NZ Parliamentary Debates - Matamau Station, 1900

Ormondville Rail Preservation Group Inc.

A debate in the House of Representatives, Wellington, on 29 August 1900...

Matamau Railway-Station

New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 113, 1900, pp. 318-9. Additional notes in "[]"

Mr HALL [the local Waipawa electorate MP] asked the Minister of Railways [the soon-to-be-knighted Joseph Ward], Whether he will cause the express train to stop at Matamau Railway-station, to pick up and set down passengers when required? This is a local question, and yet it might be a more national question than it would appear. The Township of Matamau was situated between Woodville and Napier. The population there was increasing, and there was a considerable export of timber. These people were labouring under a very great disadvantage in consequence of having to travel several miles in order to get on the express train.

In answer to a question by the leader of the Opposition, the Minister of Railways had said he was prepared to run faster trains. He (Mr Hall) was a country member, and was asking the question in the interests of the people who had lived there for many years, and had been paying a considerable amount of taxation for the railways when they did not pay; and in support of his argument he would say that it had been ascertained that the people who lived over fifty miles from any centre were paying something like 50 percent of the passenger returns of the railways.

He [Hall] asked, therefore, if the Minister could not see his way to allow these long-suffering people to get on the train at this place instead of having to travel eight miles, and pay a considerable amount for the stabling of their horses till they returned from their train journey. It was a question that affected the country settlers very much. The railways were built for the settlers, and he hoped the Minister would give an answer in the affirmative; and he would say, further, that if he looked into the question of the stoppages of trains he would find that there were less important places than Matamau which had the benefit of the express trains.

Mr WARD (Minister of Railways) said it would afford him a great deal of pleasure to be able to give an answer in the affirmative. The difficulty was that the express trains had to run a very great distance between Wellington and Napier, and it was of importance to the travelling public that they should be able to go these long journeys in as short a time as possible. If the number of stoppages is increased they must extend the time for the running of the train. There was no other way to do it. It was a first essential to run the trains safely, and if they were to attempt to run them beyond a safe speed, and an accident were to occur, no-one would regret it more than the honourable gentleman.

There were many places besides this where the settlers desired to have the benefit of the express trains - and, if possible, ought to have it - but if it were put into practice there would be trouble. He [Ward] was anxious to give the settlers the benefit of express trains where possible, but where trains were running long distances, and were timed to arrive at a reasonable hour, there was a difficulty. In the interests of safety, they could not run faster or increase the stoppages until the Westinghouse brake was fitted [in response to a major passenger train collision in 1899]; when this was done it would expedite the service to some extent. He would like to be able to meet the honourable gentleman's request, but there were these difficulties in the way of doing so, as to stop at all the places that wanted it would mean to abolish the express trains altogether.

Mr HALL would point out that if the honourable gentleman looked at the time-table he would find that the train stopped at far less important places. He was quite satisfied, if the Minister asked the department to give him a return for those places, he would find the through traffic from some of the minor stations was not so much as from this station. Moreover, he (the Minister) had stated himself that there was only an average of three passengers between Napier and Wellington. Was it fair that the country settlers, who owned the railway, should be left out in the cold for the sake of giving a fast train to these three passengers?

Mr WARD said he would be very glad to make inquires into the matter. But it was not a question of how many passengers went by the express. The real answer to that was that express trains were necessary for the conveyance of mails and passengers, connecting the larger centres with the steamers, etc, and it would be a retrograde step in the colony if they were to stop the system of having comparatively fast trains for the conveyance of passengers. The whole difficulty was the additional stoppages of these trains at small places, and it was impossible to stop them at all these places.

[And so Ward extracted himself from the request and Matamau Station's would-be express patrons continued catching their expresses at Dannevirke - or perhaps Makotuku or Ormondville.]