THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1904. THE NEW RAILWAY STATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12991, 4 June 1904, Page 9

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1904. THE NEW RAILWAY STATION.

Unfortunately we are unable to associate ourselves with the Mayor in congratulating the Government upon having shown expedition in its arrangements for the erection of a new railway station in Dunedin. The humour of the suggestion that the authorities have acted promptly iii the matter appealed as strongly to Sir Joseph Ward himself us to any other person who was present at the ceremony which the Minister performed yesterday with his customary happiness of manner. Sir Joseph Ward probably had placed it on his notes—though the rain which fell while he was speaking may have ■washed it out—that- it was as far back as November, 1900, that lie decided upon tho erection of the station upon the Stuart , street site. And it is not unlikely that he retains a lively recollection of an interview which, in the month preceding his selection of ihe site, he iiad with a representative deputation of Dunedin citizens, when the whole question of sites was very fully discussed. If so, Sir Joseph Ward may not have forgotten that he then spoke of the construction of the new station as nn urgent necessity. "The matter cannot be delayed," he said; "we require to go on with theso works promptly." In the course of hi? remarks on the same occasion Sir Joseph Ward said that as the .result of the development, of traffic that had taken place in this part of the colony an expenditure that would amount to something like £400,000 would have to bo made in Dunedin within the succeeding two or three years. The period that was to have witnessed this large expenditure, in connection with the railway system'in Dunedin has expired, and we fancy it would sorely tax the ingenuity of the Government authorities to show that even a small fraction of the amount that was mentioned has actually been expended. We are under the impression that .in what he said in October, 1900, Sir Joseph Ward had in mind the imder.tflking of the important works respectiug which the Mayor vainly endeavoured yesterday to elicit a statement of the Government's intentions. It is the fact, at all.events, ohat prior to that date frho Railways, iaijg ipjace. ia

Parliament, had agreed with the description of the undertaking-to improve

the grade and duplicate the jine between Dunedin and Mosgifl as an urgent work, and that he classed it as being second or third only in point of importance among

the works that should be prosecuted to enable the requirements of the railway service to be adequately met. Since that time, however, the traffic upon the Dunedin section of the railways of the colony has increased very materially. From

;.lie figures that were quoted by Sir fosepli Ward in the happy and interest-

ing speech which he made yesterday it is clear that the Dunedin section is the most heavily worked in the whole Government system. And, when it is borne in mind that four years ago Sir Joseph Ward admitted that the necessityfor a large expenditure upon the. improvement of the Dtmediii-Mosgiel line

was urgent—the project for duplicating tho line between Dunedin and Sawyers' Bay he treated as of less moment,—and when wo are told that the traffic ill this

portion of the colony has increased so materially within the last few years, :'t must be perfectly obvious that the claims of the district to have that work put in hand—we' shall not say " promptly," but as soon as the Government has been enabled so to arrange its finances as to

be in a position to enter upon the construction of works of which the necessity

lins been pointed out to it by its own officers —are. really overwhelming. AVe are, however, a patient people. We

have submitted without more than an occasional murmur to the. delay which, pace tho Mayor, has marked the progress of the departmental arrangements for providing us with a new railway station. AVe have laughed, indeed, with Sir Joseph Ward over the idea.that the Government has not , been most dilatory

in the matter. We have, put up, with quite exemplary meekness, with the annoyances'that are incidental to the use of a- station which we have completely outgrown. And, now that the construction of a new station has been definitely started and that the corner stone of tho building has been well aud truly

laid, we shall certainly, 'in anticipation of tho conveniences that are promised to us at the close of I'B months or so, while tlie present station continues to serve its purpose, endure -quite cheerfully the discomforts to which we are subjected under existing conditions. It is ft gratifying tribute to the progress of tho district that the plans that were designed in 1885 for the construction, of a railway station in Dunedin—for oven then tho community was looking forward .to the provision of the "new" station that is now about to be materialised—have., in 1904 been found to ho

wholly inadequate; and it is only fitting that acknowledgment should be made that some at least of the development of the traffic that has rendered necessary the erection of much, larger and much more imposing premises is l due to the adoption, under Sir Joseph Ward's con-

trol, of progressive methods in respeel of railway management.