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The Audit Office, Wellington, N.Z 10th March, 1930.
I hereby certify that the publisher's lists and other records disclose the average circulation of the “New Zealand Railways Magazine” for the twelve months ended February, 1930 as in excess of 23,500 copies per month during the whole of that period, and that during the months of January and February, 1930, the monthly circulation has increased to 24,000 copies.
Controller and Auditor-General.
In surveying the general situation of the railways to-day it is perhaps too much the habit to direct attention to the hostility concentrated upon them, usually from quarters having financial interests in means of transport to which railways success spells menace. The prophet of old who felt that the world at large was against him and his cause, gained assurance that he was not deserted from the thunder, the rain, and the “still small voice.” So may confidence and the winning spirit be revived and restored in the ranks of the railways, and in those responsible for them, by a review of those who by word and deed constantly prove their attachment to the rail as a means of transport for passengers and freight.
First, of course, there are the children, who one and all are fascinated by the sights and sounds associated with stations, yards, locomotive and train movements, tunnels, signals and so on. Some of these never outgrow their early interest in this, the most powerful form of motion for which the skill of man is responsible. So we find men like our legal friend in Hamilton who will travel up and down in the parlour car of the Rotorua Limited for the sheer joy of examining the clever and convenient additional appliances that this king among cars contains, or our photographer friend at Auckland who never misses a chance to snap anything new or old that appears worth while in the record and realm of the rail. If our publicity work is rightly performed the interest of children in the railways will continue to increase as they grow older, and they will tend to take more pleasure in the history, shape and sound of an old railway whistle than in the tomb of Napoleon, Bradman's averages or the records of racehorses.
Then we have the big business man who takes the broad view of railway services, recognises their economic necessity and the general low average of the charges they make for the services they perform. He has no hesitation in giving the order “send everything by rail,” because he knows that, on the general average, his firm's costs will be lower and the service received more satisfactory than if he were to peddle his transport work sectionally. The good housekeeper knows that it is better to find a good grocer and stick to him than
Other good friends of the railways in this country are the Chambers of Commerce, the Farmers’ Unions, and the Commercial Travellers’ Associations. The membership of these bodies is usually made up of those more or less directly interested in transport. They know the difficulties that have to be overcome and can size up the amount of organisation and concentration upon the job required to produce the necessary power and carrying capacity wherever needed, and at the briefest notice, for all kinds of passenger and freight traffic throughout the railway system of this Dominion.
The concensus of opinion amongst ordinary travellers appears also to be friendly—there are many more commendations than complaints. Then friendly help is rendered by local carriers in most of the localities nowadays, and although this has an element of self-interest in it at times, such help and support is none the less real and deserves every encouragement.
We have it in our own hands largely whether this assembly of friends shall increase or decrease—for friendship is nothing unless reciprocal and even business enemies may be turned to friends by business skill and courtesy, while clashing interests may be made to chime together by co-ordination of effort applied in a national spirit. The only fight that is worth while is that which is conducted in the public interest and with the achievement of better service in view. But a survey of our friends beyond the borders of the railway gives us assurance that our efforts are not unwatched and our services are genuinely acknowledged.
The following is the text of a letter of appreciation addressed to the General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, by the Secretary to the Royal Commission on Railways (Mr. F. K. Mackay), upon the conclusion of the Commission's work of investigation into the working of the various branches of the Railways Department.
I have been directed by the Royal Commission on Railways to extend to you as General Manager of Railways its thanks for the valuable and ever ready assistance which you rendered to the Commission during its investigations into matters connected with the Department. More particularly the members of the Commission desire me to place on record their appreciation of the prompt and thorough manner in which you personally, and also the various members of your staff, responded to their many requests for statistical and other information.
I desire once again to impress upon every member of the staff the paramount need which exists in the matter of effecting every possible saving in expenditure.
The economy proposals which have been adopted involve a very drastic curtailment of our services. The problems with which the Department is confronted have been realised by the public, and the reduction in services has been accepted philosophically, and with a general feeling of sympathy towards us in our difficulties. It is very essential, therefore, that we should respond to this public sentiment by doing our part in that side of the business (the curtailment of the expenditure) that lies more particularly within our control.
I am very gratified to notice that the effect of our economy campaign is now beginning to make itself felt. The reduction in expenditure for the August period as compared with the corresponding period of last year is no less than £42,100. From this there has to be deducted the increased amount of £6,276, which has been paid on account of depreciation, making a net cash saving of £35,824.
But we are still a long way from our objective, and it will require the concentrated efforts of all concerned to achieve the reduction aimed at by the end of the financial year.
The curtailment of services and the economy efforts connected therewith are, however, only part of the field over which our efforts may extend. There is considerable scope for effecting savings—especially on the small items, which, in the aggregate, constitute a substantial and ever recurring expenditure—if everybody bends his energies towards the elimination of unnecessary waste. For instance, it costs no effort to switch off a light that is not wanted; it is certainly better than leaving it until it is wanted again. In many places, also, we have to pay for the water we use: it is better and just as easy, to turn off the tap than to leave it running. Similarly, with the use of stores in general, it is the little saving that can make the difference between profit and loss. There is both urgent need and opportunity to cut costs to the minimum of bare necessity by the practice of economy in the use of stationery and in many other ways that will occur to every practical railwayman.
This is a matter in which our results are almost entirely in the hands of individual members of the staff. We know that Public Service salaries and conditions only too readily come under early scrutiny in times of general financial depression. What we can do, therefore, in the way of effecting economies, is directly relevant to the economic position of every member of the staff. It is pertinent here to repeat that waste and wages come from the same fund, and that the more waste there is the less there is left for wages. The greatest danger in matters of this kind is for each of us to regard the question of economy in small things as the other man's job. We are apt to substitute for positive activity on our own part, a hope that the other fellow is doing his bit.
I make no apology for again appealing to every member of the staff to supplement the efforts that are embodied in the arrangements that have already been made towards curtailment of expenditure. This ideal may be realised by alertness and initiative in stopping financial leaks, however small they may be, and in scrutinising items of expenditure, large and small, in order to see that every penny spent is justified and that a good pennyworth will be obtained in return.
General Manager.
The “Atlantic” was built by Phineas Davis and put in service on the Baltimore & Ohio Company's lines in 1832. It had two vertical cylinders, 10 × 20 inches, and, although it had four wheels, only two were drivers. The boiler was vertical and tubular. The locomotive hauled 30 tons from Ellicott's Mills to Baltimore, a distance of 13 miles, within an hour. With tender only, it attained a speed of thirty miles per hour. Careful account was kept of its cost of operation and it was found that its daily labour involved an expenditure of $16, while the same results accomplished with animal power amounted to $33. The “Atlantic” weighed six and a half tons, and for a time became the standard form of engine on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
(From “The Development of the Locomotive” published by The Central Steel Company, Massillon, Ohio, U.S.A.).
“To what extent it is possible and desirable, in the interests of the economic welfare of the Dominion, to co-ordinate rail and road transport, having due regard to the rights of owners of road transport services, the necessity of a satisfactory standard of service and all other relevant considerations.”
The Royal Commission on Railways, to whom the foregoing question was submitted for investigation, makes the following interesting reference to the subject in their Report, recently presented to Parliament.
If by co-ordination of road and railway services is meant the utilization of these means of transport to the best advantage of the community from an economic point of view, your Commission is of opinion that, under existing conditions, it is not possible to co-ordinate rail and road transport unless the full control and operation of all such transport is vested in one authority. The whole matter, however, is one which requires a large amount of careful study and investigation, which, in the time at our disposal, your Commission is unable to give.
However, your Commission is of the opinion that it is essential that motor transport, particularly that engaged in freight service, be licensed, regulated, and controlled by a properly constituted authority, which would require to take all factors into consideration before licenses are granted. The effect of existing competition between railway and road is to increase the cost of transporting primary products and the lower-class goods, which usually are not carried by motor transport, and to reduce the costs on higher-rated goods and on general merchandise. The average railway rate on goods carried last year was 2.32d. per ton per mile. This is much lower than is possible by motor transport.
Owing to the loss in railway revenue from goods and passenger traffic, the average rate on goods carried will have to be increased, and, as the great bulk of the traffic is primary products and lowrated commodities, the increase will fall on them. The diversion of passenger traffic from the railway to the motor-vehicle has caused a large and continued decrease in passenger revenue, and will have the effect of materially increasing the goods rates, if losses are to be arrested.
It is uneconomic and most inadvisable that the cost of transporting primary products or of materials necessary for their production should be forced upwards, and is against the interests of the Dominion; but if motor transport is permitted full scope in all districts, without restriction, the effect will be to increase the total cost of transport and cause economic loss.
Under some conditions it is apparent that motor transport on all classes of goods will be more economical than railway transport, and should be permitted and encouraged; but in view of the fact that trunk railways are necessary for connecting distant centres and for the carriage of passengers and all classes of goods between them, as well as for the development of the Dominion, the folly of allowing unrestricted motor transport along these routes, which is, on the whole, more economically given by the railways must be apparent, and should, in our opinion, be permitted only in cases where it can be shown to be warranted.
For the purpose of co-ordinating rail and motor services it will be necessary to introduce legislation to provide for the establishment of a suitable authority to make regulations for the license, control, and regulation of motor transport throughout the Dominion. We recommend that consideration be given to the question of enacting the necessary legislation.
German Fascism is Ascendant—Germany's Debt, like others, is Heavier by Price-fall—Radio Smiles at Depression—Old Order Changes—Economic Doubts.
Probably the most remarkable event of the month is in Germany. Fascism (in brown shirts, as compared with the Italian black shirts) has made a big bound upward. It is a German Fascism, and, probably unlike any Fascism that any other country would produce. It is, in fact, known less by the sign of brown shirts than by the sign of “Steel Helmets.” In this, one glimpses the eternal German under a new banner and title. Its “catchword,” says the cablegrams, is “Down with everything for which the Republic stands.” Its leader, Adolf Hitler, put that slogan into action in 1923, when, as reactionary leader in Bavaria, he launched the Hitler “futsch” and finished in military detention. But he was soon free again and organising a political “putsch.” In the last Reichstag there were twelve Hitlerites. The recent election has lifted the number to 107. Not many, you may say, in a Reichstag of more than 550. Yet a menacing indication of anti-Republican feeling in Germany. “Thank God,” says a Berlin paper, “no pacifist fraud will ever rob the German of his pride in armed forces.” Does that mean that “All Quiet on the Western Front” is for foreign consumption?
In the modern world, economics and politics are inextricably interwoven. It is not the function of this column to go into politics any more than necessity drives. But the Fascist development in Germany—with its open threats to deal with the Republic first, with the world afterwards—is too significant a fact to be regarded with a closed eye, whether that eye be political or economic. For Germany is the ultimate debtor, even as the United States is the ultimate creditor. Britain is both debtor and creditor—debtor to the United States, and creditor of Germany and of certain Allies. It took years to settle the debts-liquidation process on lines that appeared to fix the liability of the ultimate debtor, and the reward of the ultimate creditor. In fact, it is only within the last couple of years that the last settlement, the Young Plan, was signed by Germany and her creditors. And now, from the first succeeding appeal to the German electors, springs this remarkable accession of strength to a party that would throw both Republic and Young Plan on the scrap heap.
What has already happened economically under the Young Plan is, in part, symptomatic of what is happening nearly everywhere throughout the world. It is a commonplace that prices of goods have fallen hugely and are falling. That means that if you have to pay a gold debt in goods, you must hand over more goods.
As recently as March, 1929, the Allied Governments were demanding from Germany an average annuity (on Young Plan lines) of about 2200 million marks; the German experts countered with an offer of 1650 million marks; they formally compromised at 1989 million. But the “Statist” points out, since that date prices have fallen by nearly 19 per cent., so the compromise amount is a greater real burden than the Allies’ original demand. Viewed from that angle, the German Reichstag voting appears in a new light. Measured by the same process of falling prices, Britain's real debt to the United States, is over 200 millions sterling greater than when it was funded in 1923 at 945 millions (although Britain has since repaid 35 millions of the principal). But what Britain loses on money owed by her, she gains on money, owed to her. It is not so with the ultimate debtor, Germany.
