two hundred and eighty-five rods westerly of the geographical center of said village. The present location is the nearest point on the whole line of the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad to the Corner village, which is two and one half miles westerly from said station and wholly off of this line of 'railroad.

The petitioners desire the station moved easterly to the Centre village, thereby reducing the distance they are now required to travel to reach it, although by such removal the distance from the Corner village to the station would be increased to nearly three and one half miles. In all the petitions, remonstrances, withdrawals from petitions, and testimony offered at the hearing, it was not suggested that two stations are needed. On the contrary, all the business transacted at the present station is so inconsiderable that a request for two stations within one mile of each other could not be seriously urged.

About four years ago this controversy between the villages about the location of the station was quite active, and for the information of the parties engaged in it an accurate record was kept of the number of passengers using the station during a year of ordinary business. Including all excursionists, the number was found to be ninety-one passengers per month, an average of three and one half passengers per day. The same record showed, and it is a fact not controverted, that nine tenths of all the passenger business of the station is best accommodated by the present location. It was further in evidence that all the income from this branch of the business of the road done at this station is less than the expense of maintaining the station. The freight business done at the station is on the same small scale, excepting the business of one party who manufactures lumber at some distance from the village, and to whose mill the railroad company has laid a track over which his freight is sent and received. The village of Conway Centre consists of a few dwellinghouses, two stores, hotel, post-office, and a town-hall erected many years ago. It was not in evidence that there had been any marked increase in its business or population since the railroad was opened, nor was there evidence from which it could be found that a change in the location of the station would stimulate the growth of the village. All the testimony at the hearing bearing upon the question of the number of buildings and the population of the Centre village came from two witnesses, both petitioners, who testified under oath. The first witness, a merchant, stated the number of inhabitants to be about seventy-five; the other witness stated that the number of buildings was forty and the number of inhabitants was two hundred.

To accommodate such business as comes to the railroad from the

Centre village, a side track has been put in and a platform erected as nearly as possible at the center of the village. All car-load lots of freight for or from the Centre village are received and sent from here, and passenger trains take and leave passengers at said platform.

The business of Conway Corner village is very much larger than that of Conway Centre, and is growing. Its freight traffic is done by the Boston & Maine Railroad, and the business relations of the place are naturally and largely with Portland. The direct passenger route from the Corner village to Portland is by the Portland & Ogdensburg road, and therefore the business portion of that village insist that the station shall remain where it is.

At the hearing, a remonstrance signed by people representing large interests in the town of Conway was presented, and their cause advocated by counsel. The town of Conway voted and paid a sum equal to 5 per cent of its valuation toward the construction of the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad, and of this sum it is claimed that the property of the Corner village paid an amount many times larger than that paid by the property of the Centre village, and that, therefore, the demand of the business interests of Conway Corner that the station remain where it now stands is entitled to paramount consideration.

The remonstrance sets forth, and the testimony substantiated the statement, that the present location of the station was decided upon by the railroad company at the time its line was opened after a long and exhaustive hearing of all parties. It appeared at the hearing that it was placed where it now stands with the sole purpose of best accommodating the business likely to come to it, and not for the accommodation of one or two individuals, notwithstanding such rumor had obtained currency in the neighborhood occasionally in the long period of time during which this controversy has thrived. No change of circumstances was shown against the present location.

In reaching its conclusion the Board is not unmindful of the theory that placing this station squarely in the center of the Centre village will cause the village to advance vigorously in population and wealth. But we are not able to understand how any village of the size of this one can suffer seriously from the lack of railroad facilities on account of its station, which is situated within less than one mile of its center, while it has at its very door a siding upon which its car-load lots of freight are loaded, and where such loads are left within a few rods of the point of their final distribution, and whose people can get upon the passenger trains in a three minutes' walk from the center of the village; nor are we at liberty to infer, since more than

fourteen years' enjoyment of railroad facilities has made no extensive alteration in the growth of the village, that the change of this station would bring about such an era of prosperity to this village as to justify moving the station still further away from nine tenths of its patrons.

By the Board,

E. B. S. SANBORN, Clerk.

The undersigned cannot agree with the views of the majority of the Board, and he considers it an act of justice due to the petitioners, numbering upwards of two hundred voters in the town, to put on record the reasons for his dissent.

The case for the petitioners was this: Conway Centre is a village of forty houses and two hundred inhabitants or more, with hotel, post-office, town-house, two general merchandise stores, and a third in the course of erection. The Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad runs along the north side of the village, within twenty rods of the main street. The nearest station is located 285 rods, nearly one mile, north of the village, and has been so located since the opening of the road in 1873. At the time of the location of the station where it now is, it was a point of some traffic, having a store and some of the town offices. The store has been abandoned and there are now only scattered farm-houses in the vicinity.

