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Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 1

PUBLIC NOTICES. far rplIE TABLE OF CONTENTS *^ 1 of this Issue Ttill be fonnd on Page 42 MAI* TRLXK RAILWAY. AN UNPLEASING INCIDENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) "WELLINGTON, January S. Very serious complaints continue to b« made about the discomforts of travelling on the Main Trunk railway, and apparently they are not without foundation. It is now quite evident that the construction of the sleeping cars has been commenced about three months too late. Six " sleepers " are being made," but it may be February or March before they are finished. Meantime the trains are overcrowded, and the discomforts at the Ohakune and Taumarunui stopping-places are such as to cause loud grumblings. A contributor is supplying the Dominion with a series of articles regarding actual happenings during the Christmas holidays, and his statements make somewhat startling reading in such a democratic country as New Zealand is supposed to be. The writer complains that in a crowded train the late Minister of Justice should have a carriage to himself and his secretaries. On the return journey, at Frankton Junction; says the writer, " there was one first-class carriage, * fine new one, waiting in a siding off the platform. It was divided into two. Each compartment was capable of seating 15 persons, but one was marked " reserved." A rush was made for the carriage, and it was quickly filled. It turned out, however, that half of it, containing 15 seats, had been reserved for a commercial gentleman of Wellington ia high favour with the Government, who was travelling privately with a party of six. This gentleman entered the carriage and ordered everyone out, stating that he had paid for the whole carriage. J-ie turned out men and women indiscriminately, and then proceeded to occupy the 15 available seats with his party of six. He even went so far as to order the guard to lock them in, so that no common person could intrude,- and this was actually done, and passengers were thus prevented from passing through the train. Most oE the passengers had to await the train from Auckland. Some few found seats in it, but the majority had to stand all the way to Taumarunui, a run of four hours and a-half. I do not know by what arrangement this gentleman was enabled to occupy 15 seats with his party of six while many passengers who had paid for seats were unable to obtain them. l! notice by the regulations that the department aoes not undertake to reserve carriages except for ' specially authorised parties,' whatever that may mean. Authorised by whom? Who had the power to allow a man who happens to be rich or influential to monopolise a whole carriage while others stand? Whether this gentleman paid for 15 seats or whether, as is most probable, he only paid for seven, the system which allows one man on a public* railway service of a limited carrying capacity, and at Chiistmas time, the only season when the workers of the country can spare the time to take a holiday, to occupy 15 seats with seven passengers, while many persons just as worthy but without the influence w «.icU this gentleman can bring to bear, can find nothing but standing room, is to say the least utterly incompetent and unfitted to the needs of a democratic community. BEGISTRATION OF ELECTORS. ALLEGED BREACHES OF THE ACT. NELSON, January 8. An American named Thomas Lorenzo Aldred, a missionary of the Church of Latter Day Saints of America, has been arrested on warrant ie&ued by the Crown Solicitor, on behalf of the returning officer, charging him with making a false declaration °for registration on "the Nelson electoral roll. It is alleged that the accused" is an American citizen and not a naturalised British subject. A similar information, it. is underfctood, was laid against another mksionaiy associated with the accused, but he left this city some time ago, and is notf on pis tray lo America. connection with the above, Harry Atmore, who was a candidate at the receiiij election for Nelson, is charged " that on the 24th day of September, at Nelson, ke did wilfully mislead John Glen, registrar for the electoral district, in the compilation of the electoral roll of Nelson, to be enrolled the names of Thomas Lorenzo Aldred and Oliver Theodore Nilsen in respect of a false qualification, knowing the sjiid Thomas Lorenzo Aldred and Oliver Theodore Nil&en not to be British subjects by birth or naturalisation in New ZeaJ-aiid." '