Three hundred years of London history is associated with the Golden Cross Hotel, which has just closed its doors, a victim to the modernisation of the metropolis. Made famous by Dickens, through Copperfield and Pickwick, the Golden Cross yet cannot live upon its past. Something even more golden must be done with the old site; and the inn, like the coaches that called at it, will be a memory. It happens that this year they are making further commemoration in the Old Country of Sir James Wolfe, the chivalrous conqueror of the Heights of Abraham, and already, with Montcalm, the subject of a famous monument at Quebec. Now, it was Wolfe who declared, on the eve of the battle, that he deemed it greater glory to have written “Gray's Elegy” than even to conquer Canada. What, then, would Wolfe say if he returned from beyond the veil to see the invasion of Stoke Poges village by modern factories and buildings, depriving the churchyard, immortalised by the “Elegy,” of its seclusion and environment? Modern menaces to literary relics throw a new light on whether the pen is mightier than the sword. The Stoke Poges Defence Committee asks for £30,000.
It is not to be supposed, of course, that the changing of the old order is not progress. Reconstruction is probably at least 90 per cent. good. In ten years a quarter of a million new buildings have been erected in London, and “the appearance of the capital has been changed.” To realise the immensity of it, reflect that quarter of a million new dwellings in New Zealand would practically re-house the population. British official wireless declares that the building boom of the last decade shows no sign of decreasing, and that it “is expected to continue and extend under the encouragement of the new Housing Acts.” At the same time, it is also recorded that British unemployment is moving farther and farther above the two million mark. “Punch” has a cartoon showing the Australian kangaroo about to dive into the “Waters of Retrenchment.” To the British Lion (looking on and smoking a cigar) the kangaroo says “It won't be long before you'll have to do the same?” It is a cartoon by Sir Bernard Partridge, who may not be an economist. But it reveals a certain trend of thought.
Good it is to hear of an industry “virtually unaffected by the present worldwide trade depression.” Such a one, says the Secretary for the Dominions (the Hon. J. H. Thomas), is wireless. British radio manufacturers, he adds, are constructing six new factories, covering 200,000 square feet. And there are no unemployed in the trade, which is, on the other hand, absorbing unskilled labour. It is one of the greenest branches on the not altogether green tree of British industry. At the National Radio Exhibition, which Mr. Thomas opened in London, they show a wireless receiving set (weight, a few ounces) entirely concealed in a policeman's helmet, and enabling the wearer to receive orders concerning crime and criminals from any police station within a radius of eight miles. That the wireless people can establish an intelligence department in a man's hat is wonderful
New records in high flying and deep diving are being made. In the latter department Italians are effecting wonderful wreck-salvage (recovery of gold, etc.), at great depths, and the British Admiralty is interested in a new deep diving device. Believing that aeroplanes will find the best flying at 50,000 feet or more, Professor Piccard, of Brussels, announces his intention of ascending in a special balloon to test the rarified atmospheres and low temperatures. But he is also interested in “cosmic rays” and may try to reach a height of ten miles. (The aeroplane height record is, at the moment, between 40,000 and 50,000 feet.) Early in September the Frenchmen Costes and Bellonte made the third east-west crossing of the Atlantic by aeroplane. Theirs is the first direct flight from Europe to the United States. (The Germans, Huenfeld and Koehl, and the Australian, Kingsford Smith, both made a stop en route). Theirs is also the longest east-west Atlantic flight, taking 37 hours and covering about 4038 miles.
Asked her future plans, Miss Amy Johnson said she had none. But she added (at the “Daily Mail” luncheon), “I am going to work just as hard as I can—I hope more by example than by talking—and at the end of eight months I hope to do something.” Some of the Australian papers put Miss Johnson on a pedestal. Some did not. But the lady put certain newspapers on a pedestal when she told an English interviewer: “The press of Sydney I hate, loathe, and despise.”
“The world's best loser,” Sir Thomas Lipton, again failed to win the America Cup. He says that this is his last attempt—which is not surprising, as he is an octogenarian or thereabouts. “No single man in England,” he said, “can build a million dollar yacht alone, and without that none can hope to lift the Cup. After this it will have to be syndicate against syndicate.” Other reports state that the Americans have applied the principles of this machinery age to yachting—duraluminum mast, winches to do men's work, meters to record strain on sails, etc. Presently, perhaps, they will raise sail, or set it, by pressing a button. Anyway, the America Cup stays in America.
Dear Reader, if one morning you ambled out to gather in the milk and found that some person or persons unknown had plucked out your front fence, or stolen your aerial pole for a clothes’ prop, you would naturally take offence and feel that you were more or less “up the pole.” Likewise, if, when you arrived at the place where the railway station should be, you found that the whole system had gone up into the blue without leaving even a puff of steam to mark its late existence, would you not experience a feeling of personal loss, as if a very intimate friend and protector had disappeared without leaving an address? Would you not run crying hither and thither seeking some sign of the trusty old black steeds of your earliest memory, whose very familiarity perhaps had led you to become a little careless in the manifestation of your appreciation? Would you not feel that something of great significance had gone out of your existence?
Truly, dear reader, life is like that. We never miss the golden goose ‘til she abandons minting for moulting. We take it as read that the sun will take the call tomorrow, that the tide will do its usual stunt, and that night will follow day (and vice versa) without any special announcement by the management. But if the sun got out on the skate with the Big Bear or that Irish star Orion, and failed to punch the clock for a week, or the days and nights got all mixed up, we would begin to appreciate the ordered regularity of the cosmography. But as long as Nature does her bit we accept her phenomena with smug indifference. By the same token, dear reader, we are apt to think that the Railway can run without visible means of support. We are like the parsimonious parent who is surprised that he cannot rear hundred-per-centers on food-less meals. Yet, if the Railways locked the stable doors on the “iron horses” for a day or two, the populace would rise in its wrath and demand that the rolling stock be immediately unrolled and started on the roll. Such is the mentality of man that he can only realise that white is white by seeing black.
A land without railways would be as dry as an empty bottle of champagne without the bottle. It would curl up and pass out from congestion of the digestion or commercial anaemia. It would die of constriction of the output, and the land would return to the conditions of the stage-coach. There was certainly romance in the stage-coach. There is as much romance in the “iron horse,” but its romanticism is combined with commercialism. The locomotive is the heart of progress, and the tracks are the arteries conveying the stream of vigour to the extremities of the land.
The fault with existence, dear reader, is that we are too busy living to live. We
A child is happy as long as it is imbued with a sense of wonder; when it ceases to wonder it is no longer a wonder. Of course there are people who regard babies as mere instruments of torture, but the wise know that the man who is fifty per cent, child is hundred per cent. man. Knowledge is power, dear reader, but what is power? We are open to be searched.
On the other hand, Wonder is a lack of definite knowledge which makes conjecture a pleasant pastime, and frees the mind from the limitations of Fact. Too many facts make man a mere factotum. I'll wager that a lot of people lost a lot of fun and excitement when it was proved that to fall over the edge of the earth was impossible. The chief kick to be gained from ocean travel before the days of enlightenment must have lain in the danger of overshooting the terminus and prolonging the voyage ad infinitum, even if the passenger did lose the benefit of the pink portion of his ticket. Nowadays the most one can anticipate from a circumnavigation of the globe is that he will make his point of departure his point of arrival. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but too much is more than enough.
Nowadays everything is staked out, indexed, labelled, and priced up, and the “optopest” or “pessimop” (as the case may be) who questions the identity of the proverbial spade, is indexed under L.
Of course, shocked reader, that drear old dear, Common Sense, demands that we gather knowledge, and doubtless she is
Speaking of knowledge, allow me to give some the air. When New Zealand was chipped off the edge of China and started on its downward path, it is probable that its fauna included many Chinese puzzles on the hoof. But the carnivora gradually extinguished themselves by a process of mastication. The snakes and adders played snakes and ladders with each other until the winner died of distension of the rungs, and the only livestock to rise superior to the situation were the birds—with the exception of one or two heavier-than-air specimens of wild life who proved too tough for the table. The chief of these was the tuatara. He is the only animal who can stand in one place as long as a policeman. In fact, he is the pioneer of the slow-motion stunt. His idea of strenuous exercise is to break out into goose-flesh, and when he is really reckless he shifts his weight from starboard to port. This done, he takes a couple of years off to rebuild his depleted tissues. In appearance, he resembles an embalmed pineapple in mourning, or a wet Sunday afternoon in Scotland. He often lives for a hundred years or more, but scientists have never been able to discover why. No one knows what a tuatara really is, but if he is not a snake with a pedestrian complex, then he must be a prehistoric postponement in a rubber overcoat. The tuatara is not a fast eater; his idea of a quick-lunch is to bolt the same piece of nourishment for two months.
If it takes more than one swallow to make a summer, it takes a multitude of chews to stoke a tuatara.
I love tuataras their coats are so tough, They never get vulgar, or otherwise rough; They keep without spirits for ages or more, And ‘though sleeping soundly 'tis seldom they snore. I love to observe them partaking of lunch, And if they are somewhat deficient in “punch,” It's only a matter of years—let us say A couple of hundred would answer O.K, Before they awake to the fact which they've blinked, That ‘though still extant they are also extinct. I love tuataras they make me feel calm, And if I don't harm them they'll do me no harm, But still I feel tempted to puncture their peel, With pins just to see if they really are real.
Britain has always been a leader in the field of suburban railway electrification. At the present time there are being undertaken extensive enlargements of the various railway suburban electric systems in the Homeland and the important main line electrification between London and Brighton. Interesting particulars of these new railway works are given in his present contribution, by our Special London Correspondent.
The London local railways were the world's pioneers of electric haulage. As long ago as 1890 the first section of the City and South London Electric Railway was opened, and since that time the electric railways of the metropolis have grown into an intricate network of tracks serving all parts of the Empire's capital.
Apart from the London local lines, the mileage of the electric railways operated by the four big Home trunk systems is as follows:-Southern, 745 miles; L.M. and S., 114 miles; L. and N.E., 40 miles; Great Western, 11 miles. The Southern Railway, it will be seen, is easily the biggest owner of electrified track in Britain. As a matter of fact, the London suburban electric system of the Southern is the largest individual suburban electrification in the whole world. The Southern electric lines extend fan-wise from six principal London termini—Victoria, Waterloo, Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Holborn Viaduct and London Bridge, to Guildford, Hounslow, the Thames Valley, Orpington and Dartford. Electrification on the 1,500 volts, D.C., third-rail arrangement, with trains operated on the multiple-unit system, and formed of motor and trailer cars, has enabled train services throughout the wide area south and south-west of the metropolis to be entirely remodelled and augmented.
The biggest electrification scheme now in hand is the electrification of the London-Brighton main line (51 route miles), with the branches Brighton to Worthing (11 miles), and Redhill to Guildford (20 miles). Trains on this route will be worked on the multiple-unit system, in preference to employing electric locomotives. Steam train mileage amounting to 1,927,000 miles per annum will be discontinued, and an electric train service substituted with a train mileage of about 4,921,000, thereby providing an increase in train service of 150 per cent. Between London and Brighton, passenger business is exceptionally heavy. Annually, about a million and three-quarter passengers are conveyed by rail between the two points named, and, in addition, there are about 3,000 season ticket holders.
The 114 route miles of electric railway operated by the L. M. and S. line comprise 46 miles of track in the London area and
In the north-east of England, the L. and N.E. Railway operates an important suburban electric system centred on New-castle-upon-Tyne, while a little further south the same railway works the Shil-don-Newport mineral line with electric locomotives. Jointly with the L.M. and S. Railway, the L. and N.E. Company is also interested in the electrification of the Manchester (London Road Station) and Altrincham route, in Lancashire. Proposals to electrify the King's Cross-London suburban tracks are under review. At the present time the Government power scheme plans to set up, by the year 1941, some 108 super-power stations with an output in excess of 25,000,000,000 units, capable of meeting every power need of the railways and industry generally. This should materially hasten mainline electrification in all parts of Britain.
Apart from the high cost of power, an obstacle to the speedy conversion to electric traction of the Home railways is the costly nature of transmission lines, substations, conductors, and other equipment. In the endeavour to overcome this obstacle, much attention is now being turned to the possibilities of Diesel-electric traction.
