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The Audit Office, Wellington, N.Z., 7th June, 1928.
I hereby certify that after investigation of the publisher's lists and other records the average circulation of the New Zealand Railways Magazine for the 12 months ended May, 1928, is in excess of 20,000 copies per month during the whole of that period.
Controller and Auditor General.
Our cover design this month is an arresting study, by Stanley Davis, representing buoyant youth looking forward, cleareyed and assured, into the light and golden haze of a promise-laden future.
What lies ahead of young New Zealand? The sixty leading business men of Auckland City, who, on the 26th October, commenced a nine-days’ tour of the northern province, will not hesitate about the answer. What they saw convinced them, to a man, that a new dawn— brighter than any that has preceded—is now breaking for the Dominion. What these ambassadors of commerce saw of new farming methods and other enterprise in the rural districts visited has produced this unanimous conclusion.
The nine days itinerary called for 1700 miles of travel—1200 by rail and the balance by motor or launch. It covered visits to factories and farms, mines and scenic resorts. The wealth—present and potential—of a great province was laid bare for the inspection of the visitors, while ever at hand was the right man to explain the work going on. The Commerce Train was the home to which all gladly returned from any side-trips, and, while they slept, it carried them nightly into new and distant territory. So perfect were the arrangements for the comfort and entertainment of the travellers that, although the party included men of all ages, even up to seventy-four years, no one dropped out during the whole tour, and all finished up fresh and well and thoroughly toned up from their outing.
The outstanding points impressed upon the Auckland Chamber of Commerce representatives were:-
(1) The great progress made whereever scientific methods of cultivation have been employed.
(2) The firm conviction held by all farmers that top-dressing is of wonderful benefit in adding to the profits from holdings.
(3) The surprising amount of territory lying practically idle through lack of capital to bring it into profitable occupation.
(4) The definite movement towards improvement in herds, reflected in greatly increased output from dairy factories.
(5) The perfection of machinery and methods employed in butter, dried milk and cheese-making factories.
(6) The confidence of the rural population in the earning capacity of their holdings.
(7) The spirit of enterprise in undertaking new industries, such as that for extracting kauri gum from waste roots.
(8) The vastly improved conditions of life in country districts wherever the benefits of hydro-electricity and the work of Main Highways Boards in building splendid roads through the principal areas have been felt.
(9) The stimulating effect which the new railway lines to Taneatua in the Bay of Plenty and to Kirikopuni and the far north have had on farming and settlement.
(10) The abounding hospitality of the settlers, and the courageous manner in which they are facing their local problems of development, production and transport.
Thou Great Unknown!
Yet not unknown—
I feel an Angel mark'd thee ere thou fell Heroic'lly upon that muddy hell—
('Tis now a flower'd Flanders’ field):
And some day after vesper bells have peal'd, Methinks that Angel thro’ these aisles will steal
Silently, and in silence kneel Beside thee here. And thou shalt rise From out this sepulchre of stone To-fairer skies Of Paradise.
Where thou art known, Thou Great Unknown.
—Samuel Hulme Bridgford.
Young Ne Zealand has every reason to face the future with assurance of material prosperity when so much of accomplishment and preparation can catch the eye of the flying visitor; and in securing that prosperity, as in facilitating the Commerce Tour, the Railways of this country will play no small part.
Mr. W. D. Lambie, Deputy British Trade Commissioner, has nothing but the highest praise for the work of the N.Z. Railways in connection with the Commerce Train which toured Auckland province from 26th October to 4th November.
Speaking to a “Dominion” representative, Mr. Lambie stated that the train had been a great success from every point of view, and had been a great tribute to the efficiency of the Railway Department. Throughout there had not been the slightest hitch in the organisation. The service rendered was equal to that obtained in first-class hotels, and every effort had been made to provide for the comfort of the passengers. There was even a daily paper produced by the Railway Publicity Department, giving details regarding the day's programme, economic resources of the districts visited and other valuable information. All portions of the Auckland province were visited from Rotorua, Taneatua, in the east, to Waitomo in the South, and Broadwood in the far north. The tour provided a unique opportunity for studying the economic developments of the regions visited, for members were able to see for themselves what had taken place in afforestation and some of the principal industrial establishments, as among the places visited were Price's engineering works at Thames and the cement works at Whangarei. The party also witnessed the remarkable success which hard work and the lavish use of fertilisers has produced in turning what was apparently the poorest class of land into rich pasturage. They were also able to study developments in the dairy industry, visiting butter, cheese, dried milk and casein factories. In addition they were able to catch a passing glimpse of some of the greatest scenic attractions in the province. An important feature was the promotion of a better understanding between the business men in the cities and the rural dwellers.
The Canadian Trade Commissioner (Mr. C. M. Crofts) and the United States Trade Commissioner (Mr. J. B. Foster) were also members of the party. These overseas representatives found it an excellent opportunity to extend their knowledge of districts which they seldom have the privilege to visit.
The event of the month has been the running of the first “Commerce Train,” on a nine days’ tour of Auckland Province.
The enterprise of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce in initiating the movement has been well rewarded by the benefits conferred on those who had an opportunity to make the journey and by the universal approval of the people living in the Districts visited.
I feel sure the result will be to increase mutual confidence and respect as between town and country, and lead to further valuable development and enterprise throughout the province and (what is of particular moment to us) to a better understanding of the position of the railways in regard to the transport needs of the Dominion.
During the nine days the whole of the Railway lines in Auckland Province (excepting two small branches) between Rotorua, Hangatiki and Taneatua in the south, and Okaihau, Kirikopuni and Opua in the north were traversed, 1,200 miles being covered by rail and about 500 by motor-car and launch.
In reference to the Department's share in making towards the success of the tour I cannot do better than quote Mr. W. D. Lambie, Acting British Trade Commissioner who stated that “the train had been a great success from every point of view and had been a great tribute to the efficiency of the Railway Department, for throughout there had not been the slightest hitch in the organisation. The service rendered was equal to that obtained in first class hotels and every effort had been made to provide for the comfort of the passengers.” From expressions of opinion received personally from those who travelled on the train, I feel sure this was the universal sentiment, and take this opportunity to express my appreciation of the splendid way in which all concerned rose to the occasion and so materially enhanced the Department's reputation for efficiency in service.
The completed returns for the four weekly period which ended on 15th September show the substantial increase in railway operating revenue of #20,000 as compared with the corresponding period of last year. The principal items showing increases were:—season tickets #1,750; parcels, luggage and mails #800; goods #27,600 and miscellaneous revenue #1,300.
Owing to the growth of season ticket traffic, the number of passengers carried increased by 161,000 but there was a decrease in the revenue from “ordinary” passengers.
The number of cattle carried during the four weeks’ increased by 44 per cent., and calves by 240 per cent. Sheep on the other hand showed a small decrease.
Native timber traffic increased by 500 tons in the North Island and by 4,500 tons in the South Island.
Dairy produce showed a satisfactory improvement. This was particularly marked in cheese, preserved milk and casein. Butter increased only slightly.
The quantity of frozen meat handled was practically the same as last year, but the traffic in fresh meat increased by 80 per cent.
Grain and potatoes continued to show large increases, while fodder and agricultural seeds declined considerably.
Flax and flax fibre were much below last year's level.
The quantity of imported coal handled decreased by 8,000 tons. Native soft coals increased substantially, while native hard coal showed little fluctuation.
Agricultural lime improved by 93 per cent. in the North Island and 36 per cent. in the South Island. Artificial manures were maintained at the same level in the North Island, and increased by 100 per cent. in the South Island.
With the exception of ships’ goods carried on port lines, general merchandise showed a substantial increase.
I am pleased to place on record the fact that the net ton miles of goods traffic conveyed per train hour improved by 5.5 per cent. for the Dominion. The district increases are:—Auckland 2.5 per cent., Ohakune 7.9 per cent., Wanganui, 4.1 per cent., Christchurch 4.7 per cent., Dunedin 10.5 per cent., Invercargill 16.2 per cent. and Westport 28.4 per cent.
Passenger train speed (train miles per train hour) for the Dominion improved by 1.0 per cent.
The economic utilisation of engine power is receiving special attention from railwaymen all over the world. Some remarkable improvements have been recorded in the United Kingdom and America in the direction of increasing the daily mileage run of engines, thus reducing the number of engines required to handle any given volume of traffic. Some progress has already been made in this respect in New Zealand, and I am confident that much more will be achieved in the near future. The following figures show the average run per engine in steam per day for the first twenty-four weeks of the current year as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.
General Manager
Mr. F. Vogel, of Kogarah, New South Wales, who has kindly favoured us with the following interesting historical account of the railway gauge question in Australia, has had a long and distinguished railway career. He arrived in New Zealand in 1863, and in January, 1864, joined the 3rd Company of the 3rd Waikato Regiment for service in the Maori War. Leaving New Zealand in 1873 he joined the railway service in Australia, in 1875, and retired in 1916 after 41 years’ service—37 of which were spent on the Railway Commissioners’ personal staffs. Mr. Vogel has contributed largely to the various railway publications in Australia, one of which—the “Railway Budget” (now known as “The Staff”)—he edited for 12 years. His wide knowledge of the inner history of the subject makes his article of particular interest.
Owing principally to the limited population of Australia in the early days of railways, no definite proposals for the construction of lines were put forward until 1845, when the railway mania in England had reached its greatest height. Several companies applied to the British Government for the necessary powers to construct railways in the Colony of New South Wales.
When this news reached Sydney the railway question was revived, and at a public meeting held in 1846, a Committee was appointed to collect information towards the obtaining of which the Government granted financial assistance.
In 1848 the Legislative Council, on the recommendation of a Select Committee which had investigated the subject, passed a number of resolutions affirming the necessity of constructing railways in the Colony, and also recommending the granting of financial assistance and a restricted area of land required for the way of the railroad. The Governor-General, in transmitting the resolutions to the Secretary of State in England, recommended that the encouragement offered by the Council to private enterprise be granted.
“The Sydney Railway Company Act” was assented to in 1849, and the Government granted financial aid and land for the right-of-way. The first sod of the railway from Sydney to Parramatta, 15 miles distant, was turned on 3rd July, 1850, but owing chiefly to the gold discoveries, which caused a depletion of the labour market, the Company found itself in such serious difficulties that it became evident that private enterprise could not carry out the construction of railways. The Government acquired, therefore, the whole of the Company's assets in 1854.
In a dispatch, dated 30th June, 1848, Earl Grey urged upon the Governor of New South Wales the adoption of one uniform gauge, with a view to the joining up at some future time (though probably distant period) of the lines not only in the same Colony, but with those constructed in adjacent Colonies, and he regarded the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge prescribed in England, as the most desirable.
In 1850 the Company's engineer strongly advocated the adoption of the 5ft. 3in. gauge in preference to that recommended by Earl Grey, and the Company's manager urged that, as their railway would be the first constructed in Australia, a timely notification to the other Australian Colonies would prevent the occurrence of any inconvenience from the break of gauge. The application was forwarded to Earl Grey, who advised that Her Majesty's Government
The Company's engineer resigned, and his successor urged the Company to obtain a revision of the 5ft. 3in. gauge Act. The Company's manager, in addressing the Colonial Secretary upon the subject, pointed out that it now appeared in actual practice that the advantages anticipated from the wider gauge had not been realised and therefore asked that the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge be approved.
The application was referred to the Legislative Council which passed an Act in 1853 repealing the former Act and making the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge imperative in New South Wales. In terms of this Act, which had been referred to the Home Government for Royal assent, the Company ordered considerable quantities of materials suitable for this gauge.
The other Colonies resented this action, holding that the New South Wales Government, without having first obtained the concurrence of the other Governments, was not warranted in abruptly changing the gauge, which had been generally adopted throughout the Australian Colonies. Following upon this the Governor of Victoria transmitted a memorial from the Legislature to Earl Grey, praying that Her Majesty's consent to the New South Wales proposals be withheld. The gauge question having been re-opened, Earl Grey instructed the Governor of New South Wales to move the Legislature to reconsider the question for the sake of the neighbouring Colonies with which railway communication must sooner or later be effected. The Governor therefore transmitted to the Legislative Council a measure entitled “A Bill to repeal the Act for regulating the gauge of Railways.” But railway companies had, in the meantime, been formed in Victoria and South Australia, and these companies, relying upon the Railway Gauge Act of 1852, had adopted the 5ft. 3in. gauge and ordered from England rolling stock to the cost of #100,000. Such large sums having been invested in stock, neither side would give way, and as the Legislative Council did not proceed with the Bill for the altering of the gauge, the break was firmly established in Australia.
Victoria has since adhered to the 5ft. 3in. gauge, while South Australia adopted two gauges, viz.:—5ft. 3in. and 3ft. 6in. Queensland and Western Australia adopted (for economical reasons), the 3ft. 6in. gauge, while the Commonwealth, although it adopted the 4ft. 8 ½in. as the standard, is actually constructing the South-North Railway through the centre of Australia, from Port Augusta to Port Darwin to the 3ft. 6in. gauge.
