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Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 714, 4 February 1919, Page 3

Hundreds of visitors to Dunedin during ShoW and Race week were held up owing to the floods, and accommodation was taxed tp its utmost, many being unable to find accommodation, and having to doss it m unaccustomed places. The nationalisation of railway transport ia not popular when a break occurs m the line. The utter callousness of tbe Railway Department for the convenience of its patrons could not have had a better example than during the. floods of , the past week, A very slight ooih on the part of the Railway Department would have organised a motor transport ' service over the break, and woulcl have been a blessing to hundreds of travellers. Private railway enterprise would liave, under similar conditions, stretched itself to get its clients conveyed, but the Government Railways did not lift a finger to .assist. Only the active und those fortunate enough to be m carriages pulling up close to the motor stands stood any show of getting into the first lot of cars and thus being able to catch the connecting trains at the other end. So great was the. interest m Duuedin over the flood that Instead" of discouraging traffic if the Department had run special excursion trains but to the flood area they could have cleared i sufficient profit to make good lhe j losses they have sustained through! the flood. More freedom and initiative. . a ¥e required to officers to meet special difficulties instead of red tape restrictions being more Vigorously imposed.