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Those New Zealand Railways.

(By S. H. Bridgford.)

“Wait until you have to travel on our infernal New Zealand railways!”

This from the lips of my friend, a New Zealander returning home after a long and pleasant holiday in England, as we sat smoking and chatting on board the liner 'neath a tropical sun.

We were some six or seven days journey from our destination-the port of Auckland-and I had been complaining of the tediousness of the long sea-voyage from the Old Country.

It being my first trip to New Zealand, and knowing nothing about her railways' system, I ventured the remark: “Why! Are your railways SO infernal?”

“Too right!” he replied.

“Ah, well! I am only journeying by train as far as Wellington,” I said, consoling myself with the remark.

“Only-as-far-as Wellington,” he exclaimed, with emphasis and very slowly. Then a little peevishly, rapidly, a mischievous look in his eyes-“Do you know that it is only a fourteen hours journey from Auckland to Wellington by train?”

Fourteen hours!… Infernal Railways!

I shuddered.

Happily, however, the writer duly arrived at Wellington without experiencing much discomfort en route; he, certainly, encountering nothing approaching the infernal. To the contrary had he found, unexpectedly perhaps, travel by train in New Zealand comparatively comfortable and luxurious.

Oh disillusioned traveller!

Then why-oh why! had my New Zealand confrère referred so often to “those infernal railways?”

I wondered.

Had he ever travelled on the railroads of France, Spain, Italy, Russia, I thought. And in the sister colonies, Canada and Australia? Or through Africa?

I think not, else his own country's railways' system would not have so exasperated him.

Having perhaps (like very many more persons that I have since met in New Zealand), sojourned in but two countries-his own and England-my friend, I venture to think, he not having travelled more widely about the world, was not in a position to make fair comparison, or to conclude, with impunity, that New Zealand's railways were infernal. One cannot, with justice, compare any other railways' system in the world with that of the Old Country, for there is none to compare with it. It is unique and unrivalled in its excellence and should, perhaps, be thus unique and unrivalled, for, it must be remembered, that when railway construction was first conceived there, Nature did not present any great natural difficulties like to those which have since had to be surmounted in other parts of the Empire.

The cleverest engineers in the world could never plan the construction of a railways' system like to England's elsewhere than in England, for it is Nature that first says “No” to any such perfect proposition.

Before he again uses his “infernal” language let my New Zealand comrade travel by train a little further afield-across Canada from Vancouver to Quebec; from Adelaide to Brisbane; from Odessa unto Petrograd (or Leningrad as it is now called); from Cape Town to Beira; along the Italian slopes; through the vineyards of sunny France and beyond the Pyrenees unto the sun-kissed shores of southern Spain.

Then-I wonder-will he still use the expression “those infernal New Zealand railways.”

I think not. More than likely he will have discovered that his own country's “infernal” railways have many advantages to offer.

For instance, travelling by train in his own country, he is not asked to pay two dollars (eight shillings and fourpence) for a camouflaged table d'shôte luncheon, worth, at most, about two shillings; added to which, is the page 45 customary tip of fifty cents (two shillings and one penny) for the insistent waiter.

Never, perhaps, has the writer enjoyed a cheaper, better, or more perfect meal anywhere than at breakfast in the Station Restaurant at Marton Junction some few weeks back-a meal excellently and expeditiously served upon well-arranged tables, by busy, clean, polite waitresses of the New Zealand Railways' organisation.

And the cost-two shillings and sixpence, if I remember aright.

And-no tips.

A general complaint, one hears, is that the trains are “so slow.”

Where in the world-save in England-do they travel faster, i. e., generally speaking? Certainly, there are some faster locomotives on the Continent of Europe; throughout parts of the United States of America and in one or two of our colonies. But not many. To travel the earth extensively, is to encounter very much slower, cumbersome and inconvenient systems of railroad travel than that enjoyed by the New Zealanders of to-day.

Moreover, by the way, is it not rather in the nature of a blessing in disguise to have to travel not too swiftly in your country, so beautiful is the countryside undulating from the eye towards your lovely “hills of sheep,” as Robert Louis Stevenson termed them; and there being so much of interest to the Nature-lover that might regretfully be missed if journeying at a faster rate.

You have well-ventilated, clean and comfortably cushioned and seated carriages. There are many convenient stopping stations en route during long travel where one can obtain a really good cup of tea and wholesome refreshment at moderate prices; and, believe me, a good cup of tea is a “bonne bouche” not to be got for love or money whilst train-travelling in many parts of the world.

And where, may one question, are the superiors of your officials, guards, and railway employees? Politeness everywhere; attention and duty everywhere. Men and women working diligently and quietly for the better comfort of the traveller. Men and women who give one the impression that not only do they work for the reward of pounds, shillings and pence; but also for the sheer joy that work alone can give, and because they are proud of the organisation to which they belong.

Infernal New Zealand Railways-forsooth!

The writers has indeed travelled upon “infernal” railways-many, very many times.

But-they are not in New Zealand.