"TAIHOA" STOCK TRAINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 5

"TAIHOA" STOCK TRAINS.

QUICKER DESPATCH NEEDED.

A further complaint in regard to the unsatisfactory conditions under which live stock are carried on the railways was made by Mr. I. Gray, president of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at yesterday's meeting of the Executive Committee of the association. He stated that on Monday last. a truck load of cattle was sent to him by the train leaving Tiiau at nine a.m. The train arrived at Papatoetoe punctually at seven p.m., but no cattle were on the train. It was discovered that the. cattle had been shunted off by error at Mercer. They were brought on by a later train, and it was not until nine o'clock that he got them out of the truck at Papatoetoe. He thought there should have been quicker despatch. Again, the other day three loads of stock were despatched to Rcmuera by the stock train leaving Cambridge at 8.15 a.m. The mid-day passenger train (connecting with the Rotor express) did not leave Cambridge till 12.5 p.m., but it overtook and passed the stock train at Pukekohe. It would probably be six p.m. before that train got to Remuera, which would represent an average speed of nine or 10 miles an hour. He also referred to the fact that the cattle were always placed immediately behind, the engine, and were thus exposed to the additional knocking about entailed by the continual shunting along the line. This should be avoided, and the time occupied by the journey might be lessened, especially as no stock was taken on on the Auckland side of Mercer.