The disadvantages of the break of gauge are clearly illustrated by the journey from Brisbane, Queensland, to Perth, Western Australia. From Brisbane to Wallangara on the New South Wales border, a distance of 223 miles, we have the 3ft. 6in. gauge, thence to Albury, on the Victorian border, 891 miles, 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge; thence via Melbourne and Adelaide to Terowra, 816 miles, 5ft. 3in. gauge; Terowra to Port Augusta, 120 miles, 3ft. 6in. gauge; Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 1051 miles, 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge; thence to Perth, 375 miles, 3ft. 6 ½in. gauge, thus making six gauges in the distance of 3,476 miles.
As a result of the break of gauge rolling stock has to be maintained to meet the maximum requirements of any of the States. Whether business is brisk in one State and slack in another, whether one State is pressed to its utmost while another State has rolling stock lying idle, there can be no change of stock. The effect of this is most seriously felt in the transport of interstate goods, produce and livestock (more especially in drought times) as transhipment at the border stations causes serious delays and heavy expense.
The question of adopting a uniform gauge in Australia was not seriously entertained until the late Mr. Eddy, Chief Commissioner for Railways in New South Wales, urged (early in 1889) upon the Premier, Sir Henry Parkes, the great need for the unification of the railway gauges. He advised the appointment of a commission of railway officials in each Colony to consider and advise on the matter. He suggested that the Colony which found it desirable for the present to make narrow gauge lines in outlying districts, should arrange its stations, tunnels and bridges in such a way as to enable the uniform gauge to be laid down at a later date without incurring any additional expenditure in enlarging such works. Unfortunately his suggestions were not acted upon.
The matter was not further considered until a meeting of the Federal Convention was held at Adelaide in 1897. The Premiers of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia remitted the question to their Railway Commissioners, who met in conference at Melbourne in 1897, and advised that, in view of the contemplated Federation of the Australian Colonies and the desirability of providing the utmost facility for intercommunication, they were impressed with the necessity of having, as soon
At a State Premiers’ Conference held in 1920, resolutions were passed affirming the necessity of a uniform gauge to connect the State capitals (including the conversion of the Victorian railway system—5ft. 3in. gauge), also that railway experts were to meet and submit a report regarding cost, etc.
The railway experts submitted their report, but in an addendum they questioned the wisdom of adopting the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge as the standard in preference to the 5ft. 3in. gauge. When the report was considered at a Conference of the Commonwealth and State Ministers it was resolved that, having regard to the disagreements as to gauge, two experts from outside Australia, and an Australian outside the Australian railway services, be appointed to report upon the unification of the gauges; the question as to what gauge it is desirable to adopt, and the question of cost of conversion.
The report of the Royal Commission was submitted in September, 1921, and was considered at a Conference of the State Premiers with the Prime Minister, when it was resolved:
“That the adoption of a uniform gauge is, in the opinion of this Conference, essential to the development and safety of the Commonwealth.”
“That the Commission's recommendation of a 4ft 8 ½in. gauge be accepted.
“That steps be at once taken by the Premiers of all the States to consult their Governments with regard to the said agreement, and the financial obligations of the parties thereunder, and that the conclusions arrived at shall be communicated to and considered at a further Conference in January, 1922.”
The Conference was held in Melbourne, but no decision was arrived at.
One of the schemes recommended by the Commission embraced the conversion of the 3ft. 6in. gauge railway from Perth to Kalgoorlie (Western Australia), part conversion of the line from Port Augusta to Adelaide, conversion of the whole of the 5ft. 3in. gauge lines of South Australia and Victoria, and the construction of a 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge railway from South Brisbane to Kyogle in New South Wales, linking up with the North Coast railway from Sydney. The cost
The cost of converting all lines to the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge was estimated at #57,200,000, made up as follows:—
But there is a probability of the gauge question being again revived as the Prime Minister in his recent Policy Speech stated that at a Conference the Government would again submit for consideration the question of the unification of the gauge of our different railway systems. However, in the face of Australia's financial position, it was quite impossible to carry out the general unification of the gauges recommended by the Royal Commission in 1921. As a result of a Conference held in 1923 with the States, the construction of line, from Kyogle to Brisbane, linking Sydney and Brisbane by a uniform gauge, was undertaken under an agreement between the Commonwealth and the States of New South Wales and Queensland. The Government believed that the time had now arrived when a further step forward might be taken in the solution of this great problem.
A publication which the Department now has in the printer's hands bears the above title, and contains the following foreword by the General Manager of Railways (Mr. H. H. Sterling).
“The purpose of this book is to give the public something that has never before been available—a reference publication regarding the principal goods trains operating throughout the Dominion, and a description of the facilities for handling freight provided by the Department for the use of its customers.
“Recent years have witnessed a marked expansion in our goods traffic. The tonnage shows an increase from 5,373,136 tons in 1918 to 7,366,762 in 1928.
“In view of this, and the additional lines into new territory recently taken over by the Working Railways, coupled with the steady improvement now being effected in rolling stock, equipment, signalling practice, shunting facilities, and train operating methods and results, I feel that the time has come for a better diffusion of knowledge regarding the general capacity of the Railways to assure for the Dominion an effective freight service.
“Steady though the increase in our goods traffic has been, I believe that much greater expansion is possible. Just as the motor has shown how, given suitable facilities, passenger traffic may be extended, so the general improvement in the means of rail transport for goods, with adequate publicity in regard thereto, should bring about a great expansion of the Department's freight business. The growth of the Dominion's urban population, irregular as to locality, but constant in numbers, has made it necessary for commercial people to revise the idea formerly held that the nearest market must necessarily be the best; and the more progressive amongst them are already reaching out to treat the whole Dominion as their market for internal trade.
They have been able to do this to their economic advantage because of the progressive steps taken by the Department in such matters as ‘through booking’ by rail and steamer between the Islands and ‘through’ express goods train services, between the principal centres in each Island, aided by a favourable tariff framed on the established principle regarding rail transport that ‘long hauls pay best’ —a n advantage which the Department is, moreover, prepared to share equally with its customers.
“I desire this publication to supply every kind of useful information that will help those who trade with us to take the fullest advantage of our transport facilities for extending the scale and scope of their businesses.
“It is intended to keep the general information up-to-date by sufficiently frequent reprints, and to this end I invite suggestions from the public as to any further information that might be included in future editions likely to add to the usefulness of the book for practical purposes in the daily conduct of their businesses.
“My experience of outside commercial life has impressed upon me the importance and value of the ‘customer viewpoint,’ and any assistance I can gain from this source will be fully appreciated and should help the Department steadily to increase its usefulness in accomplishing the purpose for which it exists—the supply of the fullest and best possible service to the people of this country.”
Consignors who have taken advantage of the Railway Department's through booking system —Island to Island—have highly praised this service, which cuts the lug out of luggage; puts the go into goods; and takes the fright out of freight. It puts worry to flight and saves time and money.
With the exception of Gisborne and Kaihu Sections in the North Island and Westport Section in the South Island, a consignment note to destination may be tendered at any railway station for transit of goods or parcels to any other railway station of the North or South Islands.
Thus the sea-way between the Islands is practically merged into the Railway service.
The Railway Department makes all arrangements for shipping, handling between railway and ship, and any other incidental service until the freight reaches the destination station.
A saving of money to consignors is made by this system, because the Railway Department's shipping in bulk assures reductions in charges such as sea freights, wharfages, and intermediate carting.
Deliveries are facilitated, because payment of all intermediate charges—sea freight, wharfages, and carting (if required)—are arranged by the Railway Department.
All charges from forwarding stations to destination stations can be prepaid, or, if the destination station is officered, all charges may be made payable at the destination station. Consignments for delivery to a non-officered or flag station must be prepaid.
This combined rail-and-sea service applies also to livestock, except that the owners are required to make their own arrangements for taking the animals from the rail to the ship or from the ship to the rail. All of the livestock from the North Island for the Royal Show at Christchurch made the journey on the Railway Department's through-booking system, and so well was the transport effected that the Department was specially thanked by the President of the Royal Agricultural and Pastoral Society.
This inter-Island booking has proved a boon to owners or attendants travelling in charge of horses. The Railway Department attends to arrangements for space on boats, compiles shipping papers, and tenders them to the shipping companies and arranges payment of wharfages at port stations, in addition to providing railway wagons to complete the journey.
If man-power were used to transport the freight carried by the railroads of the United States (says a recent authority), 1,200,000,000 men, each carrying a 100lb. load 15 miles a day, would be required for the purpose.
* * *
Appreciating the importance of a widespread use of productive fertiliser, the Railway Department, through its Publicity Branch, will issue soon a helpful brochure entitled “Top-dress for Top Values.” Here are some passages:—
It is well known that the main basis of New Zealand's prosperity may be stated in one phrase—grass—land farming. In the aggregate of 18,830,000 acres under cultivation last year, pastures comprised 16,680,000 acres (nearly 90 per cent, of the total). Livestock provide, on the average, about 95 per cent, of the Dominion's exports.
Obviously any substantial increase of the national wealth must depend on an improvement of pastures. Nature, with her generous measure of soil-fertility, has been very kind to this country, but man has drawn heavily on nature's bank, which needs fresh deposits to replenish exhausted currency. Experience has proved for many farmers that top-dressing their land has top-dressed their bank accounts. The right fertiliser stimulates the money plant. A writer on superphosphate has declared that ‘super’ is the ‘supper of plant-life.’ Certainly ‘super’ makes two or more blades of grass flourish where only one had a struggle for existence before.
Reviews of the last dairying season have specially mentioned the importance of topressing in the surprisingly good returns from numerous farms. Some of the credit for those satisfactory results has been given to the Railway Department, which reduced the freight on fertiliser by 40 per cent., thus facilitating a large use of soil-stimulants.
“In entering New Zealand from Australia, I was amazed by the simple courtesy of His Majesty's servants in their efforts to help us comply with a few sensible legal requirements,” writes Mr. J. E. Hogg (New York), in “American Life.” “They've trimmed the red tape to almost nothing. The Customs officers were almost apologetic for asking me to open the lids of our trunks—and close them again. The immigration officers dismissed us with a few perfunctory questions, and a rubber stamp mark on our passports. The customary examination for mental fitness was waived upon presentation of evidence that I had recently complied with similar regulations in Australia.”
* * *
Referring to the improvement in Railway Returns recorded during recent months, the New Zealand Herald remarks:—
It is certainly significant that, in spite of competition, headway is being made by the Railways and the volume of traffic is increasing. Part of the gain in earnings has been absorbed by additional expenditure, but, as the Minister of Railways recently explained, the cost of operation has been raised by efforts to meet competition. It would probably be too much to suggest that every additional pound of revenue will be profit, but evidently the augmented services could carry a considerably greater volume of traffic at small extra cost. In the period under review, the increase in expenses, compared with last year, has been less than 9/- for every additional pound of revenue. The general economic recovery has no doubt contributed to the improvement in railway finances; it is gratifying to the public, and encouraging to the Department, to know that the Railways have, in spite of severe competition, secured a substantial benefit from the enhanced prosperity of the country.
The last twenty years have seen a great change in the general attitude towards railway improvements. Formerly improvements were often forced out of reluctant managements by insistent public demand. Now the best brains in the transport world are thinking out ways to make improvements far in advance of public expectation. But hear our London Correspondent.
Luxurious rail travel is on the increase throughout the world. In every land comes an insistent demand from the traveller for speedier and more luxurious passenger movement, and here at Home, the four big group railway systems are leaving no stone unturned to meet the present-day requirements of the travelling public.
As might be expected, it is in the highly competitive services between England and Scotland that greatest progress has been accomplished in the provision of luxury accommodation for the traveller. Two railways—the London, Midland and Scottish, and the London and North Eastern—are interested in Anglo-Scottish rail movement, and in addition there are regular services between the two capitals by luxurious saloon road motor vehicles run by outside undertakings. To retain traffic to rail both the London, Midland and Scottish and London and North Eastern lines have recently introduced some especially pleasing types of passenger cars. On the London, Midland and Scottish route these take the form of new lounge carriages of novel design. The lounge cars are equipped with comfortable easy chairs and with tables for the supply of refreshments. A floor of polished teak is covered with a handsome Persian carpet in rich shades of blue and maroon, and blue silk window curtains tone with the floor covering. On the London and North Eastern route to Scotland, out of King's Cross Station, London, there have been put into service on the “Flying Scotsman” train, new first-class dining cars ranking as the most luxurious vehicles of their type in the world. These cars closely resemble in their interior design the most exclusive of hotel restaurants. The fixed seats, common to dining cars, have been replaced by small arm chairs, and the whole design of the interior reproduces the elegant French workmanship of the eighteenth century. The ordinary lamp fittings have been discarded, and in their place artistic helmets mounted above the side windows diffuse a restful light throughout the interior of the vehicles. To travel to Scotland in cars such as these is indeed to revel in luxury, and the enterprise of the London and North Eastern Railway authorities in placing in service such outstandingly comfortable rolling-stock for long-distance travel is to be commended.
