RAILWAY BUNGLING.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 96, 22 March 1912, Page 4

RAILWAY BUNGLING.

MALTREATMENT OF CHEESE. The " Wairarapa Daily News " prints some interesting and instructive correspondence between Mr W. C. Buchanan, M.P., and the Agriculture Department respecting the way in which the Railway Department treats Wairarapa consignments of cheese. On February 9 Mr Buchanan wrote as follows to the Minister for Railways, sending a copy of his letter to the Agricultural Department at the same time : " Last week my attention was called by two dairy farmers in Carterton to the manner in which cheese consignments for export were dealt with by the Railway -Department. I accompanied them to the Carterton railway station, and found there several trucks loaded with cheese standing alongside the railway sheep yards full of dust composed of fifthy sheep dung, which would be driven with the prevailing westerly wind straight into the open trucks. On the eastern side of the cheese trucks were trucks loaded with ox.hides, plentifully infested with maggots, and emitting an odour which certainly would not improve the flavour of the cheese. There is obviously no necessity for placing dairy produce in such a position at Carterton, because there is ample siding accommodation in other parts of the yard. I have mentioned the fact that the cheese was in open trucks, and the only protection for the cheese from sun and rain was a tarpaulin too small to cover the entire surface. The enclosed cutting fairly describes the result in excessive temperature and otherwise to the cheese. The writer of the letter is well-known to be one of the very best dairy factory managers in the district, and I was satisfied by a conversation I had with him yesterday that every statement in his letter is simply a relation of unfortunate facts. My visit to the railway station was on Friday, and I was credibly informed that the cheese then in the trucks would probably not leave until the Monday, and that such a detention was quite a common thing. I can only say that it is a difficult thing to use moderate language in making comment upon such an inexcusable and scandalous state of affairs. Dairy farmers, engaged in what is from "many points of view the premier industry of the Dominion are surely within their rights in demanding that during the summer season at all events no dairy produce shall be carried in open trucks, and that arrangements should be made under which such produce should be carried in enclosed trucks by special night train on dates to be arranged for passing the produce straight into the ship, as is the case with frozen meat."

The clipping referred to was a letter from a factory manager, who, after complaining bitterly of the deterioration of the Wairarapa railway service, proceeded: — "There are some 200 tons of cheese in the South Wairarapa to be railed to Wellington every fortnight. This demands an evening train, so that it could be taken away as soon as loaded, and be at the grading port next morning. At the present time the only train taking cheese leaves Carterton at 9 a.m. This means two days on the trucks before reaching Wellington, and when it arrives on Saturday night, as most of it has been doing lately, it has still to wait in the sun. I took the temperature inside two of these tarpaulincovered trucks loaded with cheese, at-.the Dalefield siilinc. It was at 9 a.m., and the thermometer stood at 8o degrees. While there the ..train,, came in from Carterton with.' several • smiilar trucks loaded with cheese frbnr various factories in the district.'. I went inside each and too'k thetemperature, which ranged from 76 to 78 degrees. This is. most disastrous to our cheese, ,as, macheese*should not be exover 60 degrees"'." '' x ' f ' "'"■' The Minister for Agriculture replied to Mr Buchanan on March 4th. He said: "My officers report that there is very little room, for complaint as to'the condition in which dairy produce arrives at-: the ports of shipment throughout the Dominion., In regard to cheese from the Wairarapa, the use of uncovered trucks for carrying this product is not entirely satisfactory, but I am given to understand that the real cause of the trouble is the want of a proper cheese store in Wellington. • >.'■ Owing to this fact it is not always possible to send forward cheese. quantity corajng-forward i.si|e pen dent on thejfoading of the> steamer that is to lafceHhe producer/to the' market. -, at times more'cheese is sen.Uto be railed than the insiilatedl'tnucks available can hold. V Lunderstand the Wellington Harbour' Board is shortly to provide a suitable store for cheese, and when this is available there should be no more trouble in regard to the conveyance of cheese from the Wairarapa." Jli his reply, on March 9, Mr Buchanan wrote as follows: — " I regret exceedingly to find that

you are apparently disposed to rest satisfied with your officer's report, ' that there is very little room for complaint as to the condition in which dairy produce arrives at the ports of shipment throughout the Dominion.' You could not possibly have accepted your officer's statement had you taken the trouble to read the grave indictment against the Railway Department contained in the letter signed 'Factory Manager ' which I forward to you. Damage to valuable produce is inevitable under the maltreatment described in that letter, and I take leave to say that it is the duty of the Agricultural Department to insist upon radically different treatment of settlers' produce or disprove 'Factory Manager's' statements, corroborative evidence of what is going on is to be had in abundance. On March I, for instance, a large consignment of cheese went through Fcatherston in open trucks in the sweltering heat of that day, and a well known dairy factory official described the butter-fat as fairly oozing out of a lot of cheese just lately railed to Wellington from the West Coast. The remedy is simple and inexpensive by carriage at night in insulated box trucks and shipment right away the next day in the ocean steamer without the expensive storage in Wellington which you apparently wish to saddle on the dairyfarmer. Special night trains and well insulated trucks are rightly furnished to inland meat freezing works on dates specially arranged to admit of immediate discharge into the hold of the Home steamer. On behalf of the dairy-farmer, I ask why similar facilities should not be available for his perishable produce ? You may possibly ask why not address myself to the Railway Department? My answer is that I addressed them a month ago on the subject, as I have already stated, but have not yet had the courtesy of a reply. Indeed, I do not expect one for another month or so."