THE TRAIN SERVICE

Taranaki Herald, Volume LII, Issue 187, 11 September 1909, Page 4

THE TRAIN SERVICE

BETWEEN WEST AND EAST COASTS.

'At a meeting of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last Friday evening it •was resolved to co-operate with the Palm i?ton North Chamber of Co«r-nu-iu- in trying to arrange for daily communication between Napier and New Plymouth, provided the arrival of the mail train at New Plymouth be not later than 8.30 p.m. Exception being taken to the decision by several members who were unable to be present, % special meeting of the Chamber was called for yenterday afternoon to re-con-sider the question. Mr. W. J. Perm (president) was in the chair and about fifteen members weie present. Mr. Perm briefly outlined the purpose of, and reason for convening, the meeting, and read a letter from Mr. Tisch, expressing his objections to the course the Chamber had taken. Mr. Newton King spoke of the motion an unwise and retrogressive. While it wa« important and a good thing to l«ave through daily service between the coast*, they had the interests of the harbor to consider. They should not be a party to anything that would interfere with the steamer service. He anticipated an increase in the present truffle and a consequent alteration In the service from bi-weekly to tri-weekly. A delay of half-aTi-hour in the tinft , of starting of the boats would probably I mean losing the train connection with the Waikato and Rotorua, and they could afford to take no such risk. People might say half-an-hour was nothing, but that was not so hi this instance. He would be glad if the train arrived half-an-hour earlier, but he would fight against its coming later. He would- like to see the passenger tax done away with. Mr. Connett endorsed the remarks of the previous speaker in Tegard to *to suggested train alteration, it entailed too big a sacrifice. Referring to the shipping companies, he complained bitterly of the treatment they had meted out to New Plymouth. They bad lud a very good innings in respect of the New Plymouth-Oaehungs «errice in the past, and they might have acted otherwise than they had. As it was, instead of reducing their fares and improving the service, say, six months before the Mam Trunk wa» opened, they seemed to have gone out of their way to help the railway and kill the port by reducing the service to a bi-weekly one just after the Main Trunk line was opened. He felt sure the Bummer would bring wiOi it an improvement in the service and probably the shipping companies woold see that it would be in their own interests to make the service tri-weekly. If a bi-weekly service were a partial failure, there was no reason to believe a tri-weekly one would also be a failure. In regard to abolishing the passenger tax, he did not wish to commit himself or the Board. Mr. C. H. Burgess disagreed with *he arguments of the previous speakers in respect of the possibility, of injury being done to the shipping service by the proposed train alteration, Jtj their action in suddenly discontinuing the daily service and inaugurating but » bi-weekly service, the shipping companies had advertised from one -end of the country to the other that New Flymouth was killed so far as the paateager traffic was concerned. There wss no promise from the companies that they would improve the service in the future. To his mind, if the welfare of the port depended upon the proposed half-hour delay the port was in a .pretty bad state, ' Mr. Budd (local manager of the Union 6JS. Co.) said his company considered a delay of half-an-hour m the time of d&> parture would prove detrimental to the through traffic with the Waikato. Quito a number of people went straight through. It was not a question, of the ability of a boat to do the journey in *> given time, but a question of having time to spare for any contingency that might arise. He could not promise that the service would be made tri-week'y, but he felt sure that were the traffic to warrant it better facilities would » provided. He pointed out that the interests of the port and the company were identical. ' Mr. Webster (Northern S.B. Co) satd his_ company did not favor aay delay in the hour of departure; indeed, they would far rather have it mad* earlier. It would be a bad advertisement for +.ha service were there -any risk over the boats connecting with the Waikato train, and this risk would exist if the boats were delayed half-*n-hour. Wilh regard to 1 a tri-weekly service, he would be only too pleased to reeommenff his company to- inaugurate it, if sufficient inducement offered. Mr. H. Okey, M.P., said that he put a question to the Minister for Bailways last session ' asking mm if be could so arrange the time-table as +» allow the Napier train to connect with the New Plymouth express. This tile Minister promised to consider. It was obriooe to anyone that the service on the two coasts, could; be speeded up, and with this done there would roer 0e no occasion to interfere* with the time of the arrival of