While long-distance travel is being improved immeasurably in Britain, a great deal of attention also is being devoted to the betterment of branchline working. The operation of branch lines at Home is becoming less and less profitable as the road motor business expands, and in a recent letter to the London “Times,” Sir Ralph Wedgwood, chief general manager of the London and North Eastern Railway, remarked that the continued existence of many branch lines is solely due to their contributory value as feeders of the main traffic routes. During recent months the London and North Eastern Railway has accelerated the timings of no fewer than 800 branch line trains and the possibility of further speeding up is constantly under review. In arranging branch line acclerations,
In the early days of the steam locomotive, steam pressures of something like 50lb. per sq. in were favoured. By degrees this boiler pressure has been advanced to an average level of from 180 to 220lb. per sq. in., and recently there have been many interesting experiments in the utilisation of exceptionally high pressures in the search for heightened power. The American locomotives “Horatio Allen” and “John J. Jervis” are noteworthy contributions in this field, and in Europe a great deal of experimental work has been performed—especially in Germany. Now Switzerland comes into the limelight, giving us a new type of high-pressure steam locomotive which promises to help materially in the search for a more powerful haulage unit.
The new locomotive has been constructed by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works, of Wintherur, and is of the 2-6-2 wheel arrangement, with a boiler pressure of 850lb. It is a tank engine intended for passenger service. The water-tube boiler with smoke box, chimney and blast-pipe, is situated above the six-coupled driving wheels. Placed within a cover in front of the boiler is a three-cylinder, high-speed engine, with torque transmitted by gearing to a jack-shaft and connecting rods. The steam engine is designed for singlestage uniflow expansion in three equal cylinders working in parallel. Supported in four bearings, the crank-shaft is fitted with flexible pinions at either end which mesh with gears keyed to the jack-shaft. Single-seat valves control steam admission, and exhaust is controlled by the pistons themselves, these moving on exhaust ports arranged in the central part of the cylinder liner. Cams, arranged on a shaft with lateral displacement, control cut-off. The driving mechanism is arranged in conventional fashion, with the single exception that the connecting rods are linked to the central
Railway electrification is making vast progress these days on the continent of Europe. In France, the Orleans line has now completed the electrification of three main-line sections:-Paris (Quai d'Orsay Station) to Bretigny, a distance of 22 miles; Bretigny to Les Aubrais (Orleans), a distance of 55 miles; and Les Aubrais to Vierzon, a distance of 50 miles. The branch line Bretigny-Dourdain (15 miles) has also been converted to electricity. Section one (Paris to Bretigny) carries a very dense main-line and suburban passenger business. Section two bears a heavy main-line business. Section three carries a moderately heavy trunk traffic.
After considerable experiment the Orleans Railway decided to utilise direct current at 1,500 volts, with overhead transmission. The overhead lines are supplied from rotary sub-stations, placed at varying distances according to the density of traffic, gradients, and so on, and these in turn receive current from the Eguzon power station on the River Creuse, at 90 kilo volts A. C. Suburban passenger services are worked by multiple unit trains, in which old four-wheeled passenger stock has been incorporated. On the main-line, however, electric locomotives are employed for train haulage. The standard type is an eight-wheeled double bogie machine specially designed for medium speeds. Fast types of electric locomotive are being tried out, among which is one of the American 2-C-C-2 type; a Swiss 2-D-2 type; and two locomotives of the Hungarian 2-B-B-2 arrangement. One of the latter machines has the hyperstatic system of transmission and the other is equipped with isostatic rods.
From Paris to Bretigny light signals are employed throughout, alternating current being utilised for this service. An interesting feature of the Orleans electrification plan is the fact that during the summer months, when the natural water power at the Eguzon station is liable to fail, an ingenious arrangement has been devised for obtaining power from the thermal station at Genne-villiers (Paris). Subsequently all units thus obtained during the summer for the operation of the railway are returned to Gennevilliers during the winter at a pressure of 150 kilovolts, which will eventually be raised to 220 kilovolts.
Hand-in-hand with France, Britain and Italy also are forging ahead with railway electrification. In the Homeland, the Southern Railway operates some 733 track miles of electric line, and when the work now in hand is completed early next year this railway will actually possess 875 miles of electrified track. During recent weeks the Southern has opened an important electrified section lying between London Bridge Station and Victoria Station, London; and between London Bridge Station and Epsom Downs, via Norwood Junction and West Croydon. Seventy-nine miles of track are included in this section, and the introduction of electric working has called for the most elaborate signalling alterations, which include the provision at London Bridge of an enormous signal box equipped with no fewer than 312 levers, and ranking as the third largest signal cabin in Britain.
Across the Channel, the Italian railways have converted about 750 miles of track to electricity. Italy's first electric trains ran on the Milan-Monza line, where motor cars with accumulators were employed as far back as 1899. In 1901 there was opened the Milan-Varese route, on the continuous current system with third rail (650 volts). In 1902 the Valtellina line was electrified on the three-phase system, and to-day the greater number of the Italian electric lines are worked on this system.
Many interesting types of electric lomocotive are employed in Italy on the Government Railways. For fast passenger haulage locomotives classed as E. 331 and E. 332 are utilised. These are
Shortly after the electrification of the District Railway of London some twenty odd years ago, a member of the staff sent to headquarters the suggestion that a distinctive form of name-plate should be devised for station use. The result was the adoption of the familiar bull's-eye name-plate, now to be seen at every underground station. The employee who put forward this idea was suitably rewarded, and other members of the staff who had ideas were encouraged to submit them to head-quarters. This was the nucleus of the all-embracing suggestions scheme now functioning so successfully on the Underground Railways of London, and in 1917 a special suggestions bureau came into being. From 1917 until the end of 1927 no fewer than 42,000 suggestions were received in the bureau, embracing every conceivable detail of the multifarious branches of the operation of the trains, omnibuses and tramways owned by the undertaking. Approximately 3,000 ideas were actually adopted, and many others have led to modifications of equipment and practice, being the germ of improvements which were more fully worked out afterwards. A special form is provided for members of the staff to set out their ideas, and an especially praiseworthy feature is the fact that the upper portion of the form, wherein the suggester enters his name and address, is detached in the suggestions bureau prior to the form going forward to the department concerned for consideration of the idea put forward. In this way the anonymity of those putting forward suggestions is preserved during the consideration stage, and there can be no fear on the part of the staff that suggestions are considered on anything but their own merits.
The suggestions scheme of the London Underground Railways has since been copied by many other lines, and in New Zealand, of course, a very successful suggestions scheme has for some time operated. The railwayman with ideas finds in the suggestions plan a convenient means of bringing his genius to the attention of the management, and at the same time must find considerable, and probably even greater satisfaction, in the knowledge that he is rendering rare service to his fellows in bettering the rail transportation machine upon which human welfare and human happiness so largely depend.
At the time of writing the summer is fast approaching, and our beaches are already drawing swimmers, surfers and sun-bathers in large numbers. The call of the sea and the surf carries far. And what can surpass it? Whether we view it from the point of view of health, recreation or sport, or mere pastime, the surf is supreme! But, you ask, is it safe? It is more safe than crossing a city street these days. Safer than playing football or even cricket. Safe not only for men and women, but for children. Well, what need is there for life saving clubs? I have nothing but admiration for those who join such clubs, and any criticism I may have to offer will be of a constructive nature.
Try to estimate what a city like Sydney, for instance, owes to its surf clubs, ay, and its life savers. How often does the foolhardiness of the average man bathing on our beaches place not only himself, but those in his vicinity, in danger of becoming shark bait? How often do we hear of thrilling rescues by life-saving teams? The men comprising these teams are not all fools or cranks who want to see just how far they can go out into the sea. There are other reasons why even the most careful swimmers sometimes find themselves well out in the danger zone, beyond the breakers. And sometimes persons who cannot swim a stroke suddenly realise they are in a like predicament. Why this is so we will explain later. The point, for the moment, is, that they are there, and cannot get back by their own unaided efforts. Lucky for them if the life-savers are at hand to bring them safe ashore. Lucky, too, that the life-savers have grown so expert that only in the most exceptional cases do they fail to effect a complete rescue. Their success in this respect is shown by the very small percentage of drowning accidents reported from our many crowded beaches.
These rescues, however, and similar incidents associated with surf bathing emphasise the fact that there are still many persons, young and old, who cannot swim. Scarcely a day passes that my help is not solicited by some person anxious to learn to swim, and, almost in the same breath as the request is made there is the exclamation: “I know I shall never be able to learn!” Despite his want of faith (which, in so many cases in life, is the greatest obstacle to success), I take the doubting one in hand, and, lo, almost before he realises it, he is swimming for all he is worth! “So easy as that!” you exclaim. It is just because it is so easy that it is so difficult. Let me explain; and that my methods are correct methods, is demonstrated by the fact that I have not yet had one failure. There is no secret science about it. It is all so simple that any swimmer may teach any non-swimmer to swim. Did you ever think that it was queer that man was the only animal that has to learn to swim? Why? He is the only animal who is afraid of what might happen.
The first thing then a teacher of swimming has to do is to dispel his pupil's fear, to imbue him with confidence not only in his teacher, but in himself. One of my pupils and I go down to the beach to have a dip. While changing into our bathing costumes, I look him over, and tell him that he is built for the game all right. The remark gives him confidence, and he is half
All mechanical “aids” to swimming, such a corks, life buoys, water wings, belts, etc., are a hindrance, not a help, and serve only to impress on the pupil that he cannot swim. If you want to be a swimmer, do not have anything to do with them. If you want to instruct others successfully, warn them against their use. If the reader who cannot swim
follows the lines herein laid down, he will find that, after a few lessons, he will make rapid progress, and very soon arrive at the stage when he may be initiated into the mysteries of the different strokes. But the teacher's first lesson is to make his pupil understand that he can swim.
(to be continued.)
After months of steady progress the finishing touches are now being given to the Department's comprehensive programme of new workshops construction, and within a comparatively short space of time the transfer of the men and the work to the new buildings will be an accomplished fact.
With this transfer to the new workshops, some further changes in the shops’ organisation become necessary. Some of these changes are due to the concentration of all locomotive work into one set of shops, and of car and wagon work into another set of shops, in each Island.
Each shop (and each department in each shop) in the new workshops will be equipped as completely as possible with the latest tools, machines, and other necessary appliances for carrying out specific operations, each shop thereby becoming a complete unit in itself.
The object of this unification plan is to stop unnecessary delay and handling of the work in hand, or, as I have before stated, “To cut the time between jobs.” When work has to move, the very best moving appliances in the way of cranes, power trucks, etc., will be provided. But when once a job is in a particular department, all the turning, marking, fitting and assembling, etc., will, as far as practicable, be done in that department.
The machine shop departments will contain fitters, turners, machinists and labourers (in whatever proportion is necessary) and the subforeman in charge of a particular machine shop department will be responsible for the output of his department.
In addition to the responsibility for the progress of the work of the department immediately under their control, the various sub-foremen in one shop must submit an individual progress report to the foreman in charge of their shop. The foreman, of course, will be entirely responsible for the collective output and general efficiency of his shop—irrespective of what trades are represented there.
With the object of assisting sub-foremen and foremen to get the best results from their respective departments and shops we are having the costs and accounting methods adjusted (so that each subforeman will get his own departmental costs) and the shop schedules rearranged to conform to the new conditions of work in the different departments.
The following article appeared recently in the “Hokitika Guardian.” It presents a picture of steady rural progress in South Westland and shows what is being done by the provision of up-to-date hostelries at selected places to cater for the comfort and convenience of tourists who visit this unique forest and mountain region in ever-increasing numbers.
The South Westland district is a very important part of Westland, and its advancement means a great deal to the rest of the province. The dairy farmers of the southern area have had a successful season, with perhaps a more promising one in the near future. Buyers of cheese and butter output are looking for business at advanced rates, and the farmers are in good heart at the prospects. The fat stock are now coming forward from the south. Herds were to be seen on the road; while many were in the paddocks waiting their turn for the sale pen. The condition of the fat stock speaks well for the pastures, and it was noticeable how green the paddocks looked. The provision of more and more feed is being recognised, and the plough and the fertiliser are both doing good work. The sheep farmer is rejoicing, too, in a promising lambing season, and it is anticipated more lambs than ever will come out of the south this season. General improvements about homesteads are also noticeable. Some new buildings are in hand, especially about the Harihari district, where several new homes are in course of erection. At Wataroa, also, new homes are to be seen. It is apparent that the settlers are prospering and those who have gone out into the back country well deserve their luck.
The hostelries along the southern route are all preparing for a busy tourist season. Several of the buildings have been enlarged of late. This is noticeable at Harihari, Matainui, Okarito and Waiho Gorge. These are all centres where accommodation is required all the year round, and special provision is being made for a busy season. The very commodious premises at Waiho Gorge are a fine advertisement for the district and must have assisted very greatly to develop the tourist traffic. There is an unusually fine hostelry now established there, and the comfort and attention provided for patrons makes it a very popular centre with travellers.
This season a further stage south will be established by the provision of a hostel at Weheka for tourists and travellers. The enterprise shown by Messrs Sullivan Bros, in this respect, will surprise all who see the fine building now approaching completion. It is a twostorey edifice, over one hundred feet in length, has some forty-five rooms and will accommodate comfortably fully fifty people. Quite an ideal situation has been selected for the site at the foot of the wooded hills under the shadow of Mount Cook, with Cook's River flat spread out before the dwelling. The building will be opened in November next. Expense is not spared in the equipment of the house, and every comfort is being provided. The building will be lit and heated in the main electrically.
