CHEAPNESS AND TONE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 9

CHEAPNESS AND TONE.

SHOULD EXCLUSION FARES BE RAISED ? PROSPERITY OF TOURIST TOWN'S. "Present excursion fares are too low altogether; and, if con"tinued often at tb* present rate, will cheapen the town and bring cheap people. Certainly that id not desired." The above 8? a portion of the reply reported to have been given by Mr. £. H. Hiley, General Manager of Railways, to a Hotorua deputation which waited upon him on Thursday to aek amongst otlier things that the present experimental excursions should be given a further trial of six monttis. Jn the course of the interview it w«e represented that in New South Walee during the summer numerous excursions arc provided, and if the same were given to Hew Zealand, Auckland, on a population basis, would have seventeen excursions a fortnight instead of only one, un at present. In the course of a conversation with i a " Star" representative this morning, Mr. H. 'E. Vaiie, son of the late Mr. Samuel Vaile, who for many years advocated the cheapening of travelling facilities by the adoption of a system t>/ which the rate would gradually diininisii according to the distance travelled, pointed out that the principle his father sought to establish in the Dominion had i-never been taken up and given a fair trial, 'although it was. working with great success in Continental countries. He thought that Uio statement attributed to Mr. Hiley that the extension of excursions would cheapen Roiorua waa absurd. Rotorua was a tourist rcsr.rt, and as such waa open to anybody who cared to go there, irrespective of the amount that was paid to reach the town. Any extension of the traffic to the popular tourist place, he thought, was hound to extend Its prosperity. OIOTEti WORKER'S VIEW. 31r. H. E. Barnsley. assistant secretary of the Hotel Employees' Union, who has followed his calling in Rotorua, strongly expressed the opinion that the extension of excursions would make for the prosperity of the town and for the employment of a greater number of hotel workers. He pointed out that hitherto it has been the practice to charge single rate 3 for the return trip to Auckland from Tlotoma. and yet a similar inducement .wae'noi desire to Igo to Rotorua from Auckland. " Undoubtedly the ' cheap ' people are a very valuable asset to the town," continued- Mr. Bftrnsley.: ■': They arc put. up in the boarding-houses, and if gre.at.er facilities were ffiven them for reaching the place they would help to fill the houses which are more or less empty in ■the winter. The cheap people, presumably those from Auckland, are the very people who go and spend their, holiday* in the place. If the cost of getting therj were less, the number of the*c people would be greatly increased. My experience during the short time I was employed in Jtotorua was that it was tie cheap people who spent tljpir money in the town. They are the people who hire a buggy and go round and see the town, buying souvenirs and spending their money in the annual holiday fashion. The aristocracy of the Kotorua visitors, the globe-trotters and tourists, bonk through a tourist agency, spenA a few days at a leading hotel, and then go off into the district to shoot or to see moro sight*. T would sooner see Rotorua fiMpd with working-class people from Auckland than by tlifi other class of visitors." concluded Mr. Barnsley. XOT 'AMiPSTEAD 'EATHERS. "I should like to se n not only an extension of present excursion facilities, but the introduction of the zone system advocated by the late Mr. Vaiie," declared Mr. Arthur Rosser. secretary of several local unions. " Seeing that at present many of the trains arc running half empty, it would be far better for the Department if they cheapened the fares and got the multitude to travel. There would be little extra on the haulage charges and the labour would t>c the same. Aβ regards Mr. Hiley's contention that the lessening of the fares would bring '"cheap * pcop.le the town, I don't know what he means by that expression, but I always understood that the more .people .came into ..a. place the better it was Tor this commercial community. Mr. Hiley preaches a new- doctrine. H e evidently has been converted to it by the ijfact that in 1913 the Department ram special trains to bring the people to Auckland from the country for nothing, which may have been phenomenally successful excursions from one point of view but not from Labour's standpoint. Mr. Miley seems to be afraid that the Auckland people would lower the tone of that township. Perhaps he is going on hie own experience in the Old Country, wher e the costermongere and cheap trippers rush to Hampstead Heath and the seaside resorts. But even so it has to be remembered that it is the rush of trippers that have made such places as Margate, Yarmouth, Blackpool and other seaside resorts. In another direction Mr. iHiley has endeavoured to make the railways highly respectable by increasing the price of tho timetable from a penny to threepence, thereby ensuring a smaller circulation for the advertisers. The million price ie the principle that pays, and it would benefit not only the railways, tmt the accommodation people at the various tourist resorts. By cheaper facilities Rotorua could he made available in ■ the winter time when the tourist season is ended. If the system of cheap excursions pave the private 1 companies in England, surely it should Ibe worth while to the Sbate-owned raili ways of New Zealand, which exist not Ito make a profit, but to open up the country."