THE Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1873.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3631, 24 September 1873, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1873.

When the time camefor providing a passenger station at Dunedin,tlie Port Chalmers Kaihvay Company had no doubt already foreseen that the Government must buy their line. They would seem to have calculated that it would in no way affect the price they would get for their property whether the passenger accommodation provided were sufficient or otherwise. Two or three thousands saved or spent in this department of the work would not be taken into account when a lump sum should be fixed upon as the purchase money of the line. Hence they—wisely, no doubt, for their own sakes—determined to knock together just as few boards and planks as would pass, by courtesy, for a Eailway Station. They are now" so much the richer for the inconvenience and discomfort to which they have subjected the public. We cannot blame them; nor if we did would they care much about it, or do anything to appease our anger. But the public is most certainly entitled to blame the authorities into whose hands the railway has now been committed, and who have had charge of the line through all the wimer, for not providing some reasonable shelter from the weather for ;he travelling public. We know that we shall be told that the reason why nothing has been done to improve the passenger station is that it is not in its permanent place—that another station will eventually be built to suit the purposes of the Southern Trunk Line as well. The excuse if ventured upon is a miserably lame one. There is no reason why the passenger station should be moved, and much probability that it never will be, since there is no other part of the site reserved for railway pui*poses, the approaches to which are or can be made so good. But even if the excuse had better foundation it would suggest but a poor reason for leaving things as they are at the existing station, in the meantime. As matters stand the bales and cases that come up by the line are better treated than Her Majesty's lieges. They at least can be discharged from I the trucks that carry them under the shelter of a roof. If they were not we should probably soon hear of claims for I damages. But that passengers and their luggage should get a good ducking counts for nothing. Possibly the idea is that though a rain-damaged bale has to be paid for, men and women may be left to get wet and catch their " deaths | of cold," without much fear of a jury giving damages against Her Majesty in the matter. The appearance which the Dunedin Station presents when any large number of persons have to make use of it on a wet day, is lamentable in the extreme. There has been a fair allowance of rainy days of late, and if we are to look for a repetition here of the experience of other parts of the globe, there will be plenty more before the spring is over. A shed ought at once to be thrown over the existing platform and the line of rails immediately in front of it. It would not cost much, and even if it had hereafter to be removed to some other site—which we very much doubt—the removal would be easy, and the loss through re-erection slight. The platform itself has need of extension. When a train is at all beyond the ordinary length, the carriages extend far beyond the limits of the platform, and the entrance to them is a climb to which no woman ought to be subjected. We have seen ladies and children obliged, in the wildest rain, to get to their seats by traversing the horrible clay which everywhere abounds in. the vicinity of the station, and climbin» up the equally horrible and treacherous iron steps of the carriages; an umbrella is no use, a wetting cannot be avoided, and to those who are starting on a journey by sea a wetting is sometimes a matter of consequence. If a platform, however narrow, were run out to the extreme length of the trains, the worst part of the annoyance would be avoided. But for trains of ordinary length, a complete covering ought to be provided at once, both at Dunedin and at Port Chalmers. As for the rest of the station, it has need to be wholly remodelled. It is not even convenient for the officials, with one office divided from, the other by nearly the length of the building. As for accommodation for the public there is but a pretence of it. The ladies' waiting-room is placed in a most inconvenient position all waiting-rooms should open directly on to fche pusHongor platform. For men there is no waiting room at all except the refrculimerit room. The latter being an apartment for which a good rent was expected is fche only one in the building of fair size, and it is constructed with an anxious care for the provision ot draughts other than those intended to be dispensed over its counter. We want, in fact, a new Station altogether, but until " the authorities " —(who, we ! wonder, are the actual individuals included under that mysterious name 1) —until those with whom the decision rests make up their minds where the Station ought to be, we would be content with the addition of a covering to the platform and carriages, so that we may embark and disembark under shelter.