Just as Graham Bros. were the pioneers at Waiho Gorge, and have done so much to advertise the district by a well-connected hostelry, so Sullivan Bros., some eighteen miles further south, are setting out on a similar mission of natural development. This enterprising spirit is to be commended greatly, and when one regards the growth of the tourist traffic to the district, one must not be unmindful of what is being done by those who are preparing to cater for the traffic, and who thereby do so much to advertise the district in regard to a very natural phase of the tourist traffic—the provision of first-class accommodation in out-of-the-way places.
The Main South Road is reported to be in excellent order. As far as Waiho Gorge it is a main highway. Beyond that it is a Government road. Excellent work is being done over the full length of the road in regard to maintenance,
The road beyond the Waiho Gorge to Weheka, a distance of eighteen miles, is outstanding for scenery. The road winds over three saddles, Oemoeroa, Waikukupa and Weheka. In doing so it traverses high sidelings, which overlook valleys of heavily timbered forest, backed by the snow peaks and fields of the Southern Alps. The whole region is of great beauty, for the forest growth in all its varied shades of trees, ferns and under scrub makes remarkable variety in scene and colour. Numerous watercourses come out of the hillsides, revealing glimpses of cool sylvan scenes of unusual charm. There is all the glory of mountain scenery for a background, and the forests of Westland at their best for the foreground. Many travellers of world experience describe it as the most wonderful scenic drive in their knowledge, and this is not praise too high. It may be recalled that Mr. Amery was specially struck by this wonderful section of mountain road and scenery, which appears to be unique even for Westland. It is as though there were three or four Otira Gorges displayed in sections for four times the length of the Otira Gorge, for the whole eighteen miles are crowded with examples of Nature's handiwork.
Then, at the end comes the wonderful view of Cook's River flat. The ocean is visible beyond. In the bright sunlight the scene is a remarkable one. Leaving mountain, forest and torrent behind, the traveller comes upon the flat, dotted with settlers’ homesteads and wellstocked paddocks. Nearby is the new hostel, and this wonderland is dominated by Mounts Cook and Tasman, silent sentinels of the impressive scene presented below.
The average automobile weighs, say, 2,000lb. without a load. Such an automobile, even when loaded with four or five people weighs less than 3,000lb. Suppose this 2,800lb. load tries a tilt at a railway crossing with a freight engine weighing close to 400,000lb. Is there any doubt in your mind as to which would be victorious? Yet, daily, car drivers try to beat the engine to a crossing, and busy newspaper men are forced to write heart-rending stories of the manner in which the passengers in the automobile were either killed or injured. —From the “Railway Age.”
(Concluded.)
A railway working to capacity can carry produce for a penny or two per ton-mile. The motor lorry charges a shilling or two for the same service—twelve or fifteen times as much. The result is that while the railway has an economic radius of hundreds of miles, the motor lorry is limited to tens of miles. I feel sure that it is in bridging this economic gap the solution of the transport problem of the Empire is to be sought.
Mr. R. H. Brackenbury (Empire Marketing Board).
I purpose in this concluding article on “Railways in Modern Transport” to review briefly the methods which have been adopted for dealing with the new problems presented by the introduction of the motor as a live factor in modern transport, and shall confine my observations more particularly to the United States, Germany, Switzerland and South Australia.
In the United States legislative powers exist in the majority of cases for the regulation of road motor traffic, and permission to operate such vehicles is not given unless the proposed service is a public convenience and necessity. At the present time 64 railway companies are operating motor coaches for the carriage of passengers (using for this purpose 1,050 vehicles), and 45 railways are operating motor lorries for goods traffic (using 4,902 vehicles). The trend of legislation in the United States may be gauged from the following decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission:—
Railroads have permanent road beds and trackage which require an outlay of millions of dollars. This railway property yields large revenue to the people of the State, which the average bus line (incorporated for a comparatively small sum) does not do. The railroad, therefore, is a much greater financial responsibility. This is a matter of substantial public interest, particularly in cases of accident. It is the established policy of the law (of the State covering this decision) that a public utility be allowed to earn a fair return on its investments. It is, therefore, not only unjust, but poor economy to grant, to a much less responsible utility company, the right to compete for the business of carrying passengers by paralleling its line unless it is evident that the necessary service cannot be furnished by existing railway services. In a recent application before the Commission the appellants offered to provide whatever increase in accommodations and service that was deemed essential to meet the public convenience and necessity, and it is but consonant with our law regulating public utilities that they be given the opportunity to do so. It is argued, on the other hand, that appellants cannot give the necessary service except at a large loss. Such argument is beside the question involved in the proceedings before the Commision in this case. Appellants have stated that they are willing and able to give such service. However, it appears clear that the Commission is not justified in granting a certificate of convenience and necessity to a competing line until the utility in the field has had an opportunity to demonstrate the truth of its statement, and to give the required service. (The italics are mine.)
The above decision of one of the most important tribunals in the United States, by discouraging as it does the duplication of a transport service which is adequate to meet a given set of circumstances, should, it seems to me, be interpreted not so much a victory for the particular railroad concerned, but a victory for common sense and sound economics.
Let me turn now to the German aspect of this interesting problem.
A commission to study the road and rail problem and recommend a working agreement between the railway and existing road services was set up in
1. The transport of goods in congested traffic areas and also short hauls in so far as this could be done more economically by road than by rail.
2. The transport of goods to railway stations and house to house deliveries.
3. The performance of such other tasks as could be assigned by the German Railway Company.
As originally constituted, this organisation did not entirely meet with the success which had been anticipated. The German Railway Company, therefore, instituted a further investigation of the entire problem employing for the purpose of the inquiry specialists in road and rail traffic. The findings of the second Commission reiterated the necessity for the German Railway Company to participate in the road transport industry and in conformity with these findings the German Railway Company, in conjunction with the Government, decided to secure the major portion of the stock of two suitable motor transport undertakings thus securing a more active interest in this line of effort than heretofore. The methods by which full co-operation between road and rail is secured, are as follows:—
In regard to deliveries, the road vehicle furnishes the necessary connection between stations and areas not served by the railway, this traffic being operated either on the basis of an independent agreement or in co-operation with railway transport on the basis of a uniform delivery contract. So far as parallel and cross country transport is concerned, the road vehicle is employed as an independent means of transport between different places having railway connections. In this latter case the agreements are, in general, not subject to the provision applying to rail transport.
In cases where rail transport is in process of substitution by road transport, the railway uses motor vehicles for its own auxiliary operations for carrying out delivery agreements in districts where the said rail connection exists. In such cases the closing down of the railway line or the taking over of individual operators becomes possible. Moreover, three methods of co-operation of what is termed “neutral” traffic also receive consideration in Germany. This “neutral” traffic is that which employs motor transport for the carriage of, say, building materials, employees’ excursions, etc., in districts far remote from the railway system. In contradistinction to the situation in most other countries, the delivery to and from railway stations in Germany is mainly carried out by the traders whose activity as solicitors of traffic, as well as their importance in the economic life of the country, makes it necessary to include them in the Company if it is to do this work to the greatest advantage.
One of the difficulties which Germany has to encounter is the lack of organisation among road transport operators and the inexperience and want of business acumen which causes them to accept traffic at cut rates which cannot be otherwise remunerative. The continued existence of these units is the greatest weakness of the road transport industry as a whole.
In July, 1926, the State Railway of Switzerland formed a company with a capital of 1,000,000
The agreement between the railways and the Company referred to provides that the latter shall not enter into competition for goods or passenger traffic. In July, 1927, the State Railway (and a great number of narrow gauge railways) came to an important agreement on the subject of freight rates. Under this agreement (in specified circumstances) it was agreed to convey all employees and ordinary goods traffic at a rate similar to that ruling for carriage by road. The conditions are as follows:—
(1) That the trader states that without the grant of these rates it would be more economical for him to despatch by road vehicle and that he is in a position to do this.
(2) That the rate must be such as will cover all primary costs and leave normal profit for the railway.
(3) That the trader must give to the railways every year a certain minimum quantity of traffic.
(4) That the trader either entirely or within certain specified limits, abandons all road transport in favour of the railways.
The Company guarantees the conditions of transport and contracts with the traders, but by arrangement is subject to the rule “There shall be no undue Preference.”
In common with other railway systems through—
out the world, that of South Australia has been confronted with serious road competition from independent operators, many of whom were working on a quite unsound basis. In such circumstances it was a difficult matter to deal effectively with the situation. The Railway authorities, however, faced the position boldly, deciding, in February, 1925, to inaugurate a road service. A fleet of vehicles, both passenger and goods, was mobilised for service and, in 1927, 46 passenger vehicles, 25 goods vehicles and 11 parcel delivery trucks were in commission on various routes.
In 1927, however, the competition became so serious that Parliament passed a Motor Transport Act which vested the control of all motor traffic outside the Metropolitan area in a Board of three, of which the Railway Commissioner was chairman. In terms of this legislation the Railway Department
The results of the working of this Act in South Australia are said to be quite satisfactory, which would indicate that it is possible to co-ordinate road and rail traffic with results beneficial to the community at large.
Looking at every aspect of this complex problem of the rail and motor in modern transport, I am personally convinced that its solution does lie along lines of co-operation and co-ordination. Motors have long since justified their utility in the service of man and their retention is an economic necessity. But, as has been pointed out in the course of these articles, their sphere of successful economic operation is a definitely circumscribed one. Their scope of greatest usefulness (in the world of transport proper) is as feeders to existing railway systems. The railways must, therefore, remain the chief transport highway of the country. And when, as in our own case, they are a Stateowned enterprise, in which more than fifty millions of the people's money has been invested, the question of maintaining the solvency of the railway system becomes one of the most vital importance to every member of the community. Let it be constantly recognised that the railways, by developing the country, have made possible its economic prosperity to-day and that the perpetuation of our prosperity is inseparably bound up with the measure of patronage afforded the railways by the people of New Zealand.
[The above series of articles on “Railways in Modern Transport” formed the substance of a paper read by Mr. Wyles before a recent meeting of the Technological Branch of the Wellington Philosophical Society.—Ed., N.Z.R.M.]
“From the national point of view the conveyance of long-distance traffic by road is wrong. It must be a mistake for the heavy traffic to be pushed on to the roads, which are already overcrowded, and at the same time, for the railways to be left, possibly, without the full amount of traffic which they can work. Even to the motor industry I think it a most serious matter. If there is anything which can make travel unpleasant to the private owner of a car it is a flood of heavy, long vehicles on the road.
—Mr. F. C. A. Coventry, O.B.E., Superintendent of Road Transport, Great Western Railways, England.
The following Maori folk-tale of the Golden Kowhai is, says James Cowan, surely “as pretty a tree-myth and as satisfying an explanation of the Kowhai's freakish flowering habit as any lover of fairy tales and any poetic soul could wish.”
The blossoming of the Kowhai, New Zealand's flower of spring, came rather later than usual this year, and the tui and the bellbird, those melodious honey-suckers that mimic each other's songs, must have wondered what delayed the opening of their favourite sweets feast.
The peculiarity of this loveliest of our small flowering trees is the fact that it produces its blossoms before the leaves. The most charming of forest pictures is the scene on the edge of the bush or along a river, such as the upper part of the Wanganui, when the pendulous Kowhai flowers cover every bough without a sign of foliage, and when the tuis are chattering joyously as they flutter from branch to branch, sometimes giving a kind of looping the loop exhibition in their excited exploration of the honey-laden blooms.
Long ago, in the back country of the Rotorua Lakes region, I heard a Maori explanation of the Kowhai's singular habit of flowering on bare and leafless branches.
On the shore of one of these lakes, said the arboreal fairy tale, there sat one day in the misty long ago a young Maori man and girl. The man pressed his love on the beautiful Kotiro; he sought her for his wife, but the maid laughed—Maori maids are as “kittle cattle” as their Pakeha sisters—and said she'd see; she would wait; she would not accept his love until her suitor—who was an Ariki of high rank and a tohunga too—performed some great and unexampled deed before she would become his wife. She would wed none but a famous man, a man whose exploits no one could outdo.
The lover accepted the challenge. “You shall see what I can do,” he said, He turned to the tree under which they were sitting. It was a Kowhai. The time was about our Pakeha month of August. The tree was quite bare of both flower and leaf.
“I shall,” said the young tohunga, “cause this tree to spring into flower before your eyes.” With those words he put forth all his occult powers, the command of mind over matter, which had been taught him by the wise men in the sacred house of instruction. He recited in quick tense tones his magic prayers. And, all in a moment, a miracle! All at once the tree burst forth into a blaze of blossom. All its naked boughs were covered in a breath with golden hanging flowers.
The amazed girl saw, and was conquered. No man surely could rival that wonder-feat of her priestly lover.
And ever since that day, says the Maori, the Kowhai has flowered on leafless branches, a sign and a reminder of the ancient miracle.