There is a platform at Conway Centre, where accommodation trains stop when flagged, and where passengers without baggage are left by such trains when requested. There is also a siding for bulk freight. No tickets are sold and no baggage is checked at the platform. No mails are distributed or received there. Every business man of Centre Conway, including one gentleman who pays the road as he testified, from six to seven thousand dollars annually, appeared as a witness and asked for the change in the location, alleging the annoyance to himself and to the traveling public of the present ill arrangement, and expressing a belief that the removal of the station to the village would stimulate its growth and add to the business of the railroad. A manufacturer who owns the water-power of Centre Conway, which is only yet partially improved, testified that "some parties object to locate on account of the distance of the station.” One of the merchants testified that he paid the road about $300 annually for freight, and if the station should be located in the village he should pay the road as much more on freight that now went by another route.

The case for the remonstrants was this: The station was located where it now is by understanding with two influential citizens, now dead, who resided in the vicinity, and materially aided the construction of the road. By its location at this point the business and citizens of Conway Corner, 21⁄2 miles distant, are better accommodated. By the removal of the station to Conway Centre they would be obliged to travel nearly one mile farther. Four years ago a record kept by the station-agent showed nine tenths of the passenger traffic to originate west of the station, and to be better accommodated by the station where it is than it would be by removal to Conway Centre. The railroad corporation is financially embarrassed, and does not wish to make any other outlay than that which necessity compels.

The case on its merits is this: Here is a village of "fifty houses and rising three hundred population," according to the chairman of the board of selectmen, the geographical center of a large and famous town, known throughout the country as a summer resort, which has to resort to a railroad station thrust nearly a mile away, whereby its growth is impeded, its business hampered, and its citizens universally inconvenienced. They have endured this for thirteen years to their own loss and the loss of the road, as the testimony shows. The conditions which mainly influenced the present location at the construction of the road are all broken by the death of the parties and the decay of the business about the station. The only substantial reason remaining why the station should not be located at Conway Centre is the saving of ten minutes' farther travel to the inhabitants of Conway Corner, who are located on the Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway Railroad; who have all the advantages of a station at their own door; who do nine tenths of their business by their own road; who would be subjected to only a trifling ride farther when desiring to take a train on the Portland & Ogdensburg, and who have prospered by the convenience which a railroad station gives to a village where it is immediately accessible.

The fact that one half the voters of Conway Corner are among the petitioners and expressly recognize "the inconvenience to the whole business of the village of Conway Centre, and to the traveling public who have occasion to stop at that village," while not a remonstrant appeared from Conway Centre, and only sixty-five remonstrants altogether, sufficiently reflects the equitable aspects of the As it appeared from the testimony of the station-agent that the road would not suffer a dollar in its business by the removal, and that the ratio of passenger traffic has largely changed since four years ago in favor of Conway Centre, while from other testimony it appeared equally certain that the road would immediately gain

case.

hundreds and ultimately thousands of dollars by the change, which can be done at an expense of a few hundred dollars at the most, I believe that the corporation should grant the prayer of the petitioners, or erect a station for their use in accordance with section 1, chapter 161, of the General Laws of New Hampshire: "Railroads having for their principal object the public accommodation, the proprietors thereof shall be bound to provide crossings, stations, and other facilities for the public." The village of Conway Centre has no station. Under the statute, in its own interest and in the interest of the road, the village should have a station.

O. C. MOORE, Chairman.

V.

OMISSION OF WHISTLING AT CROSSINGS IN NASHUA.

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IN BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS,

CONCORD, July 12, 1886.

The petition of citizens of Nashua asking for omission of locomotive whistling in said city was heard, and the following is the finding of the Board, viz. :

This is a petition for the omission of the whistling warning at all crossings in the compact part of the city of Nashua, on the Worcester, Nashua & Portland division of the Boston & Maine Railroad. A hearing on said petition was held at the common council room in said city, on the 28th of June, at which several parties appeared on behalf of the petition, and none against it. On this line of road in the compact part of the city of Nashua there are seventeen crossings at grade, five of which are protected by flagmen and one by gates. Were the whistle required at each crossing by night and by day, the disturbance to the public, especially to the sick, would be great if not intolerable, but on the 21st of November, 1885, the Board made an order authorizing the omission of the whistle except on trains leaving each of the two stations and on entering the city at the first crossing. This greatly reduces the disturbance to the community, but according to the petitioners it is not sufficient. The Board sees no objection to omitting the whistle where flagmen are