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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 9 (January 1, 1928)

Valuable Freight

Valuable Freight.

But when it comes to ordinary goods, what a vast variety is handled by the railway staff, and carried on the railways' wagons! From the bottle of medicine that may mean the saving of a human life, to a train-load of coal to page 12 keep the home fires burning in a whole town, the railway accepts the lot and asks for more. It has wagons to suit every kind of goods, and special instructions to the staff covering their safe conveyance.

Even railway-men seldom realise the value of the freight they carry. A train load of butter (say 400 tons) is worth £70,000, and a train load of meat over £20,000.

One thing about the railway that makes its use of value to everyone, at times, is the fact that its service is always available. Merchants receiving orders from their country clients know that the railway can take delivery, no matter what the commodity. At small country stations, of course, it is often necessary to order trucks beforehand; but at the main stations, where large shed space is available and supplies of wagons are accumulated, the railway can, and does, accept all manner and sizes of consignments, so freighters are able to clear their floors as they go, and the railway takes over the delivery and sees it to its destination.

For the Coming Sheep Season. Kitty sheep wagons of the above type are being constructed (and fifty re-constructed) at Newmarket workshops at the rate of 1½ wagons per day.

For the Coming Sheep Season.
Kitty sheep wagons of the above type are being constructed (and fifty re-constructed) at Newmarket workshops at the rate of 1½ wagons per day.

It is interesting to note the average distance that goods are carried in New Zealand. Fruit averages the longest haul, the figure being 165 miles. Fish comes next, the average for this being 157 miles. There is a wealth of meaning in these figures; for they show how highly our people prize the best health food (fruit), and the best light diet food (fish) by the distance over which they are prepared to order their freightage. New Zealand brown coal, as produced by the: Huntly and Wairio district mines, comes text, the average distance it is hauled being 120 miles; the significance of this figure is that it shows how large a part coal still plays in the operation of industries, and the assistance the railways lend to manufacturers by providing low freights which enable secondary industries to be carried on at considerable distances from the mines. After brown coal comes New Zealand timber and cement, the average haul of the latter being 100 miles.