(The Scarlet Cianthus, which is called by the Maoris the Kowhai-ngutu-kaka, or “Parrot's beak,” because of the shape of its very rich flowers, does not carry any special association with native folk-talk. It is the yellow Kowhai that is heard in tradition and song. “Te ura o te Kowhai” (the glow of the Kowhai) is a common expression, and the Maori was as quick as any Pakeha artist or poet to appreciate the beauty of the drooping clusters of golden blossom reflected on the glossy waters of a lake or harbour, or in a gliding river. There is a mystical “Kowhai-turanga ora,” or “Tree of Life,” in the classic legendry of the Waikato people; it is used symbolically in song and speech to-day in allusion to powers and authorities—the British Crown was thus referred to in an address I remember—to which the Maoris look for help and life.)
(From Our London Correspondent.)
On railways all over the globe welfare activities are these days much to the fore. Welfare work covers an immense field, and many of the world's leading railways now find it necessary and desirable to maintain special departments to care for the physical and mental well-being of their staffs both at work and play. One of the most valuable aids in this connection is the operation of railway institutes designed as intellectual and social centres for employees and their families, where one and all may gather under a good influence to enjoy their leisure and bring about a closer relationship between employer and employee. Railway institutes have for long flourished in New Zealand and at Home, but it is probably in the United States that the greatest development has been recorded in this direction.
A leader in the development of the railway institute in America is the Aitchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line, one of the largest carriers in the States, which serves the whole of the vast continent west of Chicago. The Santa Fe institute system was inaugurated as far back as 1898, and to-day there are maintained on the line twenty-three such establishments. A special officer, styled the Superintendent of Reading Rooms, is entrusted with the conduct of the institutes.
Thirteen of the Santa Fe institutes contain sleeping rooms for employees, the majority of bedrooms being equipped with two single beds. These are rented by employees only at a charge of thirty-five cents for twelve hours, and at division points they are largely used by train-men during the lay-over between trips. The lower floor of the Santa Fe institutes is divided into three portions, viz., a reading room, a games room, and an office with sweets and tobacco stalls and other conveniences. The majority of the institutes are situated amidst park-line surroundings, and fulltime gardeners are kept. Inside and out the constant endeavour is to develop the home atmosphere which makes for friendship and amicable understanding. American railway leaders look upon the institute plan with the very greatest favour, and are confident in the belief that the vast sums of money thus expended are fully repaid in the higher standard of the employee and the creation of a spirit of true teamwork. American railways hold no monopoly of successful transportation, but in the manner in which they set out to improve the relations existing between the managements and the men, they certainly present much food for thought on the part of railway folk in other corners of the globe.
Perhaps no one in New Zealand has had greater success in the cultivation of Narcissi than Mr. W. Slater, of Lower Hutt, Wellington, who has kindly given, in the following article, the benefit of his experience for the use of our readers.
The Narcissus, the “Queen of Spring,” is again abloom in our gardens, and, no doubt, among the ranks of raiwaymen there are many who desire to produce these lovely flowers in all their glory. The Narcissus is easily cultivated and requires very little attention after the bulbs have been planted.
I will here outline the method I have adopted in the cultivation of these flowers, a method which, in a great measure, has contributed to my success on the show benches. It is preferable that the Narcissi beds should be prepared in the kitchen garden, in a sunny aspect, well sheltered from the prevailing winds. If such a position is not available, a good breakwind can be obtained by erecting a double row of wire netting—one or two inch mesh—spaced four inches apart. The beds, which should be four to five feet wide and running east to west (and as long as desired), should be prepared early in October. By this method the necessary hoeing and weeding can be carried out without treading on the beds, and the sun can stream down between the rows. Let us assume it is decided to make the bed thirty feet long by four feet wide. In such a case one should procure two sound boards twenty feet by six inches by one inch, and two boards four feet by six inches by one inch. The first thing to do is to place the boards (in the form of a frame) on top of the ground in the position selected. Then remove the top seven inches of soil between this frame, and bank up the soil outside.
Now, to the surface of the bed thus excavated, give a dressing per square yard as follows: —1lb. of fresh slaked lime, 8ozs. of soot and 4ozs. of pure bone dust. Thoroughly dig this dressing into the bed (breaking up the soil well), and then level off. Proceed then to apply a double layer of good cow-pasture turf, or cocksfoot clumps, placed grass-side down. When the turf has been laid evenly in the bed, replace (on to the top of the turf) the soil which was first removed. This will raise the surface of the bed to the top of the boards—six inches above the level of the surrounding ground—thus ensuring perfect drainage.
That this bed may not lie idle for the three months it would not be required for Narcissi culture, it could be utilised for raising cabbage, cauliflower or like plants. It is essential, however,
Plant the Narcissi bulbs early in January so as to secure as long a season's growth as possible. But before proceeding to do so measure off the bed and mark the rows on each side of the twenty feet board, starting nine inches from the end and fifteen inches between the rows. (This marking can best be done with nails or saw cuts.)
The safest method is to plant the bulbs according to their size, and to cover them with from one to one and a half times their own depth of soil—that is three to four inches below the surface. If in doubt plant on the deep side. This ensures a more even temperature. Allow three to four inches between each bulb and plant so that the natural increase will run up and down the rows. This increase can be detected by a swelling on the side of the bulb.
Surface hoeing can be carried out till the end of March, after which hand weed if necessary. The top soil must be kept free.
There is no safe method of retarding a bloom which may be too early for a certain date; but such blooms may be preserved for two or three weeks by covering them with scrim. Buds which are backward can be helped considerably by a mild application of nitrate of soda—½oz. to a gallon of water—applied four weeks before show day (assuming the bulbs are being grown for show purposes), and again two weeks later. A liberal use of lime in the making of the bed enables you to use the nitrate of soda.
On no account pull the blooms to obtain longer stems for the show bench. This method is injurious to the bulb and also opens up an easy entrance for the two worst enemies of the Narcissus—eel worm and bulb mite. Flowers should be cut or picked at ground level.
Trumpet daffodils grow much larger when left on the plant. This also applies to the Leedsii and Incomparabilis selfs and bi-colours without red cups. Some of the red cup Incomparabilis should be left growing to develop the colour. Red cups generally, more especially the Barrii and Poeticus, should be cut as soon as the flower begins to open. The cut blooms should be kept in a cool airy room and given fresh water daily. They will thus increase in size and retain their beautiful colour.
Should the weather be dry at any time in the growing season, water the beds twice a week with pure water. Lack of substance in the
After the flowering season is over do not on any account remove the foliage. Plants will keep on growing for another ten or twelve weeks. In this period the bulb and the flower are being prepared for the following year. The time to clean up the bed is when the leaves have separated themselves naturally from the bulb.
Once a bed is planted it may remain down for three years. (Better blooms are produced in the second and third years). After the third year it will be necessary to lift the bulbs, work that is best done about mid-December. As each variety is lifted place the bulbs in a sieve and thoroughly wash them under the high pressure hose, and remove the decayed scales and roots. Place the bulbs in a cool dry place until the next planting time.
When again planting the bulbs it is better to prepare a new bed than to use the old one. If space will not permit, renew the soil of the old bed as before stated.
Narcissi respond to good cultivation and not to over-feeding.
By following out the method of cultivation briefly outlined in the foregoing article the reader will be agreeably surprised by the results achieved. Instead of mediocre blooms he will have blooms of rare beauty and charm. I cannot do better than close these notes with the lines of the poet Wordsworth: —
The instinctive and universal taste of mankind selects flowers for the expression of its finest sympathies, their beauty and their fleetingness serving to make them the most fitting symbols of those delicate sentiments for which language itself seems almost too gross a medium. —Hillard.
(Continued)
The Upper Wanganui region was famous among the Maoris for the size and quality of its timber, and especially of the totara. The many large canoes used on the river right down to Wanganui Heads were usually procured near Taumarunui, at such places as the Pungapunga River, where the people were expert in bushwork and canoe making.
Some of the station names here are fragrant of the forest. Piriaka refers to the “clinging bush vine” (the place where “the woodbine twineth”). Raurimu is “red pine leaf.”
With the ascent from the riverside to the tableland above Raurimu the traveller's interest is diverted to the highly skilful engineering work entailed in the construction of the line. In thirty miles run from the Taumarunui Flat the train climbs 2,160ft. to Waimarino (National Park) station. The steepest part is the range that rises immediately above Raurimu Station. To surmount this an ingenious spiral was designed; this was the work of Mr. Holmes, Inspecting Engineer of the Public Works Department (later Engineer-in-Chief). The line is run in an ascending spiral, a complete circle and two loops, with two tunnels. The fashion in which this mountain railway ties knots in itself is rather puzzling on first experience.
On this high breezy plateau of Waimarino we enter the charmed region of grand volcanic mountain landscapes, the most wonderful region in the North Island. We get our first views of the sacred mountains of old, the Tongariro Range, its active volcano Ngauruhoe (7,515 ft.), and the perpetually ice-capped giant Ruapehu (9,175), the highest point of the Island, and its only glaciated peak. At an altitude of 2,636ft. we reach the boundary of the Tongariro National Park, a noble scenic sanctuary of nearly 150,000 acres, containing the three famous mountains and several lakes, large areas of forest, and great expanses of subalpine meadow spangled with flowers in the spring and summer. From National Park Station a motor road runs to the heart of the Park, Whakapapa Cottage Camp, thirteen miles from the railway. For a full description of the Park the visitor should read the book issued by the Tongariro National Park Board. Here it is sufficient to indicate the noble pictures which the smoking and icy mountains present to the rail traveller, especially on some fine summer morning as one emerges from the forest and opens out the first prospect across the Waimarino Plain. Ngauruhoe, with its perfect symmetrical cone lifting steeply 3,000ft from the rocky plateau, is the first feature to capture the eye; the curl of
Ohakune town and Rangataua sawmilling village are places from which Mount Ruapehu is frequently climbed. The summit of the mountain is only about twelve miles airline distant. As we go eastward and emerge from the shelter of the part-wooded hills on to the tussock plain there are some very splendid pictures of the lone volcanic alps in their garment of snow and ice. It is rather strange to remember that that ice-pinnacled peak holds a hot lake on its summit, a lake which sometimes becomes a geyser on a grand scale. The Whangaehu River, a highly mineralised stream which we cross, has its source just below this crater-lake, and it is the subterranean soakage from the sulphurous tarn that gives it its peculiar colour and taste.
Waiouru (“River of the West”), 242 miles from Auckland, and 185 from Wellington, a
The towns of Hunterville, Marton (the junction with other railway lines), and Feilding, each marking a distinct stage in provincial progress, break the journey through a very kindly, wealthy, pleasant countryside. Many a comfortable country house rests among its gardens and orchards and shelter trees, in the midst of the best of pasture land.
Palmerston North (339 miles from Auckland and 87 miles from Wellington) the largest inland town in New Zealand—a spacious and beautiful provincial centre—is fast attaining the dignity of a city. The only fault one has to find with this wide-spreading place of fine buildings and shady parks and bright flower gardens is its inappropriate and meaningless name. “Manawatu” has often been suggested as the fitting name for the town, and it would become it exceedingly well. As the metropolis of the wealthy farming district of the Manawatu Plains, it could bear no more convenient and euphonious name.
There is much topographical and historical interest in the district traversed on the eightyseven miles run from Palmerston North to Wellington. The southern peaks of the Ruahine
Farming on these alluvial levels becomes more intensive as we run southward, with the part forested Tararua Ranges now more close and looming bold and blue. By way of variety there is to be seen the great flax-growing swampy plain of Makerua, where the cultivation and milling of the native phormium tenax engage capital and labour on a large scale.
This Manawatu section of the North Island railways was originally constructed and managed by a company formed in Wellington. The memory of one prominent commercial pioneer is preserved in the name of Levin, the principal town of the lower Manawatu country. Before the railway was built, traffic up the coast was by coach, and the route ran for many miles along the ocean beach between Paekakariki and the mouth of the Manawatu. The numerous rivers and streams were forded at their mouths.
The Tararua Mountains take their name from a central prominent height which was termedTararua by the Maoris because of the double peaks
(“Tara” is a sharp mountain top, and “rua” means two). The loftiest point is Mount Hector, 5,016ft; the highest peaks of the blue sierra in sight run up to about 4,000ft. The winter snows and the mists resting on the summits of the mountains are poetically described by the Maoris as the hina or “white hair” of the Tararua. Up yonder in the recesses of the range, opposite the railside township of Shannon, are the Mangahao hydro-electric power works. The mountain-streams supply the electric current which lights the Manawatu towns and homesteads, and drives the milking plants and factories and mills of a wide countryside.
As the train speeds into Levin a glimmering water-sheet is seen on the seaward side of the town. This is Lake Horowhenua, a shallow islet-dotted freshwater lagoon, two miles and a quarter long and a mile wide. Most of the small islands which it contains are artificial—the work of members of the Muaupoko tribe a century ago. Here they had hoped to be safe from the famous warrior Rauparaha (the “Maori Napoleon”) and his musketeers; but those little places of refuge proved to be isles of death. After his conquest of Horowhenua the fierce Rauparaha shut up scores of captives on the islet of Namu-iti, near the north end of the lake, and killed some from day to day, as required for food. To the old-time settlers that islet was known as “Ruaparaha's stockyard.”
(To Be Continued)
We may say of angling as Dr. Bolter said of strawberries, ‘Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.’ And so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.
—Izaak Walton.
