EXPRESS CUT

Southland Times, Issue 19772, 21 February 1923, Page 5

EXPRESS CUT

ATTITUDE BY CHRIS i CHURCH LEAGUE.

NEWSPAPER CRITICISM. (Special to the Times). CHRISTCHURCH, February 20. In an editorial, to-night’s Star says: “It is unfortunate that the Progress League could not see its way to support the protest of the Southland League against the reduction of express trains between Christchurch and Invercargill from daily to triweekly service. The excuse is that the Christchurch League did not feel that it could ask the Department to run the service at a loss of £BOOO per month, the estimate given by the Minister of Railways. The question might have been asked why there should be a loss of £BOOO a month, on a daily through service. The distance from Christchurch to Invercargill is only 369 miles, and it seems an extraordinary thing that with an up-to-date system it is impossible for passengers to be carried that distance, except on every second day. There is a daily through train on the North Island Main Trunk, and people of Southland are not asking too much, when they invite the Department to put on a daily train, which will connect them with the rest of the Dominion. Southland is not an inconsiderable place from the point of view of population, production and business, and it should not be kept indefinitely without the facilities it requires. In any case, it is indifferent tactics for Christchurch to throw cold water on the aspirations of the furthest south province. The League’s opposition to a natural demand will not create a good impression among its Southland friends.”