Diesel-electric services possess all the marked advantages of electric haulage. They may be built up and expanded gradually as capital becomes available and traffic increases, and they may be extended outwards to any desired mileage to meet occasional demand. They render high speed running easy of accomplishment, and increase, to a marked degree, track capacity. Under Diesel-electric operation, trains may be operated on the familiar multiple-unit arrangement, and altogether this form of working offers many attractions.
The Diesel-electric locomotive is well adapted to main-line operation, while in branch-line working Diesel-electric rail-cars offer a quick and economical train unit, comparable with the existing steam rail-cars employed in Britain and New Zealand. A new 250 h.p. Armstrong-Sulzer Diesel-electric rail-car recently developed at Home can, it is claimed, be operated for from threepence to fivepence less per train mile than existing steam rail-cars with 100 h.p. boilers, calculating coal at sixteen shillings and Diesel oil at ninety shillings per ton. In Switzerland, Diesel-electric traction is being employed to a considerable extent. On the Appen-zell Railway, passenger operation is being
Electrification progress in Switzerland has been most rapid. During the recent summer meeting, in Switzerland, of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, opportunity was taken to inspect some of the more important electrified routes, and in particular the world-famous St. Gothard electric railway. The power for operating this famous Alpine route is secured from two plants. One is the Ritom works, situated about five miles beyond the southern entrance to the St. Gothard tunnel, and the other the Amsteg plant, situated at the northern entrance. The Ritom plant is a winter station, and the Amsteg plant supplies power needs during the summer months. At Ritom, water is collected in a huge lake fed by the Alpine rivers, and the turbine machinery develops 60,000 h.p. Natural water-power is similarly harnessed at Amsteg, an enormous dam having been built in the mountains, feeding, by means of a tunnel, some six turbine generators, each developing 15,000 h.p. The possession of an abundance of natural water-power is the secret of Switzerland's progress in the electrification field, and in the electrical era that lies ahead, these fast-flowing Alpine streams are going to be far more valuable than the most extensive coal deposits.
All over the world airplane services for passengers, and for merchandise of high value or of a perishable nature, are now acting as subsidiaries to the railway. In the United States a lead has been set by the development of through rail-air transcontinental services, linking the Atlantic with the Pacific, while in Europe rail and air carriers are collaborating to a considerable extent in the building up and operation of joint services. Recently one of the Home railways—the Southern system—has acquired a big financial interest in the important flying concern known as Imperial Airways Limited. Like the other Home railways, the Southern was last year granted permission by the Government to operate its own air lines should it so desire, or to co-operate with existing air carriers to any extent that might be considered advisable. Now this go-ahead railway, serving almost the whole of Southern England, is embarking upon an ambitious plan for combined rail-air movement.
Imperial Airways Limited was formed in 1924, by the combination of several leading flying undertakings. To-day, the organisation covers, each week-day, about 1,000 miles of air routes between London and the Continent, in addition to the England-India mail route of approximately 5,500 miles. The Continental routes from London are to Paris, via Le Touquet; to Zurich, via Paris and Basle; and to Cologne, via Ostend and Brussels. By
Long ago the New Zealand railway authorities decided to fix the gauge of 3ft. 6in. as standard throughout the country, and, having regard to local conditions, this gauge is well adapted to the needs of the Dominion. Looking around, it is really surprising to find how many different gauges are in use on the railways of the world. Generally speaking, Europe and America favour the 4ft. 8½in. gauge for both main and branch lines. Even in Europe, however, Russia and Spain still adhere to gauges of their own which differ from the rest of the Continent, and which render through running with the outside world an impossibility. The recent decision of the Spanish railway authorities to reconstruct many of their existing lines to the European standard gauge directs attention to this anomaly.
A few short stretches of 4ft. 8½in. track are in use in Spain, but the majority of the lines are constructed to a gauge of one metre (3ft. 3½in.). In Russia, the railway tracks are built to a gauge of 5ft., and although between Russia and Germany carriages with telescopic axles have been experimented with in the effort to solve the vexed problem of through running, these have not turned out to be a success in actual practice. The convenience of the 4ft. 8½in. gauge is illustrated by the fact that no less than 70 per cent, of the world's railways are constructed to this gauge—a dimension originally determined by the width of the antiquated trucks employed on the old horse wagon-ways of North-east England. The remaining 30 per cent. of the world's railway trackage varies from 5ft. 6in. to 1ft. 3in. gauge.
“Eliza,” said a friend of the family to the old coloured washerwoman, “have you seen Miss Edith's fiancé?”
“No, ma'am,” she answered, “it ain't been in the wash yet.”
* * *
Pat was one day employed by an old lady in the country. At tea time, when the old lady was serving the tea, she laid a small morsel of honey on the plate.
“Begorra, ma'am,” said Pat, “I see you keep a bee.”
* * *
Mother (to her little boy, after telling her a lie): “Do you know what happens to little boys that tell lies?”
“Yes, mother, they travel half fare.”
* * *
Mrs. So and So: “I'm bothered with a little wart I'd like to have removed.”
Doctor: “The divorce lawyer is at the second door to your left.”
* * *
Census Taker: “What is your Husband's name?”
Mrs. Murphy: “Pat.”
Census Taker: “I want his full name.”
Mrs. Murphy: “Well, when he's full, he thinks he's Gene Tunney.”
* * *
“Waiter,” the diner said, “there's a dead fly swimming in this soup.”
“Impossible, sir,” said the waiter stiffly, “a dead fly can't swim.”
Moses to his Son: “Now, Ikey, if you will saw me some wood, I will let you play with the sawdust.”
* * *
Lawyer: “Rastus, the jury acquits you of the theft of any chickens. Do you want to thank them for their decision?”
Rastus: “Yes, suh—Ah wants to do more dan dat. Ah wants to invite dem out to a chicken dinner.”
* * *
First urchin: “My father's 'ad 'is photograph taken.”
Second urchin: “That's nothing. My father's 'ad 'is finger-prints took.”
* * *
Said the toastmaster to the next speaker: “Shall I call on you, William, or shall I let them enjoy themselves awhile?”
What's in a name? More than meets the eye! But attract the eye first, and the palate will come.
Hollywood, one might say, “knows its onions,” and believes in the drawing power of captions.
A tour around the movie colony, taking in the cafes, cafeterias, and restaurants, with their arresting titles, is a stimulus in this connection alone.
There's a sort of comradely note and get-together spirit, for instance, in such friendly signs as “Let's Eat,” “Y Not Eat,” “Pal's Lunch,” “Jimmy's Steaks,” “Jack and Billy's,” and “Grace's Happy Oven,” “Ma's Home Cookery,” “Mrs. Winter's Pie Shop,” “Lilian's Shack,” “Pop's Coffee Shop,” “Squeeze In,” “T Bone Reilly” (Reilly winning that distinction through the merit of his steaks), the “Come-On-In,” “Slim's Broiler,” “Barney's Beanery” (which speaks for itself), “The Little Grey Home,” “The Frying Pan,” “The Dinner Bell,” and so on.
And who could resist “The Bottom of the Cup,” with your fortune thrown in with your “eats”; and the “Afta Sho” cafe twinkling its lights for theatregoers?
Then there's “Dinty More's,” famed for its corned beef and cabbage (remember the “Bringing-up Father” comic strip); the “Toad-in-the-Hole,” so called because it features an enormous baked potato oozing out with butter; the “Barbecues,” where the meat or poultry is roasted whole over an open fire in public view; “The Onion,” noted for its wonderful onion soup; “The Ship Ahoy” and “Sea Food Grotto,” with marine settings and every variety of shellfish; “The Moscow Inn,” “The Spanish Kitchen,” “The Brown Derby” (ultra smart), and the popular “Pig'n and Whistle.”
If one feels a little reckless he can be incited by “The Bad Egg,” rearing its yolk defiantly; “The Purple Pup,” or “Eat-in-your-Hat,” all distinguished by their own particular designation, while “The Slaughter House” is another startling, if not inviting, title that beckons one to an epicurean dish, and if there's anything ominous in “S.O.S.” and “Ptomaine Tommy's,” well, it doesn't keep the hungry connoisseur away!
“The Black Cat” is, of course, a favourite, and the “Hot Dog” stand can always command a following, while the “Kwik Lunch” is as faithful as it is phonetic, and the “O.K.” and “Lightning Speed” are not to be disregarded.
“Canary Cottage,” nestling in a grove of palms and aviaries lures the sentimental, and “Log Cabin” and “The Bull Pen” have their special atmosphere, while “The Ding Bat” is a call to the unconventional!
Don't forget “Henry's”! Surely unique in the world, meeting place of stars, and mainly owing its successful establishment through the personal interest of Charles Chaplin. A shy, serious, dignified man, this comedian that all countries know, and one gets extra zest out of a meal if Charlie should be dining there. Plenty of other big artists drop in to meal at “Henry's”—a quiet, unostentatious looking place, by the way, and after a midnight show one can see numerous film favourites at this individual Hollywood rendezvous.
The “Montmarte,” for smart exclusive-ness, where feminine stars exploit the latest whim in fashion, and Boulevardians wait in crowds to see them arrive in their luxurious limousines.
And just across the road is another cafe, where the minds and purses of patrons are measured more by economy than exclusiveness—old actors of the legitimate and silver sheet, who have ostensibly seen better days; pale-faced youths ordering a mug of coffee and doughnuts—perhaps their only meal of the day; a bearded “forty-niner” who is always sure of a place in the pictures; real cowboys and westerners fortifying themselves with hamburgers and fried eggs before a strenuous day in the open spaces to make fame for films; here and there an unkempt lad determined to keep a stiff upper lip and hide his ill-luck from the folks back home; a sweet-faced girl slipping a couple of dimes into her sweetheart's hand…
A colony of contrasts.
And so life goes on in this land of light and shadows, where destiny, with men for pieces, plays….
So wrote the well-known New Zealand poet, Will Lawson, of the glories of Ton-gariro National Park.
Always look carefully before you pass in front of—or behind—a standing vehicle. Looking means safety.
There are refreshing signs of an increased popular interest in our beautiful indigenous trees and shrubs, and a desire to plant them in parks and gardens. There is also, happily, a growing dislike to the sombre and ground-encumbering pinus insignis and macrocarpa, as elements in a tree landscape scheme. Some of our older parks are dreadful examples of what not to plant, the Newtown Park, in Wellington, for example. Now, as the result of much writing and many public addresses by lovers of the native trees, many local bodies as well as private owners are busy repairing the mistakes of the past. The wise landscape gardener perceives the peculiar charm and grace of the smaller trees of the Maori bush, their unusual beauty in leaf, shape and colour, in flower and fruit, and their attraction for the birds. Unfortunately, our native birds are all too few near the haunts of man, yet it is delightful to observe how the planting of trees and shrubs beloved by the birds brings the tui, the bellbird, the little grey warbler, the bush robin, and sometimes even the shy pigeon about country homes. Even the planting of a few rows of flax bring the honey-sucking birds around. If there were fewer imported birds, we should be better pleased; yet even in towns like Rotorua and Akaroa, the Maori birds are heard, particularly Akaroa. Our parks could be made vastly more charming if the remaining ugly exotic pines were rooted out and replaced with the vegetation typical of the country.
When does a colonial boy become a man? was a debatable question raised by a Christchurch civic dignitary the other day. This speaker, Deputy-Mayor Thacker, thought it was ridiculous to apply the term “boy” to males of twenty-two or so, as was so often done. When he was young he believed he was a man when he was sixteen. As for girls, it was “a perfect humbug” to have young women called girls.
There is much sound sense in this view of a much-abused term. Perhaps the practice of calling men boys sprang up during the Great War; and the girls'—or young women's—way of describing their sweethearts as boys, irrespective of age, has perpetuated it. Also, some parents keep their male offspring at secondary
In this age of luxury perhaps lads develop into men at a later age than they did in our pioneering days. The selfreliant life of the country makes men early. It is said by historians of the American frontier that when a boy of the backwoods attained the age of twelve he was given a gun and was allotted a loophole to defend in the stockade of the settlement or of the home in those days of Indian raids. It was much the same among the Maoris. A well-grown lad of about twelve was regarded as able to march out on the war-path, and several old warriors have told me that they first accompanied their elders on fighting expeditions at that age. In my own country-bred experience the farm boy matured earlier than his town contemporary; he was doing a man's work at a year when town boys were at school or college. No doubt the country boy lost much by this lack of leisurely education on the other hand he learned while young to knockabout for himself, and his horizon was wider than that of the town boy.
