MORE INDIGNATION.

FRESH OUTBURST IN AUCKLAND. MINISTER'S STATEMENTS RESENTED. SOME ANOMALIES. [BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] AUCKLAND, This Day. A statement which has aroused a fresh outburst of Auckland indignation was made- by the Minister for Railways (Mr. Millar) yesterday regarding the North Auckland railway. In addressing the members of the Parnell Tunnel Deputation Committee, the Minister, referring to the expanding traffic over the Auckland section of the New Zealand Railways, said: — "I know you gentlemen anticipate an enormous increase from the N-orth Auckland Trunk line, but I tell you that I don't think it will ever pay a half per cent., and the further you go the worse it will become." Members of the Committee : Oh ! The Minister: You have only been working the best part of it that will bo run, for years. You have only been working as far as Helensville, thus getting tbe whole of the traffic, and in the extensions made you will find as we find, that it is quite unpayable. Mr. G. L. Peacocks (president of the Auckland Railways League) : I know there is poor country from Helensville to the present railhead, but there is good country beyond that, and I maintain the further you go the better you get. There is a population of 50,000 ip the north. The Minister : Yes, but you have to compete with water carriage. Mr. A. J. Entrican : I would like to ca.ll your attention to th& complaints of those in the north about freights on that line. A fruit-grower at Port Albert thought he 'would send a shipment of canned fruit from Wellsford to Auckland by vail. When he tame to enquire into freights ne found it was cheaper to carry his good to Helensville by boat and then rail them to Auckland. He found it cheaper still to send the fruit by boat to Lyttelton and' thence back to Auckland. The Minister : I know perfectly well that the railway cannot compete with sea carriage, and I say that if we can't carry goods at a profit they will have to go by sea. I am not going to Tun the railways at a loss if I can help it. Mr. Arthur M. Myers : But would it not be advisable to encourage industry and trade by cheaper freights? The Minister : The railway freights are already worked out to scale for that purpose. Mr. Entrican : It is rather an anomaly that tinned fruit can be brought from America at a cheaper rate than " it can, from the Kaipara. The Minister, in replying to a deputation later in the day, again referred to the subject. He remarked that at present every mile tho Kaipaxa line advanced the less payable it became. "It may get into better country later on," he remarked, "but I do not like the look of it at present."