PAPANUI'S NEEDS.
DEPUTATIONS TO THE HON I). BUDDO. On his arrival at Papanui from Rangiora by the 2.15 p.m. train to-day, tho Hon D. Buddo, Minister of Internal Affaire, was met by a deputation, headed by Mr Livingstone. The deputation protested strongly against the operation of the new concession tickets system, under which the faro from Rangiora to Christchurch was 2s, while the faro from Rangiora to Papanui was 2s lOcl. It was urged that Papanui was really a part of Christchurch, and that by forcibly compelling passengers to go right through to Christchurch, the Railway Departmcnt was causing a loss to the traders of Papanui, and was lessening the amount of .tram traffic on the Papanui lino, and thereby increasing the cost of the district's tramway service. It was also urged by the deputation that the Railway Department would save money by allowing Rangiora paesengers booked for Christchurch to alight at Papanui, for not only would the cost of carrying these passengers on to Christchurch by rail bo saved, but it would be unnecessary to employ three men to met every train from Rangiora, whose duty it was to inspect all tickets and compel passengers booked to Oliristchurch to resume their seats in the train. The Minister, in reply, said that the Railway Department had instituted these concession trips to meet the needs of the workers or business men who either desired to reside in .Christchurch and work in the country, or vice versa. Ho had not previously looked upon the matter from the standpoint of a possible injustice to the tradespeople of Papanui owing to the diversion of traffic, and he would make representations to the Minister of Railways on the subject. The deputation then asked that the stationmaster at Papanui should be provided with a better house, as his present domicile was forty odd years old, lay a good foot below the level of the roadway, and was really unfit to be inhabited by civilised beings. The Minister saidi he would inspect die house, and see what he could do in the matter.
Messrs Brice and Uren then spoke at considerable length regarding the efforts which had been made in Papanui to have the district formed into » borough. They urged that Papanui was many years behind the times in respect to roading and sanitation, and that until these matters were attended to it could never hope to fulfil its destiny as a residential suburb of Christchurch. The Minister said that he had received a petition from those interested in the formation of the borough, and this petition had been immediately gazetted and copies of it forwarded to the various local bodies concerned. So far no objections had been received, but ho understood there was a considerable- amount of hostility against the proposal in the district, and it was certain that objections would be lodged. Those objections would at once be forwarded to- the petitioners, who couldmake their comments upon them. It ■would require a majority of the ratepayers of the district roll to carry the proposal, excluding all who for any reason cdliid not reasonably be expected to vote. The deputation thanked the Minister. A deputation headed by Mr F. Sisson waited upon the Minister and protested against a proposal to shift the railway goods- shed at Papanui to another part of the yard. It was contended that if .this was dqno tho space for loading and unloading produce, which was now far too restricted, would be curtailed to such an extent that business would bfc> very greatly hampered. ' The Minister promised to look at the site and to make representations to the Department on the subject.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19100305.2.52
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 7
Word Count
610PAPANUI'S NEEDS. Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 7
Using This Item
Star Media Company Ltd is the copyright owner for the Star (Christchurch). You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Star Media. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.