Many a boy does not begin his real education until after he leaves school, and in many cases it does seem a fearful waste of valuable time and opportunity for self-development to continue at college imbibing an artificial kind of knowledge at an age when one should be doing a man's part in the world.
Lord Bledisloe, it is pleasant to observe, has already become a great admirer of our New Zealand flora. He has seen quite a lot of the country since his arrival, and he is likely to be more charmed still by what he is likely to see during the coming summer. For one thing he naturally has reserved his opinion of the colour scheme of the pohutukawa tree until he sees it in flower. His Excellency has a delight before him. if he chances to spend next Christmas in Auckland. One would like
One does not need to go far from Auckland City to see it at its best. Motutapu and Waiheke Islands have their splendid groves and single trees; and there are a hundred places of delight well beknown to the midsummer yachtsman and powerboat holiday cruiser. But one need not even cross the Gulf to see grand old clumps of the Christmas-tree. There is that famous grove on the beachside at Takapuna, trees centuries old. The old trees assume quite a different habit from that of the young specimens grown in our town parks. They become wild in their old age, grow just as they please, and sprawl about the cliffs and bays in all sorts of negligent easy postures. It is as if, grown wise with the centuries, they have decided that it is an artistic mistake to be prim and orderly, and so they crook their knotty old elbows and send down long straggly fingers for a drink, and expose their rugged roots quite shamelessly. And the older they are the more recklessly they beflower themselves with burning gold, at the season when the greatest number of mankind can get out-of-doors to admire them.
What is the largest and heaviest living creature? Those fearfully destructive Norwegian whalers supply the answer. The killers of a fleet last season in the southern seas got a whale a hundred and six feet in length; the average estimated weight of a whale is a ton to the foot length. And altogether that one Norse syndicate's haul for the season was 870 whales. Seems beyond all fair limits, doesn't it? And that a touch of a finger on a trigger should convert all that hundred tons of life and enormous energy into a mere mass of blubber seems a tragic thing. One would like to see the contest less one-sided. Now, if it were only possible to teach those big fish that union is strength and that if they would only make a concerted attack upon one whale-killer after another they would presently be left in peace! Any philo-whale New Zealander want to organise the tribe?
From the secretary, North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association, Oam-aru, to the Stationmaster, Oamaru:—
I have been requested by local exhibitors to express their thanks and appreciation of the way in which the loading of stock was carried out at our recent show. One exhibitor expressed the opinion that in all his long experience in connection with A. and P. Shows he had never known stock to be as expeditiously handled and with less trouble to exhibitors as at the recent show.
I also wish to express the thanks of my Committee to your Department for the smooth running of the railway arrangements.
* * *
From the Secretary, United Friendly Societies’ Picnic Committee, Oamaru, to the Stationmaster, Oamaru:—
I have been instructed by the Committee of the United Friendly Societies of Oamaru to write and thank you for the prompt attention to the arrangements in connection with the excursion to Timaru. The courtesy shewn, and the ample accommodation provided, were a boon to the many travellers, who were mostly women and children. A word of praise must also be given to the guards, who carried out their arduous duties to the great satisfaction of all concerned.
We will have no hesitation in returning to the Department for another outing when necessary. If the Railway Department run on these lines, I am sure their success will increase.
The following appreciative reference to the comfortable accommodation provided in the Department's tourist car in the North Island, was given in a letter sent by Mrs. E. Mappin to the Station-master, Auckland:—
I should like to thank you for all the arrangements made for our travelling to Auckland by the “special” car recently. I have travelled abroad a great deal, and I am sure that we could not have taken a similar journey in greater comfort in any part of the world.
* * *
From Mr. C. A. Stewart, The New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Distributing Co., Ltd., to the District Traffic Manager. Ohakune:—
We wish to place on record our keen appreciation of the manner in which the Department handled 6,000 sheep from Taihape to Tirau and other places recently. Considering the large consignment, and the splendid condition in which they landed at their destination, it reflects good organisation on the part of the Railway officials who were responsible. We wish specially to mention the able assistance of your S.M. at Taihape, and Mr. Bowie, also of the Taihape staff.
We who handle large lots of live stock are sometimes only too ready to grumble at delays, etc., in the service, and it affords us much pleasure in complimenting the Department when such splendid efficiency is shewn.
Discussing the subject of “Public Relations” in his annual report, recently submitted to Parliament, the General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, states: “During the year I have pursued the policy I indicated in my last annual report of giving close attention to the public relations side of our business. I have moved about the system as freely as circumstances permitted, with the desire of making the utmost possible personal contact with our customers, the public generally, and with the staff.” The report continues as follows:
I Have been very much gratified by the number of invitations that have been extended to me by various organisations, businessmen and others, to address them. I have endeavoured to meet every invitation, but I regret that the necessities of business prevented my acceding to all of them. I am hopeful, however, of addressing during the coming year the bodies whom I have not yet been able to meet.
I have received most valuable assistance on the occasions of which I have been privileged to address these gatherings, and I have had many helpful suggestions and much constructive criticism. This latter I have particularly welcomed, as I feel that criticism that is constructive in its nature—especially when it is ultimately found to be well-founded—is not only helpful, but very pleasing. It has been my constant endeavour to treat every piece of such criticism with the respect that was due to it, and the opportunities that have often thus developed for free and frank discussion with those who are directing their thoughts towards railway problems, have brought a large understanding of the public point of view to me, and, I sincerely trust, some understanding of the railway position to those with whom I have held discussions.
As regards the staff, I myself have received much benefit from contact and discussion with them, and I think that here also the opportunities for exchange of ideas that have arisen as I have moved about the system have led to understanding and mutual confidence. I have been much gratified by the appreciative references that have been made from time to time to the work we have been able to do in this connection, and it is indeed pleasing to see the members of the staff who are located at our stations taking a more and more active interest in the business side of our operations. I have felt there is much latent strength in our organisation, which, if it could be brought out, would be particularly effective as regards our position in the community, more particularly from a competitive point of view.
I have previously mentioned on more than one occasion that the capacity of the Commercial Branch to make contact with customers and potential customers is definitely limited, and that I feel we must look more and more to our stations’ staff to constitute a fighting organisation in the competitive field.
The great development that we have had during the year, of what, for want of a better term, I may call the “business
Owing to the serious inroads our competitors were making in the transport of the higher rated commodities, it was decided to introduce a system of uniform rating in those localities where it was found that traders were using rail transport for the low-freight goods, and road transport for the higher-rated traffic.
This is a matter of considerable importance and I wish therefore to take this opportunity of fully stating our position in regard thereto.
It is becoming increasingly evident that certain persons and companies are prepared to exploit the railway tariff in their own interests in the direction of sending all their low-rated goods by rail while sending their higher-rated goods by competitive services. Inasmuch as it is the high-rated goods that enables us to maintain the low rates on the lowr-rated goods, any defection of the high-rated traffic lessens our capacity to maintain the low rates. We have already arrived at the stage where it is necessary that we should increase the low rates in order to make up for our loss on account of the higher-rated traffic and, so to restore, in some measure at least, the financial status quo so far as revenue is concerned. Any general increase in the low rates founded on the fact that we are losing revenue through the higher class of traffic being taken away from us must involve a certain amount of inequity to the extent that those persons who remain loyal to the railway, giving us their high-rated traffic as well as their low-rated traffic, are involved in the increase on the low-rated traffic. We have therefore endeavoured, as far as possible, to devise means whereby we might protect these people, and prevent the exploitation of our tariff by those who wish to take away their high-rated goods and leave their low-rated goods with us. We had a rather outstanding case of a company which trades in general merchandise and farmers’ supplies of all kinds, including fertilisers. This company entered into an arrangement with a road-carrying organisation that is in very strong competition with us. Under this arrangement, in consideration of the carrying company agreeing to purchase goods for the purpose of the road-carrying business from the merchandising company referred to, the latter company agreed to give the carrying company its high-rated traffic. The merchandising company, however, left their low-rated traffic with us. We could not possibly see that such a position was in any way equitable. We did our best to persuade the company to see the unfairness of the position, but we were unsuccessful. The company took the stand that we had to meet competition.
We felt that we could not allow the matter to rest at that point, and we were prepared to adopt the company's competitive standard, but we insisted that that competitive standard should operate throughout the whole field of the company's traffic, and not only over that portion which it suited them to send by our competitor. We therefore made a regulation which provided that all goods between the stations affected should be charged at the competitive
The company I have referred to above endeavoured to create a certain amount of agitation among the business community at the inception of our action, but they were quite unsuccessful in their effort to place us in a wrong light with the business community.
Action on somewhat similar lines to the foregoing has already been adopted in some of the Australian States, and, I have reason to believe, with quite satisfactory results.
I think it is very necessary that the unfairness of the form of exploitation of the railway tariff that is described above should be brought out clearly, and that action to circumvent subterfuges that may be resorted to to enable such exploitation to be carried on is essential.
The question of further steps to be taken effectively to deal with the situation is now under consideration.
The railroad is still the centre about which all transportation must revolve. The airplane and the motor truck are important; none can reasonably deny this. Yet they are all merely complementary factors in a gigantic system which has its main dependence in efficient rail service.
—Mcadville Tribune Republican, U.S.A.
The impressions given in the following article are those of an ordinary traveller who is not, nor has been in any way connected with the railway service either in Australia or New Zealand.
My last visit to Australia was made seventeen years prior to this one, extending over two months, made at the close of last year, and was the seventh visit paid to the Commonwealth.
Beyond the erection of a lofty clock tower, the outer view of the great Sydney railway station had apparently not undergone change. A commendable feature here is that trams pass into the station buildings, affording shelter to passengers in bad weather. Just within is a spacious hall surrounded by ticket offices, refreshment and waiting rooms, bookstalls, etc., and this gives access to the numerous lengthy platforms common to a “dead end” station. The station facilities have been well planned, no dangerous ramps exist, and the work of dealing with the scores of thousands daily passing through goes on without hitch of any kind.
For the year ending June 30, 1928, 148,046,881 passengers were carried on the New South Wales Railways. During the same period the tramways in Sydney carried 346,013,775 passengers.
On the eastern side of the station, alterations and extensions have been made for electric trains, serving the southern suburbs, to pass through the underground lines below Hyde Park in the centre of the city. There are two subway stations, having every modern convenience, and finished in white tiling, the only drawback being the long entrances to the street. The line is largely patronised by the thousand? of workers and others who daily pass to and from the city. A western system is being constructed under George Street, with a station under Wynyard Square, which will ultimately connect the central station with the existing northern electric lines by way of the great harbour bridge.
The overland trip to Melbourne is run in good time, the journey of some 570 miles taking only eighteen hours. The country is fairly level, with the exception of the line near Mossvale, about 100 miles out of Sydney, and the dividing range in Victoria. The Express carriages are chiefly of the corridor type, and are roomy and comfortable.
Albury, the border city, and a busy railway junction, is reached in the early morning, and after breakfast the “sleeper” is exchanged for an ordinary Victorian carriage—a vehicle of which any service might be proud. The run of five hours or so across Victoria is always enjoyable, abounding as it does with fine panoramic views, and those of prosperous settlements. A pleasant variation en route was the partaking of morning tea in a full car of over fifty passengers, the catering and service being excellent. The terminal station at Spencer Street appears unchanged. Its lengthy platforms, old type buildings, and well worn approaches, bear witness to the hundreds of thousands who had trodden through it in past years.
In the journey to Adelaide by the night Express, the outward line traverses for a time level country, showing the growth of the suburbs of Melbourne and the great factories in and around Sunshine, and after, through a long stretch of poor land strewn with reddish boulders. The first stop in the early morning is at Murray Bridge, where heavily laden river barges lie close to the station. Here, if I mistake not, a huge loco, of the South Australian services takes our train in charge for the remainder of the journey, which passes over the Mt. Lofty ranges before the city is reached.
During the night mysterious cries of “Hey, hey!” are heard as the Express rushes along, but the secret is revealed at daybreak. In the lonely country districts, miles from a centre, boys and permanent way men shout for papers to be thrown to them, so anxious are they to
The hill country is decidedly picturesque, and many flowers are seen on the cuttings or at the edge of the bush. At the summit one comes suddenly into suburban conditions, as seen in bitumen roads, trim fences and beautiful villas. Then, for the remaining seven or eight miles, are noticed delightful panoramic views across the city, and, finally, the train passes through the outlying park lands and suburbs into the palatial new station.