the train at New Plymouth. He believed they should assist the Palaversion North Chamber ia that direction. Mr. W. Ambury characterised the ariguments used against the proposed service as weak. They had more to gain than lose by making the change. He could not see how the port would suffer by the delay in the arrival of the ;tr«dn. The bulk, of the people wishing to visit Rotorua, would go by the Man Trunk train. It w«a different in the old days,' when this w|« the only route! The majority of the 1 ipetple who travelled by steamer went to Auckland for business purposes, and, if they wanted to go to the Waikato would do so next day. If they «ha 4 * through service, the chances were th%t .Hawke's Bay people would take this route on days when the boats wear© not running between Napier and Auckland. This would strengthen New Plymouth's chance of gettiMt a tri-weekly service between New Plymouth and Auckland. Once through communication were establisncd, they could try and get the railway services accelerated and so have 'lie train arriving here at the present hour. He admitted the shipping companies by ■ not bringing down the fares and improving the facilities before the Main Trunk opened had caused considerable harm to ! the port. He was quite prepared to agree to the rescinding of that portion! of the motion dealing with delaying x he j arrival of the train by half-an-hour if through communication conld be obtained without it. I Mr. Perm said that in order to ascertain the position in regard to the 1 steamer connecting with the Rotorua express, he had obtained particulars of the arrival of the Bsrawa at Onehunga. Out of 126 trips the connection could have been made, had the vessel been delayed by half-an-hour| on 109 occasions; en* six the vessej would have onissed had she been half an hour late, and on eleven the connection would probably have been missed. So there was little force in that argument. The ship7 ing companies would not guarantee the connection with the Rotorua express even under present conditions. He pro. <ceded to speak of the gains from dsPy communication with the East Coast. Ho had a letter from a Stratford resident stating that it would be more convenient lor residents there if the train were delayed by half an hour. (Voice: Rot!) {Chen there was the question of trade between the two coasts. The fish and fruit trades, for instance, were worth cultivating. It would be & capital Ijhiug for the people along the line if they could get their fish daily. And the. same was the case, only in a lesser degree, with fruit. Then there was the commercial relations of the two districts tn ! cn-iiler. The proprietor of the Egnii :i I Foot Co. had assured him that it would be a great convenience to him in his operations if there were * daily train and mail service. A dairy company in the Stratford district at one time used to sell a considerable amount of cheese in Hawke's Bay, but owing to the present bad railway arrangement they had lost the trade. It might be said that Hawke's Bay m»:{e cheese itself but there was the fact that Taranaki bought a considerable amount of cheese from the Wairarapa. Besides Hawke's Bay they would have through communication with the Wairarapa. At present people from the East Coast could not come here for their holidays without breaking the journey. The present arrangements put a stop to inter-communication between the two coasts, and there was no chance of it growing unless they had a dally service, from the, inauguration of which they had more to gain that lose. He mentioned that the Hawera Chamber had supported daily communication between Jsapier and New Plymouth. , Mr. Connett: Yes; we all admit it "would be a good thing. Mr. King did not think the people of the province approved of the proposed delay. For instance, the Eltham paper had spoken out against it. He did not thiak there was much in the statemert that a Stratford resident was losing business owing to the want of daily communication. A day's delay in such a case counted for nothing, in regard to the fish traffic — well, they could get just as good supplies here if people were prepared to find the necessary money and go in for the. industry on business Bnesf '"Voices But j«« could not get sup.

Mr. King: We have rivers wherein there in any amount of fish. It had been said that Napier people would travel this way to reach Auckland were there a daily service, but would not these people use the Main Trunk? Mr. Okey had hit the nail on the head. There was no doubt that the speed of the trains could and should be acceler-j ated. The trains were much lighter now than they were formerly and there should be no' difficulty in saving haif-an-hour. Taranaki had always fougnt again&t any delay in the arrival of the mail train, and in this it was wise. After further discussion it was resolved to assist the Palmerson North Chamber in inaugurating through railway communication, between the two coasts, but to oppose any delay ia the arrival of the train at New Plymouth.