THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1890.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6766, 23 May 1890, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1890.

Tee newspapers of the oolony teem with complaints as to the Inoapaolty of the Bailway Commissioners to grasp the financial side of the question. It Is notorious that in the early days of the New Zealand Exhibition their incompotency to realise the potenoy of oheap fares in fttinvulftUng paueoget trafflo lost them a golden stream that could not be recovered. On this branch of the subject the Otago Daily Times has been commenting in a keen and business like way, though it must be an utter waste of time and thought to think of changing the con* victions of the " three gentlemen in one " (like Cerberus) who mlsoonduot railway matters. Maxwell seems to have the traditional tone and style of European railway management and delibeiately closes hh eyes to the free and springy style In which the American railways are managed to make the people in love with a system under which they can occasionally obtain cheap and swift transit. For instance, our contemporary says that ordinary business men cannot understand why return tickets are not issued as on nearly every other railway line, nor why the fare for a single journey is invariably the product of the distance in miles by the fare for the^rst mile. Settlers complain with reason that they are unduly handicapped by distance, and that the lines do not fulfil. their boasted, function of lessening it. This Is just the point on which Mr Vaile has scored so heavily against the railway department. Taking the traffic table of the railway acoonntant at Auckland, Mr Vaile analyses It, and here follow the figures extracted from the authorised statement: — During one year there travelled on that section 424,819 persons, who paid a gross amount of L 39.909. Of these 292.949 travelled 10 miles and under, formed 68-8 per cent, of the travellers, and paid 24 per cent, of the revenue. Travellers of distances between 10 miles' and 50 miles constituted 25-2 per cent, of the whole, and contributed 39-2 par cent of the revenue. These who travelled over 50 mll«3 constituted only 5-8 of the whole'number of travellers and contributed 36-7 percent of the revenue, From this it will be .seen that persons who travelled the shortest distances contributed rather less than an average of 8d each ; those who travelled the middle distance a little more than 2s each ; and those who travelled the greatest distance more than 11s each. Of course those who travelled the greatest distance got moßt for their money, but this fact remains : they were the best customers, and are consequently, according to every commercial maxim, entitled to the most consideration. Still the rat* per mile Is the same to Milton from Dunedin ai" toChrlstehurch. The rat as for goods follow like rules. No inducements are held out to settlement. The farther a settler goes back the greater becomes his burden, and the greater his difficulty in reaching the centres of trade. On another matter cf Importance to the country, Mrßltcble, Presldentof theOhamber of Commerce, writes to the Commissioners asking them, in the Interests of the farmers In Otago, to reduce the charge for the conveyance of lime, on these grounds: there is a great deal of land that requires lime, and that could and would be profitably cultivated if oheap lime could be put upon it ; but 'at present haulage rates this cannot be done. If a sufficient reduction were ' made Mr Bltbhie argues that the carriage of the Increased produce to be conveyed if farmers were enabled to cultivate the land now lying Idle would amply compensate the railway for the reduction in rates, besides bene6tlng the colony at large. It is in points like these that the Commissioners are deficient.