At the time of my visit this was the pride and showplace of the city. My impression was that utility and convenience were the objects primarily considered by the architect. Space prevents a full description of this fine building, but mention must be made of its roomy well-equipped dining hall, whose numerous small tables have seats for over 300 diners. Nearby, a quick lunch counter has small circular topped rests for customers.
Ramps lead to the first floor and to the street and trams. A luxurious hall as a waiting room and containing an enquiry office is situated on the first floor, in which a balcony permits a view being obtained of the extensive lobby giving access to the platforms. On the top storey are numerous and convenient offices for the managing staff and clerical employees.
The elevation view from the street is massive and imposing, while the inside is finished in white plaster, relieved by solid dark-coloured pillars. As much day work was used in the construction, the total cost has not transpired, but it is said to have been approximately half a million sterling.
The gently undulating country in and around Melbourne offers little difficulty in the way of line construction. The majority of the railways were built below the ordinary street levels some years ago, and the suburban system of about a dozen separate lines now use electric traction. The heavy carriages of the past have been replaced by those of a more roomy, more accessible and lighter type. The punctuality, speed, and quietness of running are praiseworthy features, further enhanced by cleanliness and the absence of smoke. Carriages have crosswise seats and sliding doors, so that the time for entering or leaving is minimised. An ordinary train is usually one of the motor; some seven carriages and a van, under a motor-man and a guard. Passengers procure their tickets at stations and give them up at the terminal turnstiles. Inspectors occasionally board a train at a station and inspect the tickets, presumably to ascertain whether holders are in the departments as indicated, and whether season tickets are in order. In cases of default lawbreakers are heavily fined, so that few take liberties.
The electric signal control seems to be working perfectly, and visitors are struck with the quick despatch of trains from the stations.
At the central station in Flinders Street, lines pass right through. The time and place of departure is well notified, and few passengers find any difficulty in locating the right platform, as indicators clearly show the destination of outgoing trains. Cheap fares encourage patronage, and from East Camberwell, seven miles out, my return fare, first class, was 1/-, or 10½. second class. The daily carriage of business people and workers to and from the city has reached colossal proportions, close on 300,000 a day passing through the station, making it probably the busiest passenger station in the world.
These are in general use in the three States visited. I had the opportunity of a ride in one on a New South Wales line.
At Melbourne, a double-engined carriage, having room at the ends for first and second class passengers, with space in the middle for goods, struck me as a serviceable type. It was a six cylinder Leyland of 90 h.p., smooth running and easily controlled. These can carry some fifty passengers, and I understand can be run for about 2/- per mile. The utility of such vehicles largely depends on the gradients, so that these motor-carriages are likely to be of greter service in Australia than in our Dominion.
A high compliment to the British people is paid by a leading German jurist, Herr Kantorowicz, Professor of Law at Kiel University, who has recently published a book entitled the “Spirit of British Policy” says the L.M.S. Railways Magazine. After remarking upon the efforts made in Britain to raise the moral tone of public life, the author asserts that to-day “chivalry as a mass phenomenon; as a demand of the public conscience; as a personal ideal; is only to be found in one country—the country which has chosen St. George for its patron saint.” In connection with the “sense of justice which distinguishes Great Britain above all other countries,” the Professor notes, amongst other things, the amazement with which guide books record that one gives up one's luggage on British railways without getting a receipt for it.
Some of the dew-clear streams which flow into Rotorua Lake are not much more than a mile in length, yet they are of large volume. They have their origin in the hills, but flow underground for the greater part of their course, far from the light of day, until they suddenly find an orifice giving them access to the world above. Then they spring upward, bubbling and sparkling and exulting in their freedom, and go purling and singing down through the fern and green bushes to the lake. They are cold as ice when they issue from the under-world. Some of these streams, like the Awahou and Hamurana, are of good size and are navigable for canoes and boats right up to their sources.
And, as amongst all primitive peoples, these riverheads and fountain-wells are intimately associated with the local folklore and local religion. The Old World belief in water-deities and in such uncanny beings as water-wraiths and kelpies has its counterpart here. The Puna-a-Tuhoe is a “Holy Well,” such as we hear of in Celtic folk-talk; the Hamurana and the Awahou and Utuhina have, or had, their water-genii, their taniwha and ngarara. Unlike the Greek Naiades, the lovely nymphs who haunted the forest-shaded springs, the Maori water-creatures were generally of a repellant, often ferocious, order. They resembled huge saurians in appearance, from the traditional descriptions handed down, and they devoured human beings.
The Puna-a-Tuhoe (“Tuhoe's Fountain”), popularly called the Fairy Spring, is situated in a little ferny valley, alongside the Rotorua-Tauranga road, and close to the foot of Mount Ngongotaha, about three miles west of Rotorua town. A large cold spring of remarkable translucence gushes up, and forms the source of a beautiful trout stream, flowing down through the manuka thickets to the lake. The circular basin is shaded by kotukutuku and makomako shrubs, bending their branches over the clear waters, and ferns fringe the shady edge of the pool. The spring is floored with white sand, and through the glistening bed bubble up the fountain's mother-waters, the manawa-whenua—the “heart of the land”—ever rushing, ever pulsing. With the beating of the water-heart the fine sand itself swirls and eddies on the shining bed just where the fount has its source. Countless fish dart here and there, glittering iridescent in the transparent waters, and where the sunshine strikes the spring there is a play of rainbow colours, an ever-changing gleam and sparkle of iris hues.
The Puna-a-Tuhoe is as thick with fish as a trawler's net after a big haul. So crowded is the pool with rainbow trout that the wonder is where they all obtain their food. Many of these trout seem never to leave this fountain head; and not only at spawning times—when the fish in enormous numbers make their way up stream from the lake—but all the year round the puna is full of trout. Tuhoe's fount is tapu to rod and line. It is a sacred breeding place, protected by the Crown
Legends cluster round this fairy spring in the ferny dell. It is not surprising to learn from the old Maoris that it was the work of a ngarara—a monstrous saurian—which burrowed down here to the under world, and so formed the goblin well. The chieftain after whom the place is named was the eponymous founder of the Tuhoe tribe (also called Urewera) and the progenitor of many of its leading
wai-whakarukuhanga-atua”—that is, a pool into which the gods dived. The tohunga, who were believed to be the kaupapa or mediums of Tuhoe's war-gods Tu-nui-a-te-Ika and Te Pou-tua-tini, lived in the pa above, and this was the sacred water to which they came to perform their ceremonies, and to consult the oracles. The two war-gods were believed to take the form of meteors (whetu kokiri) when they were called upon by the priests, or when war was at hand. If the shooting-stars darted across the sky in the direction of the enemy's country it was a clear invitation to attack the offending tribe, and an omen of success in battle. After the wargod had thus pointed out the path of the war-party, it would return, say the Maoris, and plunge into this pool and disappear where the water bubbles up through the always-moving sand in the bottom of the clear fountain-well.
Marked success attended this year's gathering of the International Railway Congress Association at Madrid, and the meetings afforded delegates from every land an opportunity of seeing something of the progress that has in recent times been effected in the Spanish railway world. Spain's first railway was that linking Barcelona with Mataro, 28½ kilometres distant, opened in 1848. Almost all the early Spanish railways were financed by Britain, and the bulk of the locomotives and other equipment came from abroad. In 1924 the Spanish lines were put under State control, the numerous independent systems being amalgamated into a number of large units. The most important systems to-day operating are the Northern, the Madrid, Saragossa and Alicante, the Andalusian Railways, and the Western Spain National Railway. The largest system—the Northern—is 3,706 kilometres in length, and owns 1,169 steam locomotives, 23 electric locomotives, 1,888 passenger carriages, and 30,700 goods wagons.
In the Railways Statement for 1930, recently presented to Parliament, the General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, makes the following interesting reference to the important services performed by our Magazine.
I regard the Department's official monthly Magazine as an enterprise of the very greatest importance. Its establishment is right in line with modern business development. Every business concern in any way approximate to our railways in the size of its business and the extent of its ramifications has its “house organ,” while among railways the principle of a magazine has met with practically universal adoption. It is one of the few means by which the railway authority may become articulate to its staff and public, and it is certainly the most attractive and effective means of so doing. After over four years of publication, I can say definitely that this journal performs a great and manysided service for the Department—a service which is being energetically maintained. As an educational journal dealing authentically and in detail with the current problems of railway economics on the one hand, and with the varied national interests of New Zealand on the other, its high standard and general appeal is freely and generously acknowledged alike by the members of the Railway service and by the press and public of the Dominion and overseas. As a medium for the establishment of contact between the management and the staff, and between the Department and its clients, the Magazine, in promoting an atmosphere of mutual understanding and goodwill, is performing a service of importance of which, directly and indirectly, it would be difficult to overstate. Both as a constructive factor in railway management, and as a medium for profitable Dominion publicity, the Magazine has a well-established place amongst the important community services rendered by the railways to the people of New Zealand.
The present monthly circulation of the Magazine is approximately 20,000 copies. Of this total, about two-thirds is distributed free to members in the various branches of the service, the remaining copies being circulated amongst the principal newspapers, business houses, hotels, boardinghouses, and public libraries in the Dominion. The overseas-distribution of the Magazine is substantial, copies being sent to the High Commissioner's Office in London for distribution, and to selected addresses in Europe, Canada, the United States of America, South Africa, and Australia. Thus is being disseminated each month a carefully compiled and connected review of railway and other activities in New Zealand—a review which has a publicity value of national importance.
Much interest is evoked throughout the service in the Magazine's special articles on the day by day developments of railway transportation in New Zealand and in the countries of the Old World. These articles, in which the contributors (drawn largely from the ranks of our service) strive to present, in simple and straightforward language, their assiduously garnered knowledge of the respective subjects, serves admirably towards the general enlightenment of the members of our railway service.
(Continued.)
Captain McLean, a partner in the firm of Dalgety, Buckley and Co., in giving evidence before the Committee of the Provincial Council regarding the proposed railway between Lyttelton and Christchurch, stated that he estimated the population of Canterbury at that time (1860) at about 12,000. If the Government spent £10,000 a year on immigration, the population would be doubled in 1866, when it was expected the railway would be opened. So far as he could judge, the tonnage carried between Lyttelton and Christchurch was about 15,000 tons a year. In his opinion, if the population were doubled, the tonnage would be doubled also.
With regard to the river steamers, he considered a paying charge was 25s. a ton from ship at Lyttelton to store in Christchurch. If the steamer had full occupation a less charge would pay, but those conditions were not then existing. A steamer fully employed would carry 80 tons a week, but could not make a trip daily; also, navigation was sometimes impeded by weather conditions for many days together. If guaranteed 30,000 tons, steamers might carry at a charge as low as 10s. or 15s. a ton, delivered; but, personally, as he saw no prospect of such a guarantee, he had not calculated this closely. The existing rate for cartage from Aikman's wharf to Christchurch was 5s. to 6s. a ton. Steamers now made a profit charging 25s. a ton direct from ship at Lyttelton. (This rates does not include wharfage and cartage at Lyttelton, which costs about 1s. 9d. a ton.) Sailing vessels charged about 5s. a ton less than steamers. He could not say whether the steamers paid dividends. He could not form any opinion as to the number of days per year that steamers could enter and leave the Heathcote River. The largest vessel that could work the river would be about 80 tons register, and might carry 100 tons. The practice of merchants is to use the quickest and safest means of transit if the same rate is charged. He would pay a higher rate by railway because of the saving of time. In his opinion a steamer could not compete with the railway with railage charges at 15s. a ton. A railway would improve the export of grain to Australia.
The Collector of Customs (Mr. J. W. Hamilton) gave particulars of the registered tonnage of ships arriving at and departing from the Port of Lyttelton for the year 1859, viz:—
He estimated that the actual tonnage of goods carried between Lyttelton and Christchurch was about one-third less than the registered tonnage from Lyttelton, and two-thirds less from Christchurch, say a total of about 12,000 tons. This was about one ton per head of the whole population of the Province, and he would expect the same proportion in 1866. The imports and exports had increased in regular ratio during the last nine years. Taking account of immigration and trading prosperity, the population should be nearly doubled in 1866. Increase of population at places so far distant as Timaru would make little difference to the tonnage. A railway would cheapen the cost of goods and increase the facilities for
Mr. George Gould, merchant, of Christchurch, stated that he had been in business for about nine years, and was connected with both steamer companies trading between Lyttelton and the Heathcote River.