In my two previous articles on big game fishing in the world-renowned northern waters of New Zealand, I attempted to familiarise readers of the Magazine with the exceptional scenic attractions of the Bay of Islands and Urupukapuka Island, with the excellence of the transport facilities (by rail and launch) for reaching the fishing grounds, and with the art of hunting and capturing—more particularly the swordfish. In this contribution I propose to deal briefly with the mako shark, which, with the thresher and hammerhead sharks (all famous sporting fish), are caught on rod and line in our northern waters.
Of other species of this fish also caught, I might mention the blue shark, ground shark, raraemai shark and sharks of the grey nurse species. These latter, however, are not sporting fish, and the New Zealand Deep Sea Angling Clubs do not give certificates for their capture. When one of these species of sharks is hooked it sinks down in the water and gives the anglers little if any sport whatever. One angler, however, a well-known doctor, who was fishing some time ago from Otehei Bay, did have considerable sport with a monster specimen of the grey nurse shark. The shark, when hooked, took the angler's line a distance of some 200 yards from the launch and kept down deep in the water all the time. After playing the fish for an hour or more the angler succeeded ultimately in bringing the shark alongside the launch where it was harpooned. To the angler's consternation the shark's stomach was found to contain a collie dog (recently swallowed), four squibs, six schnapper, two crayfish, sundry other fish, and two penguins! Truly an interesting catch and, at the same time, a reminder of the ugly depredations of this species of fish. Unlike the swordfish which leave our northern waters before the commencement of winter for their esoteric spawning places, the sporting members of the shark tribe (the mako shark, etc.), and the kingfish, remain in close proximity to our coast throughout the year.
The thresher shark with its enormous tail—a tail longer than its body—is the deadly enemy of the whale, and this shark is most frequently seen during the whaling season—two periods of about six weeks’ duration in each year. By this I do not mean to suggest that the thresher shark cannot be caught at any time during the year. He can; and he is a great fighter. His fault, however, is that he fights deep beneath the water, is exceedingly stubborn and, pound for pound, a much harder fish to tackle than his brother the mako.
The mako is called the aristocrat of the sharks. Indeed, it is somewhat of a misnomer to call this particular fish a shark at all, and expert anglers hesitate so to designate him. After the mako attains full size he becomes a magnificent sporting fish, weighing anything up to 2,200 lbs. It is fascinating to watch him, as he does, come out of the water with the greatest ease, glide up, turn a somersault and then go down head first like a great sea bird. Then he will rise again in a second or two and leap. Seldom does he leap once only. He may leap six, seven, or more times. He is certainly the aristocrat of all sharks and one of the greatest sporting fish which haunt the waters of our famous northern coast
I wish here to say for the information of the inexperienced angler who goes to the Bay of Islands to hunt the big fish, that, despite the launchmen's knowledge of the best times and tides for engaging in the hunt, the odds are usually against a record catch. However, if the big monsters are not biting, or if the neophyte becomes tired of handling the heavy tackle, he can always fall back on the kingfish, which abound closer in towards the shores of the many delightful bays and headlands in numbers to satisfy the sporting aspirations of “a million anglers” as one expert has expressed it. Many of these smaller fish (especially the kingfish) are splendid fighting fish, and their capture gives the inexpert angler not only constant delight, but valuable expereince in the art of playing the bigger fish he yearns to catch. Moreover, the inshore fishing has the big advantage (preferred by many longshoremen) that it does not subject one to the tumbling in the swell of the open sea when the weather is unpropitious.
Now, let me repeat here what I said in a previous article concerning the availability of the sport of deep sea fishing to people of moderate means. It is commonly supposed that only people in affluent circumstances may indulge in this sport. That is a mistake. How much money one spends on the sport depends, of course, on how one goes about it. For the man of moderate means there are plenty of launches available for hire from £3 per day upwards (plus benzine used). This modest cost may be shared by two, three or even four, anglers, so that the individual cost need not be beyond the means of the average reader of the Magazine who wishes to spend a holiday in this most beautiful part of our Dominion and indulge in this thrilling sport which has lured so many famous men to our shores in recent years.
The sport associated with the hunting and capture of the deep-sea fish, is not only fascinating and thrilling. It is, at times, highly amusing—as when, in some instances, the big fish seem to manifest uncommon sagacity in regard to the safety and appetising nature of the bait.
Two anglers from Ceylon recently, while fishing in the Bay of Islands, were baffled completely by the number of times their bait (in which the hook had been placed in the orthodox fashion) was taken by the fish without the latter being hooked. They came to the conclusion that the fish in the sea had all too human powers of logical discrimination in regard to the “adulteration” or otherwise of their food. In the course of their first day's fishing the two Ceylon anglers hooked their bait (a kahawai) through the jaw, leaving its tail and body free to be devoured by the hungry fish. On this occasion a deep-sea fish took the bait, but not the vital part of it! He bit it off close up to the head (wherein the hook was embedded) leaving the head of the kahawai untouched! On the second day another kahawai was prepared for bait, this time with a lead and a small hook placed down towards the tail in addition to the hook in the jaw, leaving only a few inches of the fish free. In this instance the anglers found that they were again defeated, the discerning fish taking the bulk of the bait—but without the hooks! On the third day out the anglers had a conference with the expert fisherman in charge of the party, and a plan was evolved whereby it was hoped to get even with the elusive big fish. Accordingly, for the third time, a kahawai was hooked for bait—this time with a lead containing a smaller hook concealed carefully in
But the humour, the delight, the thrills and the fascination of this sport of deep sea fishing in our northern waters, must be actually experienced to be adequately appreciated. Every season sees an increasing number of new comers at the Bay of Islands and on the fishing grounds—a sure indication of the popularity of this historic place and of the sport now so inseparately associated with its name.
In concluding this series of articles let me reiterate that the Railway Department now runs a daily express service from Auckland to Opua at which terminal up-to-date launches meet the trains and convey visitors to Russell in twenty minutes. The train journey from Auckland gives the traveller glimpses of interesting farming country and delightful scenery. It also gives him many reminders of the courtesy of our railwaymen whose solicitude for the comfort and convenience of travellers on the northern line is the constant theme of praise and comment.
Some one has said that the purpose of a vacation is to give the boss an opportunity to learn that you are not indispensible—that somehow or other the business gets along without you.
Hence, if there's even a grain of truth in the assertion, your absence is in competition with you—when you get back it's up to you to prove that you're an asset of the first water.
But how?
Well, when you're on a vacation forget the job, forget its joys and its troubles and recreate. Re-create your enthusiasm, your optimism, recreate your determination to do your job as well as you can do it; re-create your interest and your loyalty to the firm that employs you.
Pack your vacation full of healthful fun and sport; let it dominate your thought; then, when it is over, give the same amount of attention to the job that you gave to vacation—the same enthusiasm, the same interest.
And the boss will know that, although the business runs without you, it runs a whole lot better with you.
The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without, a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt. —Addison.
Advertising—let us admit it at once—has something to live down. When I was a little boy and the annual fair was to be held at home, we used sometimes to have a balloon ascent and a gentleman dressed in velvet tights, and with a waxed moustache, used to go up in the balloon and come down in a parachute—and sometimes the parachute opened
and somtimes it did not open quite as soon as it should. Now this gentleman, though we did not fail to go and look at him, was never quite one of us. You might say that he commanded a lot of admiration, but not very much respect.
And yet he was, I suppose, the predecessor in history of the air pilot who carries you and your wife and your baggage between one capital and another and lands you safe and sound to time.
Advertising has followed a very similar course to airmanship. It has become a reputable branch of commerce. It is becoming an exact science, and even now we can tell you with something approaching precision when and where it will act and when and where it won't.
And this is having a result of which some may not yet know.
In an Advertising Agency there are, of course, artists—artists in abundance. There are copywriters and there are men skilled in the niceties of lay-out and of print. But there are now coming in, in some numbers, young men from the public schools and universities, and I know of one or two Agencies in which the Balliol tie has been seen and the accents of Trinity are ceasing to excite any remarks. These young men enter upon advertising much as they would once have gone on to the Stock Exchange or joined the Civil Service. They come into advertising mainly on the directive side and they take the work very seriously indeed. They are not taking it any less seriously because sometimes they give you the impression that they are playing cricket or rugger or some team game, in which everyone must do his best for his side—even the man who only blocks the bowling while some one else—some brilliant poster man perhaps—scores runs. And so these young men can tell you a great deal about the principles and details of advertising. They know the size of a showcard which will go into a chemist's window; they will fight long and obstinately for or against the free distribution of samples; and, if they cannot tell you on the spot the actual number of babies and the potential number of bassinettes in Birmingham, they can take you to a pigeon-hole whence such a fact can be unearthed.
And so I keep on the sure ground of first principles and I say that the essential characteristic of modern advertising is the appeal by the maker of goods to the consumer. When a manufacturer brands his product with a name or mark, or, if that be not possible, encloses his product in a package which will henceforth be known, and proceeds to talk about his product—over the head of the wholesaler; over the head of the retailer—to the masses or the classes who will ultimately consume it—then advertising has begun. Immediately he begins to advertise, the maker of the goods shifts the basis of his goodwill, and whereas he used to hope that one retailer would mention his goods to twenty customers, he now intends
Now there are people who take serious moral objection to the whole process of advertising. Great thinkers have frowned upon it. But the worst of great thinkers is and always was that they do not think of everything! “Sometimes our indiscretions serve us well when our dear plots do fail.” We make all sorts of plans for the direct instruction and edification of the people, and we are often disappointed by their failure or only partial success.
And then advertising comes along. Assume it if you like to be an indiscretion, and yet look at its important and, on the whole, excellent results. It began in self but it has been overruled for good and has eventuated largely in service. Though it is still defaced by some sins against taste and others against truth, I do not think it would be possible to measure —certainly I know no gauge by which you could estimate the extent to which it has animated and instructed the people; raised the standard of life; awakened wants and, in awakening wants, stimulated effort; inculcated the ideals of comfort and cleanliness; held up happiness and health; taught the love and care of children and I know not how many other things that it is well for us to feel and to know —and how it teaches these lessons as lessons are best absorbed—by picture and story—avoiding those reactions which the moral teacher often provokes—rather defying the good than damning the bad.
The essence of modern advertising lies in the appeal of the maker to the consumer of goods. We might go a little further and say that it is the appeal to the sub-conscious mind of the consumer. That is perhaps a useful thought, because it at once distinguishes mail order advertising and the advertising of drapers’ stores from the modern commercial advertising we have more particularly in mind. The press advertising of a drapery store is the projection of the shop window into the domestic scene. One's wife sees the hat or the costume, she sees it illustrated and also priced. Aided by the constructive imagination which always surprises me, she knows in a moment when it is or is not her style. She acts accordingly. The advertisement has hit or missed.
But a very great deal of very successful advertising, indeed, is done on behalf of articles which will not be bought by anyone till the arrival of the proper time. You cannot imagine a man seizing his hat and coat and running into the street to buy a camera. Yet the advertising of cameras has been done with sensational success.
I am convinced that I shall not paper or paint my drawing-room till next spring. Nothing that you could say about wall papers would induce us in my house to undergo the ordeal of a spring cleaning in the autumn months. And yet my education about wall papers and house paints is going on all the time, and may eventually end in some reward to the firm which conducts it. I should not perhaps buy a new easy chair unless I was upheaving my present house or removing into a new one—yet easy chairs are advertised and not without the best commercial results. This then is the appeal to the sub-conscious mind. It is like the sowing of seed which seems to fall into the ground and die until it comes to life again in the harvest.
And then, from yet another point of view, we might think of advertising as the use of art and allurement in the service of commerce. That is what it is coming to be more and more. We need have no surprise in seeing art serving a serious cause like this, because art has served serious causes before. For centuries art was employed entirely in the cause of religion, and you have only to think for a moment to see how much public affairs have been shaped by the powers and persuasion of the spoken word. The French revolution was produced in France by words, and it was fended off from England—again by words. Mr. Baldwin, who tells us that he distructs and despises rhetoric, yet falls into it when he wishes to shape public opinion, and I should have taken “Give us peace in our time, O Lord,” for a very good attempt at a slogan.
But the subject of art and advertisement is a thorny one. I said a little time ago that advertising did not always enter into salesmanship. But salesmanship always enters into advertising. Art in advertising is art for the sake of selling. That leads us sometimes to go further and to swear in our wrath that if an advertisement sells the goods it is ipso facto—no matter how it may offend our sense of decorum and design—a good advertisement. This is nearly true but not quite, because you cannot be sure that a more seemly advertisement might not have sold the goods better or just as well. Neither is it precisely true to say that an advertisement is necessarily bad because it has failed to sell the goods. The goods themselves may be unsaleable. In that case it is not the art which has been bad, but the advice.
It is the work of the advertising agent to express enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the article in which he deals. But it is his duty sometimes to check it. I have known this done. My mind goes to the livest spirit I have ever known in advertising. I think of his devouring zeal and his drive. I think of his habit of living with the problems of his clients. And then I think—and I think still more—of the times when I have heard him say “No,” and seen him discourage some proposal in which there could be nothing but failure and waste.
