D.—2

VI

With regard to goods traffic, a steady improvement has been effected, and through services inaugurated wherever sufficient traffic was available. This phase of the Department's operations will continue to be the subject of close observation, and improvements effected in every possible direction. One of the most important proposals in view is the intention to run, from about November next until after Easter, a " limited " express service between Wellington and Auckland, and vice versa. This question has received a good deal of consideration for some time past, and the officers of the Transportation Department are of the opinion that the service.should leave both terminal stations shortly after 7 p.m., reaching Auckland and Wellington respectively before 1.1 a.m. the following day. It has been decided to proceed along these lines during the coming summer, and there can be little doubt that the service should be a very popular one. It is obvious that stopping-places for the " limited " will have to be reduced to a minimum, and consequently they will be restricted to Erankton, Taumarunui, Ohakune, Taihape, Marton, and Palmerston North.. Representations have been made from time to time for the ChristchurchDunedin mail-train on Mondays to leave at 8.50 a.m. instead of 12.20 p.m. as at present, chiefly to enable commercial travellers to return to their circuits in the southern portion of the Canterbury Province and North Otago. Unfortunately, however, up to the present it has not been found practicable to so arrange connections with branch lines and. obviate other difficulties as to allow of the alteration being made, but the question is still under investigation. The question of running the Christchurch-Greymouth passenger-trains through to Hokitika has also been thoroughly examined, but I regret that it has been found that the traffic offering is quite inadequate to warrant the provision, and that the present' connecting service meets requirements. One of the results of the economies effected in the running of train-services was the amalgamation during the winter months of the Auckland-Thames and AucklandRotorua expresses. -Following the usual custom, these trains will be separated as soon as ordinary summer traffic develops, but I am looking forward to the time when the traffic will be maintained sufficiently to warrant the running of these trains separately throughout the whole year. It is expected that the section of railway between Huarau and Portland will be ready for the running of through express services during this summer. The schedules for the through trains and other trains affected have been completed in readiness for the inauguration of the service when the necessary certificates from the Engineers as to the section have been received. The time-table provides for a ten-hour journey from Auckland to Opua. A considerable handicap in the economical working of goods traffic in the Dominion is the running of what are commonly termed "mixed trains." A good deal of attention is being directed to this question at the present time, and with the advent of the self-propelled rail-cars there is every reason to believe that the running of mixed trains can be reduced and more elastic passenger services provided by means of rail-motors, thus enabling goods-trains to more efficiently cope with their proper task. SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT. My remarks and proposals in connection with the reductions in suburban fares will indicate the Government's anxiety to foster suburban settlement from the point of view in the first place of bringing about more desirable living-conditions for those employed in our cities, and in the second place of encouraging settlement that will, ultimately lead to remunerative train-services. In this connection the recent action of the Government in deciding to acquire a large area of land in the Hutt Valley calls for special mention. Options for the purchase of certain areas were secured by Mr. W. T. Strand, Mayor of Lower Hutt, and handed over to the Government, which is at present having the various proposals thoroughly investigated with the object of acquiring suitable blocks for cutting up into residential areas. Access will be given to the land by a, branch railway. It will then be subdivided and disposed of under the betterment system, the profit derived from the sales of sections going toward the cost of constructing the railway.