He thought the railway undertaking proposed by the Government was injudicious. The cost was too great for the advantages to be derived. There was no difficulty, commercially speaking, in getting goods to and for at present, and supposing the railway to exist, merchants would still use the steamers to save lighterage between the ships and the wharf at Lyttelton, and the breakage caused by the transhipment. The cost of lighterage was 3s. or 4s. per ton. Goods could now be put into the steamer alongside the ship and come direct to the wharves on the river. He considered the mode of communication by private enterprise, which involved no outlay of public money or loan on public credit, and in which the public have the benefit of free competition, would counter-balance all the advantages of rail over steamer communication. The imports and exports of 1855 were 4,200 tons, with a population of 5,300. The present population was 12,000, and the imports and exports 12,000 tons, as estimated by the Collector of Customs. In 1856 about one-sixth of the population was at Kaiapoi and in the pastoral districts, and that proportion seemed likely to increase. Considering that the revenue had to be charged to such a large extent to provide interest and sinking funds for the loan, there would be no large amount available for immigration. He estimated that in 1865 the population would not exceed 20,000, and the trade would be about 24,000 tons. For a trade of 30,000 tons he thought 15s. a ton for railage was too high a charge. It could be done for less by the river. Apart from the facility for passengers, he thought the advantages by rail and steamer were equal for goods carried at the same rate. He had suffered no inconvenience from the Summer Bar since the introduction of steamers. He believed that with a guarantee of 30,000 tons, steamers could carry goods from the
In reply to questions, Mr. Gould gave figures in support of his opinion that goods could be carried for 10s. a ton. Allowing 4s. 6d. per ton for cartage and delivery (then costing 5s. to 6s. a ton) there would remain 5s. 6d. per ton for the steamer. A steamer to carry 30 tons deadweight, or 45 tons measurement, could be obtained for £2,500. Working expenses would be £23 to £25 a week. Making two trips each way per week, fully loaded, that is 30 tons a trip or 120 tons a week at 5s. 6d. per ton, the earnings would be £33 a week, which would leave a fair margin of profit. It was pointed out by the Provincial Secretary (Mr. John Olliver) that these figures did not provide for wear and tear, depreciation, interest on capital, and insurance. Taking these into consideration, the expenses would be about £150 a month, or £1,800 per year, whereas the estimated earnings (£33 per week) were only £1,716 for a year. Asked whether the steamer could maintain two trips a week throughout the year, Mr. Gould stated that the steamer “Planet” had never been seven days in two years without crossing the Sumner Bar, but he could not say whether she had been able to make an average of two and one-half trips a week. The profits of the steamer “Planet” were 20 per cent, the first year, but freights were then higher. Before the introduction of steamers, freights were 40s. a ton. They were 30s. a ton up to January (1860) and since then 25s. a ton. The shareholders of the Canterbury Steam Navigation Company got no return by way of dividends for the capital invested in the “Planet.” All the gains were spent in repairs. The shareholders who were traders would derive a great advantage from the reduction of freights even if there were no dividends.
The steamer “Avon,” of the Avon Steamship Company, had made only two trips so far. She cost £2,200, and would carry 20 tons dead weight, or 35 tons measurement.
The preference for steamer carriage would only apply to ships lying in the stream. Any arrangement which did away with lightering would, of course, affect the steamer freights. Mostly all the Melbourne and Sydney ships lie alongside the wharves. Produce for parts within New Zealand would be carried in small bottoms which could use the river. He admitted that speed, in the case of root crops, was of the highest importance. The railway would be of great advantage for oversea exports.
(Contributed.)
The enterprise of the New Zealand Railways in linking up with the motor companies operating on the wonderful tourist routes between Napier and Rotorua via Wairoa, Gisborne and Opotiki, now enables the traveller to purchase, at moderate cost, at any railway station, a rail and motor ticket covering the complete journey. Hotel accommodation is adequate, and the tariffs are reasonable. To many New Zealanders the East Coast is still a terra incognita, but to those wishing to see the sheep country of Hawke's Bay, and the famous Urewera, the facilities now available are unique. A brief description of this very interesting combined rail and motor trip is given in the following article.
The journey from Napier to Rotorua, via Wairoa, Gisborne, and Opotiki, introduces the traveller to a wide extent of country hitherto little known to the tourist, but that is rapidly coming into favour as a district not only rich in historic associations, but abounding in scenery of a grandeur unsurpassed in any other part of New Zealand.
Leaving Napier, the road strikes into a region that speaks eloquently of the immense toil and sacrifice of the early pioneers in redeeming and bringing under cultivation the primeval wilderness.
In parts the country, denuded of bush and now utilised for grazing purposes, is singularly desolate; but here and there the desolation is relieved by lingering patches of exquisite native bush that still afford sanctuary to many of New Zealand's prized native birds. The process of denudation has also brought to view remarkable geological formations. The horizontal stratification of rock perched high in the hills and continuing in a strictly horizontal formation for many miles indicates, even to the uninitiated, what was ages ago the coastline of New Zealand, and proves the well-established fact that many thousands of years ago these islands were under water.
Few motor journeys proclaim the antiquity of New Zealand with such clear and convincing force as that leading northward along the coast from Napier to Wairoa.
The vernal beauty and freshness of Morere, famed for its wonderful hot mineral springs and the stately nikau groves, contrasts with the venerable aspects of the mountains and hills roundabout. Morere is a natural paradise, and perpetuates in miniature the entrancing loveliness that at one time, before the advent of the devastating civilisation of the pakeha, clothed the hills and valleys. In this region the road winds through many scenes rendered historic by the depredations of the warrior Te Kooti; and the sleek cattle graze placidly on sites that within the memory of living man ran red with the blood of victims slain in battle or wantonly massacred. The mountain fastnesses once securely held by the resourceful and crafy warrior are still pointed out. Pursuit into his numerous Urewera strongholds was impossible.
Wairoa is a flourishing centre, and the starting point of a three-hour run by motor to Lake Waikaremoana.
Proceeding from Wairoa some mountainous country is soon reached, and when within ten miles of Gisborne, from the summit of Wharerata Hill, one of the most magnificent panoramas of land and sea is obtained.
The view from this lofty elevation embraces the whole of Poverty Bay. Prominent in the foreground is Young
The road from Gisborne to Opotiki, a distance of 100 miles, leads across the farfamed Motu Range, in the Urewera country. An altitude of 3,000 feet is reached; the views obtained from the various summits extend far into the Ureweras, and embrace country so rugged and precipitous in character as to be for all time immune from destruction through the agency of man. Gorges and defiles, 1,500 feet in depth, are covered with vegetation, Nature leaving few places unadorned; and from the car the traveller gazes down into lonely depths rarely, if ever, disturbed by man, even in his most adventurous moods. Through an opening in the hills on a clear day a remarkable view of White Island is obtained. The dark green foliage in the foreground, the deep blue sea beyond, and the tremendous cloud of steam of dazzling whiteness by which the island is canopied, combine to form a picture not quickly effaced from the mind.
Opotiki is the centre of a rich dairying district, and marks the first important town in the Bay of Plenty. From Opotiki to Rotorua, a distance of 100 miles, the car follows a well-known motor route, embracing a wide variety of scene. The sea coast is followed for several miles. The
From the summit of the Tikitere Hill a bird's-eye view of the Rotorua volcanic basin is obtained. The contour of the country proclaims its volcanic or thermal origin. An unrivalled diversity of landscape presents itself. Mountain, bush, forest, lake, appear to be thrown together without order or sequence.
The escape of steam from insumerable vents and fissures attest the presence beneath of titanic forces. These are the characteristics that impact to Rotorua an interest unique among the world's thermal or health resorts; and now that travel arrangements are marked by every circumstance of comfort and convenience Rotorua can be included in every railroad or motor itinerary in the North Island.
The volume of traffic conveyed by the Department's through booking system between the North and South Islands continues to increase, and during the past year 14,449 tons were shipped, an increase of 2,624 tons on the tonnage for the previous year. This service was instituted in May, 1925, and the tonnage conveyed for the year ended 31st March, 1926, was 5,183 tons.
The growth of this branch of the Department's activities is sufficient to indicate that the facilities provided are meeting a real need and are being increasingly appreciated by the public generally—(From the Railways Statement, 1930.)
* * *
Road transport and road competition formed a most interesting topic for discussion at the International Railway Congress at Madrid this year (says our London Correspondent). The principal points brought out in the discussion were that the present position of road transport should be modified, so that road transport should bear its full share of road charges, and that concessions should not be granted for road services in cases where the district to be served already possessed adequate railway facilities. Close collaboration between rail and road was regarded as most desirable, and railways should be given the preference for obtaining concessions for regular road motor services where they were prepared to take advantage of them.
The progress made by railways in the road transport field was noted, and comment was made upon the success attending the formation by many railways of subsidiary road transport undertakings providing feeder services and relieving congestion. It was the considered opinion of the Congress that motor transport, duly co-ordinated, would become a powerful ally of railways and assist in completing and developing communications for the benefit of the community.
* * *
In the opinion of Captain Geoffrey Blake. C.B., D.S.O., A.D.C., the Commodore of the New Zealand Naval Division, the Norwegian fiords cannot compare with some of the West Coast Sounds.
His flagship, H.M.S. Dunedin, recently completed an extensive cruise round the South Island, having visited Lyttelton, Timaru, Dunedin, Bluff and Nelson. The West Coast Sounds were fully explored on the passage from Bluff to Nelson, and wonderful weather was experienced.
The Commodore, who has visited the Norwegian fiords, gave it as his opinion that they could not compare in grandeur and beauty with the marvellous coast and sounds lying between Preservation Inlet and Milford Sound.
The weather was so clear that Mount Cook remained in sight at a distance of 112 miles.
* * *
India has no less than 18,000 miles of track of 5ft. 6in. gauge. This is a nice roomy gauge for such a hot country, permitting, as it does, the employment of passenger carriages of most liberal dimensions. Next to the 4ft. 8½ in. gauge, the metre gauge is the most popular among the railways of the world.
When you come to think of it, are you not deeply and widely surprised by the things you don't know—and may not particularly wish to know? Throughout the world all manner of philosophers and uplifters are telling mankind how it can take a hop, step and jump to the millennium if the people will only learn how to do it. Evidently the process is quite simple when you know how.
* * *
Recently I received a circular inviting me to buy a book which will tell me all manner of things about mud and marble, flies and elephants. In order to make an extraction from that pocket, which is never too well filled—that pocket at which the world and his wife are ever clutching —the publisher of the new mine of more or less useless knowledge, addresses me (termed “Dear Friend”) thus—
Do You Know—
—what islands in the South Atlantic are entirely inhabited by Scotchmen?
—that there are seven cities on top of each other at Jerusalem?
—that Tangier has three Sundays each week?
—that through an architect's error, Chile built a Government House intended for Mexico?
—why you see so many rocks in the roofs of Swiss houses?
There are many other queries under the line “Do You Know,” but I have given enough to show how the book will work for anybody who likes to know the why and wherefore of unusual things.
Truly, I feel tempted to buy the book to get the answer to that last question: “Why do you see so many rocks in the roofs of Swiss houses?” It depends, I suppose, on the time of day—whether one is sober or not so sober. I know why there are so many rocks not in, but on, the roofs of New Zealand houses when I was a boy. It was because the bad boys threw them. And that memory raises the questions: “Why are the boys of to-day more law-abiding?” Is it because they have easy access to other amusements and do not need the excitement of stone throwing? Is it because the police are more vigilant and pitiless and citizens are selfishly less tolerant of the aims and objects of wild boyhood?
* * *
Yet, if I bought the book to get the answer to that question about the Swiss, I should probably be disappointed. The answer might be right enough, but it might also prompt me to ask at least a hundred other questions, on which the book would be dumb, and I would feel myself impelled to buy an endless series of volumes with the money which should be going to the butcher and the baker.
