“SLOWEST IN THE WORLD”

Patea Mail, Volume XLIII, 1 August 1919, Page 2

“SLOWEST IN THE WORLD”

VISITOR’S COMMENTS ON NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS

"I don’t like your railway system. It is the most inconvenient, and lainiy the slowest I have experienced in my travels,-” paid a visitor to New Zealand, who travelled from Auckland on Saturday. “Evidently New Zealanders are a docile people, and will put up with anything for the sake of peace. Goal, I am told, is the trouble, but it seems to me that there is enough timber going to’ waste on the run down from Auckland to supply fuel for all the freight haulage that will be required in this country for years to come.

“What is wanted is enterprise, and your Congress who controls the freighters don’t seem to possess overmuch of it. The railways in this country are so slow that they cannot conclude the journey before the tickets expire. I made the journey from To Aroha and it took four days to get to Wellington. After staying over-night at Palmerston I joined the train in the morning, and when the official came for the ticket he said, after looking at it, ‘This is no good; it ran out yesterday.’ Sure enough the ticket was marked only good for three days, and had another fare been insisted upon I certainly would not have appreciated the joke.”