RAILWAY SERVICES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15192, 12 April 1917, Page 5

RAILWAY SERVICES.

DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT OP THE TWO ISLANDS. DEPUTATION TO THE HON. W. H. BERRIES. AUCKLAND, April 11. The question of the alleged differential treatment of the two Islands in regard to express railway services came up at a deputation to the Minister for Railways yesterday. "I suppose," said Mr Herries, in his reply to the deputation, "'teat I must say something about the two expresses. If Dunedin were about as distant from Christchurch as Ohakune is from Auckland, the South Island would have no need for two expresses. The line of railways we have to consider in the South is not that between Christchurch and Dunedin, but the through line from Christchurch to Invercargill—whic& corresponds to the line between Auckland and Wellington." The Minister said th-at there Avas great disgust among the people of Invercargill and Gore and other people south of Dunedin because teey were going to have no through express from one end of the line to the other. So that tliey were worse off than Others, and had some reason for saying that the Government was favouring Auckland at the expense of tee South Island.

Mr Parr, M.P.: But you have oneeighth of the population of the Dominion in Auckland. Mr Hemes said the essence of the thing was to consider the length of t&e line and its feeders. It would be impossible for the Department to make its arrangements in any other way. The Department was allowing two expresses to run from Christchurch to Dunedin because they fed Timaru and Oamaru and other large towns—larger towns t&an there were between Auckland and Ohakune. In the Auckland district there were daily expresses to Thames, to Rotorua, and to Taumarunui. These corresponded to the expresses between Christchurch and Dunedin, and through traffic on the Southern line was being completely cut off. His officers had told him that as far as traffic was concerned it would be impossible to take off the expresses between Christchurch and Dunedin.