Also, I began to think that the traveller who noticed so many things which most of us don't know, saw only a very small part of the earth. Millions of other travellers could take other routes, and each of them could compile a very long catechism, headed. “Dou You Know,” in the certainty that the answer would be “No” to at least 99 per cent. of the queries. And, of course, those chaps would be concerned mainly with the surface of things. There would be the interior of the globe for the “Do-you-know,” and the restless heart of the mighty atom, and then the planets, the stars, comets, nebulae, and other solid or gaseous bodies of the infinite skies. It is a large subject, dear friends. Plenty of headaches in it.
* * *
That is one of the reasons why I sometimes envy the animals and birds. If they know how to get a living and how to enjoy it, they are satisfied. They don't know why Mussolini does not wear a moustache, and they don't care. Is there anything more desirable in the world than the joyous moments of a mated thrush singing in the spring sunshine in a hedge of fragrant may? He doesn't know why Epstein makes statues like nothing in this world, or any other imaginable world, and he doesn't care what Epstein does.
* * *
But let us go on with our questions to ourselves. Have we not all wished to know why sandflies were evolved? What is the diet of the sandfly in lonely wildernesses where the foot of man treadeth not, and his skin is not spread for the feast of obscene insects? Why is it that Mr. Mosquito does not bite, and leaves all the blood-sucking to Mrs. Mosquito? Does Mrs. Mosquito feed her husband? And if so, why?
* * *
Why do goats have beards? The animals do not need these things for warmth. If goats have a right to beards, why shouldn't sheep have them? Also, why do some monkeys have a facial fringe of hair or fur? Is the present clean-shaving habit of English-speaking countries due to the present generation's fear of being mistaken for goats and monkeys?
* * *
Why is it that you can teach a parrot to talk, but can't teach a hen? Why should cats have a wider spread of whiskers than dogs? How did the cuckoo come to get the habit of laying its egg in another bird's nest? Why did not the elephant develop a horned head, and the rhinocerous a trunk?
* * *
Why do some savages have skewers thrust through their noses? These ornaments must be a most abominable nuisance when the savage has a cold in the head. Probably, if we could get to the origin of this fashion we would find that it was established by a shrewd chief or king, who would not be skewered himself, but would confer the Order of the Skewer as an honour for loyal subjects who gave him very good service. That was a subtle way to get the people by the nose.
* * *
Why does New Zealand cling to the hat known as the bell-topper or stovepipe for certain special occasions? Even to-day there are girls who might believe that they would not be properly married unless the bridegroom lined up to church with a shining tile. I notice, too, that the spat is having a run at New Zealand weddings described as “fashionable.” Why? Why is a man willing to make himself look silly at a wedding and not at other times? But most of the wearers forget that top-hat styles change in London from year to year. Various decades of fashions are represented in any big outing of top-hats in New Zealand. But who cares?
* * *
If that book would only tell us these things, and other things, which we should dearly like to know, it would be worth all the savings we have left after the instalments on the motor car, the radio set, and the luxurious Chesterfield suite have been paid.
“Mary,” I said, “how would you describe my nose?”
“Your nose?” she said.
“Yes,” I said, “my nose.”
“Oh, I shouldn't attempt to,” said Mary, deep in the usual book of feminine fashions. “Why do you want your nose described?”
Her tone suggested that there are things even in these days, which are better left to the imagination.
“I am not the one who wants it described,” I said, suddenly becoming acutely conscious of its defects as a nose. “But according to the latest publication on psycho-analysis (Mary groans), if one forwards an accurate description of one's nose, one will receive in return (the exchange seems a fair one) an accurate diagnosis of one's inner self and real character.”
“Oh, I do hope not,” said Mary fervently, “because as a matter of fact, darling, I married you simply because of your nose!”
Now, what on earth is a man to say to such an outrageous statement—if it had been eyes, legs or even ears, I should have felt happier—but a nose! I steadied myself and determined to hear the worst —as a brave man should. Had I been drifting gaily through life not thinking for a moment how my nose might appear in the eyes of my fellows? The day of reckoning had arrived.
“Mary,” I went on firmly, “have the goodness to inform me whether my nose (please refrain from levity) fits roughly into one of these neat little columns—details don't matter—just an estimate.
“Oh, but they do in your nose,” said Mary calmly. “In fact dear, it is all details!” This with feminine precision.
I read from my pamphlet:—
(1) “The man with a small straight nose—”
“Pass on,” Mary interrupts dashingly, “yours is neither!”
“Rather a pity,” I murmur. “Such a one has a mind gentle, idealistic and devoted to beauty.” I immediately picture myself savage, uncouth, squatting at my cottage consuming large quantities of beef and beer. I continue somewhat subdued.
(2) “The man with a large, irregular, generously wide nose” (I finger my breathing apparatus tenderly—my heart rising).
Came Mary's liquid tones: “No, darling. What next?” Very much as a mother to a capricious infant. It is a pity Mary cannot be serious upon an occasion demanding attention and gravity. “Yours isn't any of those!”
I realise now how extraordinarily sensitive a man can be about his nose. I begin to long for a large and bumpy structure. I begin to suspect psychoanalysis. I begin to feel that mine indicates a mere nothing.
“Such a man,” I continue weakly, “is energetic, generous and fond of children.”
“Obviously not you, John dear,” Mary remarks with brutal candour. I close
the wretched pamphlet and rise with as much dignity as a man may when his nose is neither small and straight, nor yet large and lumpy.
“Mary,” I snap out in a hoarse tense voice, “you have no soul. How can you treat this affair with such flippancy? Women are all the same—minds quite satisfied with trivial nonsense.”
“Yes dear,” says Mary meekly, and as I stride haughtily from the room— “but at least we merely powder our noses and don't have them psycho-analysed!”
There is something distressingly final about women.
Have New Zealand women a special National characteristic? I have heard this question asked frequently lately—have sat silent while two males dissected the fair sex quite unmercifully. I pondered over it for some time, thinking of the women I knew and wondering whether we had already developed a pronounced racial characteristic by which we could be recognised the world over as “New Zealanders”—or whether we are still too disunited, too separated one from the other.
It is commonly acknowledged that in a far off country national traits and peculiarities develop extraordinarily rapidly—and we are all familiar with the popular lament that New Zealanders are already mutilating their Mother-tongue in a really shocking and shameful way. People actually declare that it is almost impossible to understand what on earth our young hopefuls are yelling to one another across the school play-grounds. Perhaps the talkies will eliminate this distressing accent—if in the meantime the youth of New Zealand does not assimilate a really good imitation of a Yankee drawl and a fair stock of American slang.
It is with the women of New Zealand, however, that we are concerned for the moment. I think with anger and resentment of Rupert Brooke's description of my sisters as being badly dressed, thoroughly ugly, and confirmed smokers. True that was some time ago—also the standards of a youthful poet are appallingly high—but there can be an astounding difference in the people of a young country in a short space of time—and I think most English visitors and foreigners agree now that although we may be somewhat deficient in physical charm, as compared with the Parisienne, there is a characteristic freshness and joyousness about the New Zealand women. A modern writer has said that the men of our country are characterized by a certain complacency and also a perfect lack of originality in thought, while the women are the most capable in the world and while not beautiful, are universally
pleasant (or was it pleasing?) to look upon.
Since Rupert Brooke passed his youthful criticism after the fashion of Paris, we have advanced somewhat in matters of dress and are gradually emerging from semi-barbarism. In fact we even display a fleeting interest in clothes! Perhaps some day we may even be smart—although that seems rather too much to demand from the women in an isolated, half-civilised Pacific Island! I think the women of other countries imagine that we cultivate the soil while our husbands hunt the fugitive Moa. Could they be present at a fashion parade at one of our big emporiums they would be somewhat astonished.
Travellers from our own land all agree that English women are terribly in ignorance about the lives of their sisters out in “little New Zealand”—and are often quite frankly astounded at the cultivation and appearance of visitors to the Homeland.
Have we developed a racial characteristic? It is a difficult question to answer—but surely we cannot complain if we are becoming noted for a certain freshness and joyousness. One day we may even be beautiful! Then, oh women of England, Paris and America—you will have a dangerous rival!
Have you noticed that nearly all the Spring frocks this year are billowy fluffy affairs, with a little jacket or coatee to match? Even the masculine girl won't be able to resist the charm of these
This little frock can be made up from georgette. voile, ninon, or any one of the hundreds of species of crepes displayed everywhere.
Waistlines are to be high and frocks long. This does not apply to our sports rig-outs—but certainly to this type of dainty afternoon frock. Notice the three frills on the skirt and the little belt—also the short straight little coat. The edges of the frills look very dainty when picoted and a flower on the shoulder gives a smart finish. This frock may be worn with a large straw hat and also a light felt.
Herein, I think, lies the chief attraction of railway travel. The speed is so easy, and the train disturbs so little the scenes through which it takes us, that our heart becomes so full of the placidity and stillness of the country; and while the body is borne forward in the flying chain of carriages, the thoughts alight, as the humour moves them, at unfrequented stations; they make haste up the poplar alley that leads towards town; they are left behind with the signalman as, shading his eyes with his hand, he watches the long train sweep away into the golden distance.—From “The Pocket R.L.S.”
Toilers in the Garden-of-the-Gods, are most remarkable, even amongst that super-interesting insect group—Ants! These really wonderful creatures are existent in many countries and are quite unique indeed, in that they utilize certain individuals of their formicary for storage purposes—one might say as living honey jars. The strange part, too, is that their “nests” are formed, or excavated in sandstone ridges and occupy as much as thirty-six cubic feet of space honeycombing the rock in various directions. The debris is carried up by the workers and dumped outside and around the “gate” of the formicary which is vault shaped. From the dome of this are suspended hundreds of the living “honey-jars,” richly amber coloured globes with yellow trunks and legs showing beneath the distended abdomens, clinging to the roof, which has been left rough to enable a grip whereby to hang, and whence they relax only when death supervenes.
These are the workers and honey containers of the formicary and represent three forms, the “majors,” “minors,” and “dwarfs.”
Purely nocturnal workers, the only sign of ant life around and outside the nest during the day is the incessant, tireless military patrol of sentinels on guard duty. At nightfall the colony awakens to feverish activity. The “workers” emerge through the “gate” in yellow swarms, form into a long column, and set forth to their labours: all are normal —as we know ants—no globularly distended abdomens are in evidence.
Slowly the column—gathering speed as it progresses—winds away to the nearer timberland. There does not appear to be any recognised chief, though in front marches a “dwarf-worker” shewing the route. A small and stunted oak, covered with brown and greenish galls formed by a “gall fly,” is reached, the cavalcade swarms up the trunk and soon become distributed about the branches busily engaged in collecting and swallowing the almost transparent microscopic globules of sweet white moisture exuded by the galls. The dry and hard galls are passed, those that are “bleeding” receive attention. The reason of this is easily obvious, the galls that are dry are no longer inhabited by the grub of the fly that formed them, whereas, those that are soft and green still contain the grub and exude the trituration of the inhabiting larvae. Gradually the visitors’ abdomens become filled and distended, the “repletes” returning to the “nest.”
Work goes on during the period between midnight and the false dawn. As the “repletes” reach the west entrance they are challenged by the “guards” who also levy a toll of nectar before entrance is permitted.
The “honey-pots,” as they hang from the cave roof are ministered and attended to regularly by other workers whose duty it is to massage and cleanse them. Should one of these “honey-pots” die funeral obsequies are performed; the distended abdomen is severed from the trunk, and all the parts removed to the cemetery for internment. A noticeable feature of this being that the abdomen of the dead, often still replete with the precious nectar, is never in any manner violated.
It is the duty of every citizen to stand by and support their own Railways (says the New Zealander). Without them the country could not exist; they have made New Zealand, opened the country up, and have made it what it is. There are £60,000,000 involved. We should all work strenuously to make them successful and payable. It is every man's duty —and every man should faithfully do his duty.
A tremendously wide field is covered by the railway industry, and it really would be hard to name the most interesting task in the service. This, by the way, was the topic under discussion the other day in one of the big Home railway messrooms when the writer looked in during the lunch hour; and your correspondent could not help thinking what a fine subject for a little essay competition it would form: “What I consider the most interesting job in the railway service, and why.” For myself, I have always envied the signal engineer of his task, and in this connection one of Britain's leading signal experts, Mr. F. Raynar Wilson, has just told something of the joys and responsibilities of the signal engineer's job.
