RAILWAY REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 213, 8 September 1891, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The study of Government; time-fcable for the New Zealand railways, relative to j season tickets, reveals a state of aflairs that deserves attention in the present eliorts to bring about a drastic refertu ia the prices charged for passenger and goods traffic on our "railway lines. A 12 months season ticket for 20 miles can bo obtained ior farstcluss travelling, £20 10s ; second-class, £15. This means a 40 mile trip daily,' and if we suppose a man in business making uao of his season ticket lor 300 days iv the year he would travel 12,000 miles or 500 40-mile stages at .a cost Is 4d lpt class, and Is 2nd class for the 40 miles. The usual rate for J3t and 2nd class return for this distance is 5s 7d and os 9cl. respectively. In other words, a gentleman living '20 miles from town who can ailord to ua,y ior a 12 months season ticket in advance travels 40 .Biles at about four times less cost than his next - door neighbour, a hard-working settler who is not able to pay for a season ticket or dees not require to go to town more than once a week. Now, 1 think there is a considerable screw louse here. The facb that A travels every day 40 miles, and B once a week or onco a month, certainly does not give the ri'ihfc to A to travel at so much less cost, even if his ticket does come to more in the course of the year than the amount paid to the revenue lor railway traiiic by B. Allowing that a cash payment in advance should receive some slight concession, it is, as it stands, evidently far too wide a margin for l> to pay four times as much as A for travelling the same diatanco. This disproportion points to two indisputable fact?, ih?.t should rouse public attention, and perhaps public indignation to its highest pitch, i'ur either the price paid by A ior travelling 4C mile?, viz., Is 4d or l>, is i\. lair one, ;.t)d a payablo one to the colony, and therefore Mr Vaiie'a con toni.iun thai; a f/ysteui from Auckland r> To Arolj't, ilf) milw, ior 2o Svl, is absolutely cori'ticc, or that on the other hand t'io payment inado by A is too low, and the wealthy season ticket-hokler is allowed to travel at a low rate, and his hard-worked neighbour who pays four times as much for his) ticket is really helping to pay for the loss sustained by the .Railway Commissioners in letting tha -'eason ticket-holder off too cheaply. V/hichisit? If Is for 40 miles pays, by all means-, and in the name of common justice and honesty, let everyone travel at the same rate, whether ho only travels onco in the course of the year or three hundred tiriie-J; and not, us it now appears, a class system, instituted on the principle that to him that lias much, mncli, very much cocicessiou shall be given. An analysis of summary of passengers carried on the Auckland section undet different stages, for the twelve months ended 31st JMarch, 1836, from statement of Air A. C. Fife, Government Accountant, gives : — Gross total of passengers for twelve months, 424,914 ; revenue, £39,909 17s 2d ; or Is 10id per passenger for twelve months for all the Auckland section of the New Zealand railways. YVhsn it is remembered that the fare to Onehunga is Is 6d first class and Is 2d second-class, or a mean of Is 4d for a stage of 8 miles, and the scago according to Mr Fife not exceeding 10 miles carries 292, JX , 9 passengers, or more than two-thirds of the total number of passengers carried for the j'ear, it shows a. possibility of a stage system being constructed that shall make the long distances pay a very small amount to make up the diiierenc-3 between a mean of Is 4d for an 0 mile stage and Is lOid for the total average return o£ every passenger on the Auckland section of the New Zealand railways. Over 50 miles contributes £14,665 13s Id for 24,762 passengers, against £9,596 Iss 9d contributed by 292,949 passengers for a ten-mile stage, or about lis iOcl per head. When we remember that Whangamarino is about 50 miles, a short distance beyond Mercer, it would be interesting to know how much is contributed tor 100 miles, say to JMorrinsville, and what is the number of passengers beyond that distance to To Aroha, Oxford, etc. I don't think it will average ten passongors'a day all the year round. However, to return to the main point that in 1886 the Auckland section carried 424,914 passengers at Is lOtd per head, and that the return tickets to Onehunga and back give a, mean cost of Is 4cl per head, there is evidently more in Mr Vaile's contention that passengers could travel to, say, Te Aroha for 2s Bd, than his opponents can prove it fallacious, and the" indisputable fact stills remains, according to Mr Fife's own estimates, that it does not require two passengers to travel on the- Auckland railways at Mr Vaile's staga system of fares to give the same returns as at present received for twelve months on our railways, which last year was £35.000, instead of nearly £40,000 in 1886.—1 am, etc., P. E. Ciieal.