Railway Refreshments.

Every traveller is, I think, struck with the excellent fare provided by the railway refreshment branches in Canada and America, and there again a perfected service has been called for by reason of the length of the journeys. The food is not superior to that secured on the New Zealand Railways, but the American travelling public has long been accustomed to a very wide variety of diet, and railroad companies have had to maintain that standard. It is extremely doubtful whether “a la carte” service would, in New Zealand, be preferred to the present method, especially as charges would necessarily have to be considerably increased. In passing, I may say that one course costs as much as the whole menu in a New Zealand Railway refreshment room.