Speaking before the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, Mr. Wilson suggested a four years’ practical course of training for the prospective signal engineer. This would be divided between shop, field and office experience. In the shop training, there would be three months in the machine shop, two months in the turning shop, one month in the foundry, eight months in the fitting shop, and four months in the test room, a total of eighteen months. The field work recommended included two months with the heavy gang, two months with the mechanical fitters, four months with the wiremen, two months with the testing electricians, and two months on maintenance operations, making a total of twelve months. Eighteen months would be occupied in the office. For three months the pupil would be engaged on general tracing. Three months on interlocking charts would follow, and then six months on circuit design. For three months he would be concerned with signalling schemes and their development, and for three months on estimates. This, undoubtedly would form a very fine practical course of training for the would-be signal engineer already blessed with a good general education, some knowledge of electricity and mathematics, and—above all—a genuine desire to make good.
Whatever you build in concrete—be it home, path or government undertaking—use Milburn Portland Cement and support this great New Zealand industry that helps support you, as an integral part of the Railway Department, to the extent of over £30,000 annually.
There was quite a large attendance at the Balclutha railway garden recently, when a number of visitors from Dunedin, railway officials, and local residents, gathered to witness the presentation of the cup presented by the Gardening Circle of the Otago Women's Club, to the local railway station in recognition of their having the best-kept railway garden in the Otago district. The afternoon was beautifully fine and admirable for such a ceremony. The gardens looked splendid, and many complimentary remarks were heard on all sides (says a report in one of the Southern papers).
His Worship the Mayor (Mr. S. V. White) presided, and said they were gathered together to congratulate the Balclutha railway staff on winning the cup, and to welcome Lady Ferguson, president of the Otago Women's Club. He extended to her, the railway officials (Messrs. Sword and Benzoni) and the members of the Gardening Circle a hearty welcome. It was some years since the competition had been inaugurated, and they would agree with him that a great improvement had been effected at the various railway stations as a result. They were proud to know that Balclutha station had won the cup, and he congratulated the staff on their success. He also paid a tribute to the good work done in connection with the garden by Mr. W. Stewart, when stationed at Balclutha. The staff gave a good deal of their spare time to the garden, and it was gratifying to know that their efforts had been rewarded.
Lady Ferguson, who was greeted with applause, opened her remarks by saying, “Well done, Balclutha! You have a beautiful garden, and I am proud of it and pleased you won.” She then went on to describe how the competition was started. She said she had travelled up and down a good deal and used to be worried over the untidy grounds adjacent to the railway stations. She approached the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, when Minister of Railways, and put a proposition for the beautifying of the station gardens to him, and the competition was the result. It had been commenced five years ago, and the first to win the cup was Burnside. Then Wingatui had won it, followed by Fairlie two years in succession, and now, this year, Balclutha had won the trophy, and the garden would be hard to beat. She had much pleasure in asking Mr. Pope to accept the cup, which was to be held for a year and the miniature cup which was to be held for all time; also the monetary prize which went with it. (Applause.) They would agree with her that these beautiful gardens made travelling a pleasure and also provided for the people of the town a pleasant resort. She concluded by paying a tribute to the judges, and asked them to accept the warmest thanks of the club for their services.
Miss Martin, one of the judges, was the next speaker and she outlined the various things for which points were awarded. Balclutha garden had a lot of special features which had helped them considerably. This year the gardens had been judged twice, as it was considered a railway garden should have flowers all the year round. On the first visit Balclutha had secured 67 points and a similar number in the autumn judging, giving them a total of 134 points. Fairlie and Sawyer's Bay had each scored 132 points and were equal for second. She wished to congratulate Balclutha station on its garden and also to express her thanks to her co-judges.
In the course of his reply Mr. C. Pope, stationmaster, said he felt highly honoured at receiving the cup. The garden had been originally started by him twelve years ago and it was very gratifying to him to have the cup presented that day. He would like to thank publicly Messrs. R. R. Grigor, C. E. Naish, A. Wood and C. Wyber for donations of plants. His chief gardener, Mr. Edwards, and himself had practically attended to the garden this year, and at times had been assisted by other members of the staff. He might tell them it was more by good luck than good management that the present colour design was obtained, as they had worked in the dark at times, and did not know what colours their plants were. (Laughter.) He thanked the ladies for placing the garden first.
Mr. Benzoni, District Engineer, extended congratulations and paid a tribute to the work of the Women's Club, of which Lady Ferguson was the head. The Railway Department was under a debt of gratitude to the club, and particularly the Gardening Circle for what they had accomplished. The result was most pleasing. Not only had the Club donated the cup, but members devoted their time to judging the gardens. They also supplied plants to stations which applied for them. The district extended from Clinton to Fairlie, and the judges had to visit these stations twice a year, so that they would see that a lot of time was required. It was pleasing to have Lady Ferguson present to present the cup and for her to see the progress of the scheme inaugurated by her.
Mr. Sword, District Traffic Manager, also extended congratulations, and paid a tribute to the work of the Otago Women's Club. He could not say too much regarding the interest taken by these ladies in the railway garden scheme. He was sure Mr. Pope and his staff must feel proud that day.
On the call of His Worship, hearty votes of thanks were accorded Lady Ferguson, the judges, donors of plants, and the railway officials.
Thereafter, the visitors were entertained at afternoon tea by the railway ladies in the social hall, a very nice repast being provided. Before dispersing, Lady Ferguson expressed thanks to the ladies for their hospitality, and a hearty vote of thanks to them was carried by acclamation.
Mr. Gavin Wilson, who has had a long and distinguished career in the Mechanical Engineering Branch of the Railways Department, retired on superannuation a few weeks ago after completing forty years’ service. On the eve of his retirement he was met by a large gathering of officers and members of the Locomotive and Mechanical Branches at Wellington, and presented with a gold lever watch, suitably inscribed, as a token of the high esteem in which he was held by his fellow members in the Railway service.
On making the presentation, Mr. E. T. Spidy, in the course of his remarks, expressed regret that Mr. Wilson was severing his connection with the service in which he had served so long and so honourably. Mr. Wilson's experience, gained during a period of forty years, was invaluable to the Department, and his retirement was a distinct loss to the service. He hoped Mr. Wilson would live many years to enjoy his well-earned rest.
Other officers spoke in similar terms and paid a tribute to Mr. Wilson's devotion to the highest interests of the Department, to his ever ready assistance on all occasions and to his charming personality.
On rising to respond, Mr. Wilson was greeted with applause. He recalled many interesting incidents throughout the long period of his service with the Department and expressed regret that the gathering of his fellow officers on that occasion marked the termination of his official career. He made reference to his always pleasant relationship with members of the staff and felt that he was leaving the service with their genuine regard and good wishes. This would always be a precious memory. The gift which he accepted feelingly would be treasured as a reminder of his happy association with the Railways Department.
Mr. Wilson is the youngest son of the late Mr. W. Wilson, who was well known in Dunedin as the father of the engineering trade of Otago and who, during the gold-mining rush, about 1870, was the owner of the Otago Foundry which, at the time, was the largest engineering shop in New Zealand.
Mr. Wilson served his apprenticeship at locomotive fitting at the Hillside Railway Workshops and for some years after was employed on the Picton section. In 1900 he was appointed draftsman on the staff of the Locomotive Superintendent, Wellington, and subsequently became Technical Clerk to the Chief Mechanical Engineer. In 1918 he was appointed Assistant Locomotive Engineer and stationed at Petone. In 1920 he was sent to Great Britain as Inspecting Engineer, in charge of a large contract for locomotives and rolling stock. On his return to New Zealand in 1922, he was appointed Relieving Locomotive Engineer, being attached to the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office, and subsequently was designated Locomotive Engineer in charge of the South Island Railways. In 1926 he was transferred to Wellington, to take up special duties in the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office, where he had been stationed until his retirement.
The death occurred at Wellington on 5th October, 1930, at the age of 92 years, of Mr. C. A. Marcus, formerly Stationmaster at Timaru. Mr. Marcus came to Wellington from Queensland and obtained employment on the construction of the Hutt railway. On the opening, in April, 1874, of the line from Wellington to Lower Hutt, he was appointed Guard, and held that position till January, 1878, when he was appointed Stationmaster at Marton. In April of the same year he was transferred in a similar capacity to Halcombe, and in December, 1880, to Wanganui. He remained at Wanganui till May, 1896, when he was promoted to Timaru. He retired on superannuation on 17th October, 1904, and on his retirement took up his residence in Wellington.
The Belgian State Railways comprise about 3,100 miles of line, of the standard European gauge of 4ft 8 1/2in. Although Government property the Belgian Railways are administered by a company styled the Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges, which took control on September 1st, 1926.
The characteristic feature of the Belgian Railway undertaking is its great length in proportion to the area of the country. Including narrow-gauge railways, Belgium possesses 5,780 miles of track to an area of about 11,600 square miles, or .35 miles per square mile, a far higher ratio than that of any other country in the world. Owing to the density of the population—665 inhabitants to the square mile—the number of stations and halts is very large. On the State Railways there are 1,367 stations, or one station for every 2.15 miles of line. For the same reason, and because of the small area of land, hauls are very short and marshalling yards numerous. Station sidings total 3,000 miles—practically as high a figure as that of the running lines —illustrating this feature of Belgian railway operation.
The ancestry of the milling cutter as we know it to-day can be traced back to the rotary file. This file was invented by a French clock-maker during the eighteenth century. He called it a “fraise,” because of its strawberry-like surface, and, up to this day, the French still call a milling cutter a “fraise” (meaning strawberry). This artistic name compares favourably with the Englishman's first end mill, which he called “rose - bit,” the teeth of which resembled in shape a rose.
For nearly a century the milling cutter made but little headway—except for the fact that the teeth were wider spaced and cut more regularly. Nevertheless it was a great advance upon the old rotary file. The sharpening of the early cutters had to be done with a file, a process that involved softening and rehardening. At the best this was a tedious and costly procedure and far from satisfactory. With the advent of the machine cutter grinder, the milling cutter commenced to move more rapidly, and was then readily taken up by the clock makers, sewing machine, push bike, and rifle manufacturers.
With the introduction of high speed steel another change of design followed in the milling cutter. It was found that, although the teeth had been more widely spaced, the spacing was insufficient. With the faster speeds and heavier cuts made possible by using high speed steel, the teeth of the cutter became clogged with chips and thus the cutters were frequently fractured or broken. Coarser teeth with more backing were then tried. On fine cuts, however (owing to the first cutting tooth going out of action before the next tooth came into operation), these coarser teeth “hammered.” This was overcome by increasing the spiral of the cylindrical cutter from 10 deg. to 25 deg. thereby bringing the second tooth on to the work before the first tooth got clear of its cut.
The early motor-its possibly remember the noise caused by the hammering of their crown gears. This was due to a similar mechanical fault as occasioned by the hammering of the milling cutter. It was silenced by the introduction of spiral cut teeth, which are not only stronger, but quiet and more co-operative than the single acting snub tooth.
During the Great War the milling cutter came up for serious consideration by the production engineer.
The call of the Allies for more and still more munitions had to be answered, and a committee of Machine Tool Experts during 1915–16 experimented with various tools including the cylindrical, side and form milling cutters. After making various experiments and lengthy tests, it was found that the spiral of the cutter referred to could be advantageously increased, and was increased from 25 deg. to 35deg. A test of an 8in./41/2in. cylindrical cutter on a 2in. arbor gave the following results: .9 cubic inches of 35 ton tensile steel were removed per one h.p. per
With the object of determining the most satisfactory and economical means of removing the most metal per minute per horse power another noteworthy test was carried out on 35 ton tensile steel. It will be noted, by the following table, that the result of the test clearly demonstrates that the milling cutter is slightly more efficient on light than on heavy cuts, subject to the operator correctly balancing the feeds.
In tables A and B it will be seen with a cut .625ins. deep and a feed of 4ins. per minute, that more metal was removed than with a .750ins. depth cut and the same feed. This clearly shews that, to get the most out of a milling cutter, the milling specialist requires a thorough knowledge alike of the machine and cutting tools and materials with which he works. To acquire this knowledge takes time, and concentration, But it is time and concentration that makes the specialist who, in modern machine shop practice, is the most valuable labour asset in the field of modern production.