The Wairarapa Trains.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1897, 15 October 1886, Page 3

The Wairarapa Trains.

To the Editor of the Standard. Bb,—'The rapid progress ol the WellingtonManawatn railway, with the prospect of its being opened through to the West Coast shortly, leads me to ask whether the Welling-ton-Wairarapa line is to go on for ever in the same old jog-trot style. I feel an otter eon tempt tor the Government railway anthontiee for the sleepy-headed way in which they carry cat oar train arrangements compared to the energy displayed on the other line. Bat apart from this view of the qneetkm I think the time has come when the settlers should make an effort by public meetings oc otherwise to get a redaction made in the preeent exceeaive charges for railway travelling. We an literally kept at home beeanae we cannot afford tbe preeent high chargee for travelling. We are debarred from visiting Wellington city whether on business or pleasure; and instead of the people of Wellington having the advantage of coming np to the Wairarape through cheaper fares they are left to go out in hundreds upon the Wellington .Manawatn line to seek pleasure. It is eot fair to ns in this district. We have a right to expect that our interests shall be looked after, aod that we shall share in the advantages given by a private company to pleasure seekers by train. There is a wide spread feeling that tbe Government are Irilling all traffic apart from that which is absolutely necessary, by their present blinds ness and hardness of heart. Are we to put np with it ? Would it not be better for us to call meetings and say we will not have it and make the Government give, us cheaper fares, to and fro and occasionally special trains at still more reduced rates? We are being treated seurvily by the railway department and we submit to it; we are robbed every time we journey to Wellington and we take oar tickets at the pay box with that feeling uppermost in onr hearts, yet say nothing rave to onr fellow passengers as we tnmdle along to onr destination. The Press has spoken again and again upon this subject. In other parts tbe same complaints are made by the public, but there is no response. There are times when I could almost wish that railway trains had never passed through the Wtiranpo. When I remember the old days, when all was bustle and life in these township* as the coaches and waggons dropped their living freight, and money was spent freely in onr midst, I could fain wish for them again ; and when I think of tbe borrowed millions to spend on railways through the colony, the interest for which is going out of the colony in thousands of pounds, I say we are fools to allow it when all thia money could be kept in the colony if we would be content to go a little slower. Tell me this—Would not the Wairarapa townships have progressed just as much, and would there not have been more labor employed if we had never seen tbe railway ? Onr land would have been more valoable too. Bat we wanted a railway, and we had thoee polling tbe strings behind the scene for that hand ol a line over the hill merely to serve their own interests, bat it rained Featherston instead of making it; it ruined Greytown and Carterton ; and tbe only plsee that for a while gained any benefit was Mss tenon Now the crisis has come there, and tbe shopkeepers and readouts would be glad if the Manricevilla line was swallowed by an earthquake. We have all suffered, but why should we be robbed in addition ? Working men, think over what I have said. We are the greatest sufferers and mast make ear voice heard. If they will not listen to our appeals when dictated by reason then if need be, we must make some public demoostretion. There never was a movement in advance yet but tbe Knights of Labor were at the bottom of it. Therefore let us agitate—agitate—agitate— notil we get our rights. We must have cheaper fare* on our railway by some means. I am, Ac., Vox Porcu.