I have more than once taken, or been one of a small party which has taken, advertising schemes to great firms. And the moment has come—could indeed be no longer delayed, when the work has been done and the samples which have been prepared have been extracted from the portfolio and laid before the assembled board. And at the moment of slight chill and apprehension, when the chairman has distributed all the drawings, finished or rough, round the table, and some are not looking at the drawings but reading the copy—I say that in this highly non-committal atmosphere, I have sometimes seen at the other side of the table a gentleman who seems to be warmly recommending the exhibit he has in hand to the director who sits next to him. And several times I have discovered that this humane and sympathetic man is the Sales Manager of the firm. Sometimes he is also the Advertisement Manager. Sometimes he is not the Advertisement Manager but an authority upon the subject of the Advertisement Manager. And then afterwards going across the factory yard—on the way to lunch—he and I have gravitated together and we have made friends. Bohemians, both of us! We have come into this affair from the side of the humanities. That is our angle of approach. We are not concerned with oil and shafting—nor with time-keeping—nor yet with overheads, but only with the human appeal which is to shift these excellent goods from their present place to their proper place, perhaps on the pantry shelf of the consumer.
And, since I have imagined us in the factory yard, I would say in conclusion—one word about the effect of advertising upon the firm which practises it. Briefly it is this. A firm's advertising tends to force upon the firm itself an ideal up to which it must live. We are always being told just now that England is going down, and how this, that, or the other institution is not what it was. Of some things the saying is true. But it is not, I think, true of British business. The corner in which it finds
We know something about the nineteenth century Victorian business man. We know for one thing that he did not advertise. We are expected to believe that he would have scorned to advertise. And yet we know from history that he was not a wholly satisfactory type. However just and righteous he may have been in his private life, in office hours he was rather too prone to think that “business was business.” He was not wholly insensible to the useful resemblance there is between sand and sugar; he had been compelled by rigorous law to make his premises decent and safe; his work people were not a very happy gang.
These blots have been largely removed. And it is a curious thing that the rise and progress of advertising should be the contemporary, if it is not the cause, of a higher and quicker sense of public service amongst business men. No one can have to do with modern business without noticing how real this sense of service is. It may be that as the next world becomes, if not dead to faith, at any rate more dim to sight, man, with his inborn desire to turn to something beyond and above himself, is beginning to idealise his calling and to look to his daily work for some of the satisfactions of his soul.
Be that as it may, this sense of service in business is now a very real and conscious thing, and I think we should find it not less but rather more real among firms who habitually advertise their goods. The factories of these firms are often model factories; the light of day abounds in them and I have seen such firms impregnated with a sense of what I might call “cricket”—a genuine concern for the worth of what they do. Is it possible that the advertising which a firm issues should react thus healthily and happily upon itself. —Extracts from a speech given at the Sales Managers’ Session at Birmingham.
Readers of the Magazine will be interested in the recent announcement that a Model Engineering Society, with a membership of approximately fifty, has been formed in Wellington. The formation of the Society was due to the efforts of Mr. L. S. K. Murray, whose interesting model locomotive “Maori Chief” was featured in our July issue.
A letter to the editor of the Magazine from Mr. L. S. McGregor, hon. secretary of the new society (The Wellington Model Engineering Society) conveys the following information, which we print for the benefit of our readers: —
“Mr. Murray and another member of the Society (Mr. E. R. Rogers) have donated a model “Battleship” and “Sailing Ship,” respectively, and, if the necessary permission is granted by the Under-Secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs, the Society proposes raffling these models before Christmas. Should this prove successful, the Society will be placed on a good financial footing to commence operations, and it will also allow the membership fee to be kept at a minimum. This is a course that is desirable, in that it will allow of a number of youths serving their apprenticeship joining the Junior Section.
It is proposed to procure a room for use as a workshop, which will be fitted up with a lathe; drill, a small range of tools, etc., for use by members in their model making. The workshop will also be used for lectures, etc., on all classes of model work. A series of lectures is at present being arranged by the committee.
We hope to be working in full swing by Christmas, and, by all accounts, we are assured of a good membership.
Should any of your readers, or members of the Railway Service, desire to join up with us, they are cordially invited to do so. Mr. Murray, of Spear and Murray, Willis Street, Wellington, will be only too pleased to furnish any information desired, and if names and addresses are forwarded to me (at 5, Harrison Street, Brooklyn, Wellington) a notice regarding the next meeting will be sent. This, I think, will be the third Wednesday in November.
The Society will have its own badge (the price being about 2/6) which will, more than likely, be enfaced with the front of an engine.
Intending members can be assured without a doubt that the Society has a future full of success.”
From Mr. A. C. Brown, Secretary of the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company, Ltd., to the North Island Divisional Superintendent: —
The past season's operations in regard to the meat and dairy produce export industry may now be regarded as completed. Before entering upon the new season, we would like to express our appreciation of the efficient manner in which the live stock, meat and dairy produce, consigned to and from the Company's various works has been handled by your Department, and of the courtesy which has always been received from all sections of the service.
* * *
Mr. Martin Crowne, of Ghuznee Street, Wellington, acknowledges the courtesy and civility of the guards and other train men on the Hutt line, in the following appreciative letter to the District Traffic Manager, Wellington.
I have been using the trains on the Hutt section of your railways for some time, in connection with the Bitumus Factory at Pitcaithlys, and I am in admiration of the courtesy and civility of the guards and others with whom I came in contact.
I have travelled much in other countries, but I have never experienced such civility and attention as in New Zealand. I congratulate you on having such servants ministering to the needs of the travelling public. They, certainly, are doing their part to make the Railways popular, and to build and maintain for them a good reputation.
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From the Secretary, Ashburton Chamber of Commerce, Ashburton, to Mr. C. D. McKenzie, Railway Business Agent, Christchurch: —
This being the end of my Chamber's financial year, I am instructed to convey to you this Chamber's appreciation and thanks for the prompt and satisfactory way in which you have dealt with the various matters affecting your Department.
We all trust that the very pleasant feelings at present existing between our two bodies will continue.
From the Hon. Secretary of the Courtenay-Paparua Ploughing Match Association, Halkett, to Mr. L. A. Lee, Stationmaster, Kirwee: —
On behalf of the Courtenay-Paparua Ploughing Match Association, I have much pleasure in tendering you the very best thanks of the Association for the valuable assistance you rendered to us during our recent ploughing match. I would also ask you to accept my personal thanks for your assistance to me at that time.
* * *
From Messrs. Newton King Ltd., New Plymouth, to the Stationmaster, New Plymouth: —
We have now completed our deliveries of direct shipments of slag for the season and have observed the expeditious and careful manner in which this fertilizer has been handled by your Department.
We wish, therefore, to take this opportunity of expressing our thanks and appreciation of the excellent services rendered by the staff at New Plymouth.
* * *
From Messrs E. C. Hayton and Company, New Plymouth, to the Stationmaster, New Plymouth: —
We wish to express our thanks to the Railway Department and staff for the excellent manner in which our shipment of Pipe ex the “Port Huon” has been handled.
We find that your Department has rendered us good service, and given satisfaction to our various clients who purchase ex the vessel or ex the Station.
* * *
From the Town Clerk, Dunedin, to the District Traffic Manager, Dunedin: —
I have been requested to express our appreciation of your kindly consideration of urgent requests made by us in respect of the transport of supplies, etc., to Waipori.
The expedition with which the despatch of Fondu Cement for Henley was dealt with was especially appreciated, and may have a far reaching effect on the supply of electricity next winter.
In the “Register of Arts and Sciences,” (an interesting journal published in London in the early days of last century) there appears in its issue of 10th January, 1824, an account of an iron railway constructed by Mr. H. R. Palmer, a noted civil engineer of the period. The “Palmer Railway” was on the mono-rail principle and created considerable interest in the transport world of the early nineteenth century.
The origin of Railways may be traced back as far as the year 1680. About this time coal came generally into use as a substitute for wood fuel in London and other places; in consequence, the greatest inconvenience accrued at the mines in conveying the coals from them to the ships, and the expense of horses and machinery for the purpose was immense. To facilitate the travelling of the waggons over the dilapidated roads, wooden rails or straight pieces of wood were laid down and embedded in the road. These rails were afterwards improved upon by making ledges upon their sides, to prevent the waggons from going out of their track. By these simple contrivances it was also found that a waggon which required previously three or four horses to draw it, was with greater facility drawn by one horse, and in much less time, as the rails were laid upon a gradual descent.
These wooden Rail-roads had been generally in use for fifty years, when cast-iron was introduced as a substitute, about the year 1738; but a difficulty arose in the great pressure of the heavy waggons then in use upon the iron. This was subsequently overcome by reducing the size of the waggons and linking a number of them together in a team, by which means the pressure was extended over a larger surface. The importance of Railroads becoming every year more manifest, several able treatises on the subject, from distinguished scientific men, appeared towards the close of the last century, setting forth their utility, and proposing plans for their improvement. After this time iron railroads began to be constructed as branches to canals, and in some places as roads of traffic from one place to another.
The illustration (Fig. 1) is of a greatly-improved construction of railway, by Mr. H. R. Palmer, the civil engineer; in calling it merely an improvement, however, we fear we shall be misleading the judgment of some of our readers, and omit doing justice to the talents and genius of the inventor; in fact, we might quite as reasonably say that the important invention of the plough was merely an improvement of the spade. If we had never seen a plough, and were told that an improvement had been made on the spade, we should certainly never think of such a form of machine as the plough; so it is with Mr. Palmer's Railway, which is a bold innovation upon all former plans and altogether original.
Instead of two lines of rail laid upon the ground, as heretofore, Mr. Palmer's Railway
one, which is elevated upon pillars, and carried in a straight line across the country, however undulating or rugged, over hills, valleys, brooks, and rivers; the pillars being longer or shorter to suit the height of the rail above the surface of the ground, so as to preserve the line of the rail, which is always straight, whether the plane be horizontal or inclined. The waggons or receptacles for the goods, travel in pairs, one of a pair being on one side of the rail, and the other on the opposite
side, as panniers over the back of an ass. By this arrangement only two wheels are employed (instead of eight) to convey a pair of waggons; these two wheels are placed one before the other on the rail, and the axletrees upon which they revolve are made of sufficient length and strength to form extended arms of support, to which are suspended the waggons or receptacles on each side of the rail, the centre of gravity being always below the surface of the rail. The rods by which the waggons are suspended are inflexible; hence, although the weights on each side may not be equal, they will nevertheless be in equilibrio; as may be observed in a ship, which being unequally loaded, it assumes such an angle with the surface of the water as preserves the equilibrium. Although an equal distribution of the load on both sides be preferable, it is not necessary.
A number of the carriages are linked together, and towed along the rail by a horse, as barges on a canal. Owing to the undulation of the country the horse will sometimes be much below the rail, in consequence of which he is provided with a sufficient length of rope, to preserve a proper angle of draught.
Fig. 1 is an end view of the carriage, with a cross section of the rail, and of a pillar shewing its form, and manner of fixing.
A. Fig. 1 is an upright pillar of cast iron, having at the shoulder a flanch which rests upon the surface of the ground. The pillar is formed with ribs at right angles, which converge toward the lower extremity, and are notched on the edges for the better securing it firmly in the ground, with the
E E (Fig. 1) are the arms or axles, and H H are the receptacles for the goods. The receptacles are made of plate iron, and are suspended to the arms or axles by the inflexible rods I I I I. To one of the arms a chain is hooked, to which a towing rope may be connected. Any number of carriages may be attached together by chains hooked on to the angles.
With respect to loading; if both receptacles be not loaded at the same time, that which is to be loaded first must be supported until the second is full. Where there is a permanent loading place the carriage is brought over a step or block, but when it is loaded promiscuously it is provided with a support connected with it, which is turned up when not in use. From the small height of the carriage, the loading of those articles which are done by hand becomes less laborious.
The unloading may be done in various ways, according to the substance which is to be discharged; the receptacles being made to open at the bottom, the sides or the ends: in some cases it may be desirable to suspend them by their ends, when turning on their own centres they are easily discharged sideways.
Among the principal advantages that result from the adoption of Mr. Palmer's plan, may be mentioned, that of enabling the engineer, in most cases, to construct a Railway on that plane which is most effectual, and where the shape of the country would occasion too great an expenditure on former plans; that of being maintained in a perfectly straight line, and in the facility with which it may be always adjusted; in being unencumbered with extraneous substances lying upon it; in receiving no interruption by snow, as the little that may lodge on the rail is cleared off by merely fixing a brush before the first carriage in the train; in the facility with which the loads may be transferred from the Railway on to other carriages, by merely unhooking the receptacles, without displacing the goods, or from other carriages to the Railway by the reverse operation; in the preservation of the articles conveyed from being fractured, owing to the uniform gliding motion of the carriages; in occupying less land than any other Railway; in requiring no levelling or road-making; in adapting itself to all situations, as it may be constructed on the side of any public road; on the waste and irregular margins of rivers; on the beach or shingles of the sea shore; indeed, where no other road can be made; in the original cost not being much less, and the impediments and great expense occasioned by repairs in the ordinary mode being, by this method, almost wholly avoided, etc., etc.
