TE ARO RAILWAY AGAIN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8183, 26 July 1912, Page 6

TE ARO RAILWAY AGAIN

Tho organisation known as “ Te Aro Ballwav League ” is to again wait on the Minister for Railways next Monday.

It has been gleefully announced for the gentlemen who have interested themselves in securing a petition to the Government to proceed with the development of Te Aro railway station that they are backed by 35,000 people, because signatures have been attached to the document “representing the voice of seven thousand houses.” Each house, therefore, has five voices. This shows’ that our friends have been working with a will, and suggests that baby and the nnrsegirl were not forgotten in the computation. But signatures galore can be obtained to any old petition, and the Minister for Railways is

not likely to be greatly impressed by this particular document. On the contrary, when he looks into the matter he will most probably seo that his principal duty consists in furnishing an answer to the question wo.have often, put to the department in these columns—by what process of argument does it justify the loss of over £IOO a week upon the loose end of railway known as Te Aro extension ? Tin. 1 £5200 or more a year, frittered away in an aimless hauling of empty carriages and trucks along the waterfront, has to be made up out of earnings elsewhere, and we suggest is a piece of shockingly bad business. I'ive years ago the station at Te Aro employed eight hands, but work can only be now found for three. The place has gone steadily from bad to worse in respect of revenue until the lino is today a mere sink for absorbing expenditure.

In 1907 the income from passenger* amounted to £9215; last year it shrank to £2755, represented almost entirely by the amount derived from people bound for the races who had rushed round to Te Aro in order to get in at the early doors. As a commercial undertaking this T© Aro line is a subject of humorous discussion in the service ; as a public nuisance ,to the city the line easily takes first place. These petition promoters, regardless of the electric tramway service, appear anxious that the Minister should establish at Te Are the central station wo are promised in the distant future. The idea apparently is that the comfort and convenience of the community will be best studied by dragging the whole metropolitan railway traffic through the city, increasing the prevalent uproar to the loudest possible limit blocking the water front, and making the smoke nuisance a hundred times worse than it is. Such a scheme may have attractions to some people. To us it presents not one redeeming feature. Indeed, were the petition the 1 ‘ voice ” of ten times seven thousand houses each with four sots of twins we would insist that this To Aro agitation is entitled to no more respect than any other example of human perversity. That hardy old subject “ town planning,” it will have been observed, has promptly made its appearance as a factor to be considered in connection with this loss of five thousand a year, and is, of course, to be welcomed with the respect King Charles’s head is always entitled to. As we, however, are quite unable to even guess at what these sturdy battlers for “ a town plan ” have in mind their contributions to the discussion must for the present be allowed to pass. The only thing certain is that the town planners who haven’t a plan and the Te Aro station agitators who haven’t a case appear to be unanimous in their desire to turn things upside down.

It might, therefore, be well for the City Council to consider the advisable, ness of removing the Town Hall without delay to a place of at least comparative safety, such, for instance, as tho neighbourhood of the new wireless telegraph station. It might be safe there for a few months, at least. It will undoubtedly if left in statu quo he in the way if tho central station and running yajrds go to Jervois quay, with a branch line to Kilbirnie. _ln fact it might bo seized as a waiting-room for those unhappy people who suffer “acute discomfort” because the station is not already there. There is, of course, a way out of the difficulty, as there is out of most difficulties. If the Minister cannot see his way to give a firm and emphatic “No!” to the preposterous proposal, there is an alternative for which precedent has already been furnished. The question could he dealt with by means of a private member’s Bill. Dr Newman might even be prevailed upon to include it in his proposals for furnishing motor ’buses for the settlers in the backblocks!