Railway Management.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1891, 20 October 1886, Page 2

Railway Management.

To the Editor of the Standard. Sin,—Will yen allow me space to make a few remarks on “ Vox Populi’s ” letter in your issue of the 15th inst. I quite endorse his sentiments iu tho first portion of his letter, for to try and make any impression on the heads of departments is like pouring water on a duck’s back, iu fact the more yon try to iuflueuce them iu some particular way the more they try to go against yon. lam

so disgusted with railway affairs that I have given up alt hope ol ever getting anything different while the present officials are in power. There is so much red tapeism and “ rales and regulations ”}to go by and ninetenths of the officials along the line, from the porter upwards, stand by) ready to pounce down upon you like as eagle on its prey for any frivolous thing they can find (it is the only way they are likely to keep their billets) that it makes people so disgusted that they travel as little as they possibly can. For my part I never use it unless I am absolutely obliged to. I would sooner send my horse and cart, even though it coat me more, to take my goods, than be bothered with the railway. I do not, Mr Editor, wont you to think that I am not in favour of railways ; it is only the management of them. It is with the latter portion ol " Vox Populi’s ” letter that I mean to deal. He says “ When he remembers the old carrying days.” Well, Mr Editor, I was in the Wainrapa when they first started, and 1 never saw any bustle till the Public Works Policy came into operation and tho Provincial Govern-

ment started to bridge the rivers and open ap the Forty Mile Bush road, and works in one shape and another were going on something like to the tune of £3OOO to £4OOO a month, and jwe not only carted material in the shape of iron work for bridges, and other goods for men to curry on those works, but sotnally imported flour, potatoes, Ac., and oats to feed our horses on, from Canterbury and other neighboring provinces. And when our railway came creeping along, with more work, mote money, and more goods to carry, there is no wonder things were all life and bustle. Now, Mr Editor, what made all this life and bustle ? Why, our borrowed millions; and the same thing would happen again with out

railway if we bad the eame amount of bor* rowed money to spend Again in proportion to the population, bat Isay “ God forbid.” Let us grow our own produce in the shape of wheat, oats, potatoes, <tc. Nay, let us do more than that; let us supply our neighbors in Wellington, which place is a market in itself. Let us fill our railway trucks with out own productions, and instead of carting our necessaries of life over the lUniutaka in horse waggons, grow them ourselves. Instead of Wellington having to import fruit from Australia, let it import it from the Wairarapa, with a hundred other things I could cite, aud things would be all life and bustle with our owu productions, not with borrowed money. As for saying “We cannot do it,” it is all bosh. They told us before our railway came that they could not grow oats under six shillings per bushel, but they have had to do it, and they will have to compete with other countries in everything sooner or later if they wish to make auy headway. As for places going back—snob bunkum ; could Carterton employ the amount of labor it does, or Greytowu if it was not for out railway ? Could we send timber over the Kimutnka for 10s per hundred (or carriage and compete with Foxton water carriage at ‘is (id ? 1 say, No. What was Foatherston before the Taahercuikau Bridge was built and followed np with other public works ? Why nothing. The town* ship itself consisted of about a dozen houses. As for Masterton, it has been depending for the last ten rears on borrowed money. It is not the railway going on to Mauricoville that will affect Masterton ; it is the stopping of public works. Masterton has had her turn,

and if she has not made hay while the sun shines, it is her own fault. There is a long . steady tide of depression in store (or Master ton, the same as Featherston, Greytown, and : Carterton have already gone through, and ; the soorer they put their shoulders to tfas ; wheel the better it will be (or them. i Apologising (or taking up so much ol your : valuable space, I 1 am, i B. A. Wakxum. i Sash and Door Factory, \ Or*jrtowß Kortb.