In conclusion, we think it due to the ingenious inventor of this railway to state (it having been proved by actual experiment) that in the best Rail-road on the old plan in the kingdom, the amount of resistance in a straight line is equal to the 170th part of the whole weight of the carriages and their contents, and that the resistance on Mr. Palmer's Railway is only the 300th part; that on the former an average good horse will draw at the rate of two and a half miles per hour, throughout the day, 25,500 pounds weight, and that the same force employed upon Mr. Palmer's will draw 45,000 pounds weight.
“Last year there was an average of 61 million journeys taken by railway passengers in this country to one passenger killed in a train accident, and 206 ½ million passenger and freight train-miles run to each servant killed in a train accident.” —From “The Railway Gazette,” London.
Mother: “Johnny, did you change your stockings?”
Johnny: “Yes.”
Mother: “Yes, what?”
Johnny: “Yes, we have no bananas.”
* * *
Teacher: “Children, can any of you tell me what is the most dangerous part of an automobile?”
Tommy: “Yes, miss, I can! It's the driver.”
* * *
“Did you get home all right last night, sir?” asked the street car conductor.
“Of course—why not?” replied the passenger.
“Well, when you got up to give your seat to that lady last night, you were the only two people in the car.”
* * *
“Is my wife forward?” asked a passenger on the “Limited.”
“She wasn't to me, sir,” replied the guard politely.
* * *
“Did you ever hear anything so perfectly wonderful?” exclaimed the daughter of the house, as the phonograph ground out the last notes of the latest thing in jazz.
“No,” replied her father, “I can't say I have, although I once heard a collision between a lorry load of empty milk cans and a lorry filled with live chickens.”
A prim and proper young miss was much horrified on the street to find a small boy, apparently not much over six years old, smoking a cigarette.
“Little boy,” she commanded, “throw down that horrid thing this minute.”
“Go hunt yet own lady,” answered the infant disdainfully; “I found this one myself.”
* * *
Stranger: “Ah, Mrs. Mudge, one-half of the world is ignorant how the other half lives.”
Mrs. Mudge: “Not in this village, Miss.”
* * *
“What's the matter with you?”
“I wrote an article on fresh milk and the editor condensed it.”
Pat Murphy was taking his first flight in an airplane. The pilot was taking him over the city. When they were up about 3,000 feet the plane suddenly went into a nose-dive.
“Ha, ha!” laughed the pilot, shouting to Pat. “Fifty per cent. of the people down there thought we were falling.”
“Begorra,” admitted Pat, and 50 per cent. of the people up here thought so, too.”
* * *
“And how have you been getting on, Mrs. Mumble?”
“Ah, miss, not too well. My poor husband had a parallel stroke, and we've had a hard time to make both ends meet.”
Simple and attractive is the slip-on frock with the three-tiered skirt. It is a lovely frock made of plain or printed crepe satin or crepede-chine with bindings of a harmonizing colour
* * *
Beauty is mostly a skin game—just a matter of complexion. Therefore, in guarding our health and our skin, we have the first aids to beauty. Don't forget that health is the foundation of beauty, and she who builds her temple upon a less sound foundation must expect only the fragments to be saved from the ruins caused by neglect.
An inactive liver is often responsible for a sallow skin. An orange eaten first thing in the morning, followed by a glass of hot water sipped slowly is good for both liver and complexion.
A good steaming with hot wet towels followed by a brisk patting all over with the tips of the fingers is a splendid thing for the skin. The skin around and behind the ears and around the nose should be briskly rubbed and the cheek bones sharply patted in a circular movement. Don't neglect these facial exercises if you desire to avoid wrinkles and a dry looking skin.
Don't allow the muscles of your body to become flabby. Exercise them, for firm muscles greatly add to the appearance of youth. Women who from long years of inactivity have allowed themselves to grow stout and out of shape, will regain the grace and slenderness of youth if they will take plenty of exercise, give up the lounging habit, and cultivate an erect carriage of body.
Sore feet hasten the advent of old age. Make it a bi-weekly rule to bathe tired feet in hot water, to which you have added a tablespoonful of ordinary common salt. When thoroughly dry, rub the soles of the feet, very gently, with a smooth piece of pumicestone for some minutes. This will bring immediate relief to tired, overworked feet.
* * *
To keep lettuce or celery fresh and crisp for several days, separate the leaves or stalks, wash well and tie loosely in a cloth, then place on the ice. If no ice be available, place in an earthenware dish with a lid on.
To remove machine oil from white garments or woollen clothing, cover with chalk moistened with ammonia.
To keep the hands soft and white when doing housework, wash them carefully after doing any dirty work and rub in a mixture of 3oz. of almond oil and the juice of a lemon, shaken together. This also keeps the nails in good condition. This quantity will last a long time.
Camphorated oil gives instant relief if rubbed into the hands when they are smarting from rough work or cold winds.
When washing new sheets or table linen for the first time, soak them overnight. The dressing used in their finish will otherwise make the water hard and spoil the soapsuds. Add two handfuls of ordinary salt to the water used for soaking. This brings out the lime dressing.
Cornflour is excellent for polishing cutlery and silverware.
To clean a sponge, add a tablespoonful of salts of lemon to a quart of boiling water and soak the sponge in it for an hour; rinse thoroughly and dry in the sun.
If a rug be badly creased or inclined to curl at the ends, turn it upside down on a bare floor and damp the back with a wet broom. Then stretch it tightly, tack down with rustless tacks and leave till next day.
Mix black-lead with methylated spirits. It dries quicker, is easier to polish and gives a more lasting finish.
The following interesting particulars of the loan transactions of the Public Trust Office and new business reported during the month ended 31st August, 1928, are now available:—
The amount paid out in settlement of new loans was #204,724.
Further new loans were granted to the amount of #37,345, and the total new loans now waiting completion is #377,781, while offers of loans less than the full amounts applied for amount to #172,551—a total of #550,332.
Applications for additional new loans amounting to #267,475 are now under consideration.
The new business for the month was again very satisfactory, estates of a value of #594,140 having been accepted for administration. On 31st March, 1928, the total value of the estates under administration was #44,155,548, and the new business for the five months ended 31st August last (#2,974,503) exceeded that of the same period for the previous year by #371,488.
Five hundred and fifty-nine new wills appointing the Public Trustee executor were deposited for safe custody with the Public Trustee by living testators, and the total number now held is 60,062, representing an estimated present value of #238,000,000.
“I wonder if it's loaded. I'll just look down the barrel and see.”
“Oh, listen! That's the train whistle. Step on the accelerator, and we'll try to get across before it comes.”
“They say these things can't possibly explode, no matter how much you throw them around.”
“I think this rope will hold my weight.”
“It's no fun swimming around in here. Let's go out beyond the life lines.”
“These traffic cops can't stop me.”
“What's wrong with you? You can't see the scenery unless you lean out.”
“It smells like gas, but I think it's all right. Lend me a match.”
“I took some medicine in the dark, and I must have got hold of the wrong kind.”
“I'm going up on the roof to cool off.”
“I'm not afraid to walk on the track.”
Aitken, J., to Train Running Officer, Gr. 3, District Traffic Manger's Office, Wellington.
Arbuckle, E. A. B., to Rating Clerk, Gr. 6, Dunedin Goods.
Cole, W. M., to Chief Clerk, Gr. 3, Divisional Superintendent's Office, Auckland.
Hartley, W., to Stationmaster, Gr. 2, Oamaru.
Mackley, G. H., to Chief Clerk, Special Gr. 3, Head Office, Wellington.
Pettit, C. L., to Transport Officer, Gr. 2, District Traffic Manger's Office, Dunedin.
Pritchard, A. J., to Transport Officer, Gr. 4, District Traffic Manger's Office, Ohakune Junction.
St. George, D., to Chief Clerk, Gr. 2, District Traffic Manger's Office, Ohakune Junction.
Francis, J. A. G., to Whangamomona.
Kerr, W. F., to Ohakune Junction.
Small, H. C., to Invercargill Goods.
Wallace, F. J., to “Spare Relief,” Greymouth
Demouth, J. W., to Gr. 2, Middleton.
Knight, A. J., Arthur's Pass.
Adolph, E. E., to Gr. 2, Ahuroa.
Christiansen, C. A., to Gr. 2, Piriaka.
Edmonds, J. H., to Gr. 2, Wayby.
Hughes, E. B., to Gr. 2, Puketutu.
Jackson, E. S., to Gr. 2, Pukehina.
Kershaw, J., to Gr. 2, Rangataua.
Leeks, R. L., to Gr. 2, Mataroa.
Levet, W., to Gr. 2, Athenree.
Neeson, J. W., to Gr. 2, Rotorua.
Sloss, H. E., to Gr. 2, Oio.
Stevens, T. G., to Gr. 2, Gardner's Siding.
Wadsworth, L. H., to Gr. 2, Glenhope.
Waite, E. A., to Gr. 2, Taipuha.
Young, P., to Gr. 2, Athenree.
Rodgers, W., to Palmerston North.
Andrews, F. W., to Special Grade, Hillside.
Wilson, H. G. S., to Special Grade, East Town.
Findlay, C. H., to Gr. 2, Ranfurly.
Berry, H. B., to Gr. 2, Auckland.
Hall, H. C., to Gr. 2, Petone.
Dawkins, W., to Addington.
Pittaway, A. T., Stationmaster, Belfast.—Suggestion re Railway Essay Competition for school children.
Freed, F. B., Mechanician, Chief Accountant's Office.—Awarded bonus of #2 for suggested design of file button punching machine.
Maloney, J. W., Porter, Ngahere.—Awarded bonus of #1 for suggested improvement to train services, Blackball-Ngahere-Greymouth.
The recent railway excursion to Mt. Egmont was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all who participated in it. Hawera town (the base from which excursionists set off for Mt. Egmont) again lived up to its reputation for hospitality, and gave the excursion party a splendid welcome on arrival from Wellington. The railway station was crowded with townspeople, and the Hawera Pipe Band, which was in attendance, added interest to the proceedings. Excellent arrangements had been made at the various hotels for the reception of the excursionists.
Sharp at 8 o'clock the following morning the excursion party left for their objective—Mt. Egmont, which could be seen in the distance. The drive from Hawera to the mountain—especially the last three miles over the magnificent fern-arched bush road continually winding and increasing in altitude to 3,000 feet high, was exceedingly delightful and invigorating.
Turning the last corner of this road we suddenly came in view of the Dawson Falls Hostel. Here we joined the various parties and started off for the snow and higher peaks.
With several rests on the track, to recover our “second wind,” and to annoint ourselves with anti-snow burn ointment which the guide kindly gave us, we followed in his footsteps, and within a sort time of leaving the Mountain House arrived at the snow level. Here we met a party coming down who were enjoying the thrills of glissading, and we pushed on higher up with eager anticipation.
A beautiful view was obtained from here. Ngauruhoe (7,515ft), Tongariro (6,458ft), could be seen very clearly, and also the towns of Stratford, Eltham and Hawera, and a good portion of the coast line.
A sharp breeze was coming across this higher level, and we unwillingly had to turn back as time was short. Then came our turn for the joys of glissading! The guide and two members of our party sat on the slide together, and, pushing ourselves off, we commenced our downward rush through the air, with a spray of icy snow showering us.
Arrived at the Hostel once more, we changed our soiled garments, and had an excellent dinner.
Then piling into the buses we started on the trip back to Hawera, with a “Good-bye Wellington!” from the other visitors and our new found friends, the members of the Mt. Egmont Alpine Club. Many thanks are due to the members of this Club and the Railway Department for such an enjoyable week-end.
From time to time we hear lurid accounts of journeys which have been made over long distances by motor coach—say, between London and the South Coast—while we have also had details of travellers who, having successfully negotiated the outward journey, were unable to return home by road at all, although they had paid for a return ticket (says “Modern Transport”). Quite an adventurous journey—the details of which can be vouched for—was made by road between Liverpool and London within the past few days. The travellers concerned had booked their seats well in advance (at least a fortnight) and duly arrived on the morning of the departure at the spot on the pavement whence the coach was advertised to depart. For an hour or so after the reputed departure time they sat forlornly on their luggage on the kerbstone watching buses depart—some of them for London. To make matters worse they were firmly and none too courteously informed that they, and others with them, had not booked by that particular coach; though what there was to distinguish one coach from another they were unable to discover. Eventually, the irate passengers became thoroughly desperate, whereupon they were informed that the operating company had no more coaches, but would try to borrow one. In time a coach was borrowed which, after wandering around Liverpool and unloading certain passengers who wanted to go to Blackpool, started out in the direction of London, hotly pursued by a taxicab filled with passengers who had been left behind; for a hackney carriage inspector had boarded the vehicle and discovered overloading! The driver had never driven a coach to London, and did not know the way; but a very fat Lancashire man, who was armed with a loaf and a jar of pickles for his own and his fellow-passengers delight, kindly stepped out of the coach at intervals in order to inquire the way. Ultimately, they reached London long after dark—when they immediately lost their way. However, the fat man from Lancashire solved the problem, for he knocked at scores of doors and rang at innumerable bells until a way out of the maze was discovered. This kind of road travel will certainly not do.
“Every railwayman can do something to improve understanding (between the railways and the public), no matter how small a cog he may feel himself to be in the railway machine. A proper pride in his own duties will by itself go a long way to help.” —Mr. R. Bell, Assistant General Manager, L.N.E.R., in “Railroad Data.”