet the Waitara express with Guard Stark in command, and Mr. Vardloy in the engine-cab with his cap well down bohind his ears and his best Sunday go-to-meeting smile on. Mr. Stark, the guard, is of a dry, facetious temperament, and always ready to point a moral or adorn a tale. Guards as a class are not humourists — Stark is singular. "Sentry Hill change here for Waitara." The easiest billets on the line are to be found at the Waitara and Foxton branches, —it is a tie between them which has tho less to do—which does not .say much for these two Port-holes.

In the old war time a sentry is said to have walked up and down this station—his name may have been Hill. Anyhow, the railway authorities have perpetrated both the practice and the name. The passengers now do the "sentry go," and kill time during the " waits" between the arrival and departure of their trains—said waits are never less than ten minutes, and rarely exceed an hour. While the engine waters travellers can—on Tuesdays and Fridays only—refresh themselves with a bun. As there is a new station being erected at Sentry Hill, which will shorten the wait and Improve the accommodation, I shall not ventilate the general grievance of the old one. Seats. Hawera train !