The splendid arrangements for dealing with goods traffic at Wellington, since the new goods shed was opened, made a marked impression on the business men who inspected the shed at the invitation of the General Manager, Mr. H. H. Sterling, on 5th October. More business for the Railways should result.

An official inspection of the Wellington new goods shed operations and facilities was made on the 5th October by representatives of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. In a speech of welcome the General Manager of Railways, Mr. H. H. Sterling, expressed his pleasure that representatives of commerce and industry in the Capital City were with them for the purpose of inspecting the handling of goods and the new facilities which the Railways were now able to offer business people for the despatch of their goods.

He said that the matter of erecting a new central goods shed at Wellington had been on the cards for a great number of years. There had, however, been peculiar historical circumstances attaching to the terminal in that, until early in the present century, there had been two different railway organisations operating Wellington goods traffic, namely, the Government and the Manawatu Railways. When the Manawatu Railway was taken over by the Government the facilities of the two stations were incorporated, but the arrangement was not exactly satisfactory, as two sheds, some distance apart, had to be worked for the same city, and the position had become worse, because, with the growth of business, the facilities had been outgrown. Delay in providing a suitable central goods shed had been further occasioned by the land limitations which made action in this direction not possible until further reclamation of the harbour could be carried out, and this reclamation was a matter of some magnitude. However, the reclamation had been put in hand and had reached a stage where the Department was able to make a comprehensive rearrangement of the yard and shed accommodation, such as they now saw.