Untitled

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3794, 12 September 1883, Page 2

Another example of how rod-tape interferes with tho business management of our railways lias been brought to owt notice, Tho Olive ltoad Board has boon wanting a supply of 2000 yards of road metal for tho Famdon-Pjikowhai road, and applied to the railway authorities for the terms under which the metal could be delivered at tho Hiding convenient to the road. Tho reply was that the metal could be supplied at tariff rates, namely Is per ton loading, Is Gd haulage, and In unloading , , making 3s Gd per ton, or a total of .£ll f>o. Tho metal was to have been brought from tho beach, into which there is a siding. Of course thp lload Board could not afford such an ex* „ pendituro, and tho works has boon let to carters at 1 s 7d pur yard, a saving being effected of £192. It is a pretty sort of railway management that cannot eompoto .Tg.lm.Ht, a lior.se ami cart. But that is tho fault of a Government railway. The tariff in proclaimed in the Gazette, and not a margin is allowed, for tho discretion of local managers. Redtapo reigns supreme, and so railways pay poor dividends instead of making rich Mr Button, chairman of tho Clivo Iloacl Board, has called the atention of tho Minister for Public Works to this folly.