Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1887. RAILWAV MANAGEMENT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7720, 18 April 1887, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1887. RAILWAV MANAGEMENT.

Tiik question as to the best system ol

railway management is attracting attention quite as much at Home as in the colonies. At Home, however, there is

the difficulty that the railroads are not the property" of the State, and therefore the adoption of a system- which would be beneficial to the people at large could not well be enforced, especially if its eft'ect would be to deprive the railway companies of their profits. To overcome this difficulty it. has been proposed that the State sliould purchase the railways with the view of their being managed to the advantage of the community in the promotion of commerce and industries andol intercourse rather than with a regard solely to profitable returns, which, however." it is alleged would also be secured by a system of low rates. Mr Charles Waring has contributed two articles on the subject to the Fortnightly. In the second one, in the December number, ho points to Belgium as affording an example of tho beneficial results of the system he advocates. "Is it open to reasonable doubt," he asks, " that the commercial prosperity of Belgium has been owing, among other causes, to the low railway rates introduced by the State, and that this is the chief reason that the Belgian manufacturers have been able to compete successfully in markets which were formerly snpposed to be exclusively English ? Under State administration of the railways, in which the principle is pursued of applying the profits mainly in reduction of rates— the mostfruitful source to which profits can be turned — the commerce of Belgium has undergone an enormous expansion, amounting to a commercial revolution." Then follows a statement of what Belgium has done in the way of reductions since 1836. In that year the Slate railways carried 2,545,000 tons of goods ; in ISO4 they carried 5,251,000 tons. The increase of tonnage in eight years was 106 per cent., and the increase cf receipts 49 per cent. '-The public," says Mr Waring, " saved by the reduction in rates £800,000 in the cost of carriage, and the Treasury realised a profit, of £231,2-10, after paying expenses and interest on outlay. Since the commencement the Belgian Government have made a profit of £3,900,000. Theefi'ectof the State railways on the development of commerce is shown by a comparison of the gross receipts of the railways for 1870 with those of 1573. In the former year they amounted to £1,815,000, and in tlio latter they reached £4,850,000. A comparison of the rates charged in Belgium with those of England is very much against our own country, and still more unfavorable to Ireland." The system in the latter country is described as "poverty-stricken and inefficient; without spring, vitality, or power of self recovery and development ; rendered wasteful and obstructive by decentralisation and multiplcation of interests ; insufficient accommodation, and with no prospectthatprivateenterprtse will provide the necessary extentions and connections." A Board of Trade return quoted by MiWaring gives the number of railway companies iu Ireland in 18S5 as forty-seven, of which number thirty pay no dividend on ordinary shares, five pay les3 than 3 per cent., aud ninoteen do not pay dividend even on preference shares. To a considerable extent this undesirable state of things appears to be due to wasteful administration. There are, for instance, 303 directors, 97secretaries, engineers, and managers, and about6o auditors and solicitors engaged in the administration of railways, the mileage of which is not largely in excess of the English Great Western, which is managed by a board of sixteen directors, a general manager, and a secretary, "The worst feature of the Irish system," observes Mr Waring, "is the high tariff, which all the witnesses describe as restraining trade. The excepsive charges, coupled with the lowdividends, are prima faeie proof of dafective management. Whon English railway officials are asked for an explanation of the difference between English rates and Continental rates their invariable answer is that the Continental railways have cost about two-thirds less to construct ; but *so have the Irish railways. In round figures, the English lines cost about £40,000 per mile, the Irish lines about £15,000 per mile. Tho Irish charges ought therefore to .be on an equality with the Continental charges, and Irish commerce should have the benefit of cheap construction. Instead of that the Irish rates are not only higher than the Continental rates, but they are higher than the English rates — often 30 per cent., and sometimes 50 per cent, higher. The witnesses who havo been o^amined before the select committee 011 Irish railways all tell the same story from beginning to end— that the rates prevent the development of local industries, that existing industries are strangled, and that profits are devoured by transit charge-}. There is a constant reiteration of the same class of evidence, pointing to works closed, mills stopped, undertakings abandoned, and a decrease of native production, all of which is assigned, sometimes partially and .sometimes wholly, to tho railway system. It Is probable that agriculture, as the chief of Irish industries, sutlers most, but all existing industries are crushed, while no attempt 01111 bo made to establish any new industry. Enterprise can take no root in the country. Tho coal and mineral railway rates prohibit inland manufactures, One of the witnesses says that it costs more to get coal ten miles inland than to take it from Scotland to a seaport. The Belgian iron trade, which exists largely on imported iron ores, while its raw materials for that manufacture are rarely or never in juxtaposition, would collapse suddenly if it had to pay for mineral transport on the soale of tl}e" lrish railways. Ireland has been, and should continue to be, a famous stock-raising country, but graziers and dealers do not get aderjuato facilities from the railway companies. A v/Hnoss ;lja.ted. before the select eommitee that the' rates for the carriage of soap are so'liigh that it is the fn'aotiee to send the goods to England and lavo them ro-sljipijeil to Ireland, in order to get the benefit of tlio through Engljsh rates. It seems almost incredible, but that is the evidence. All efforts to revive tho woollen industry have been frustrated by the high rates. The growth of flax is decreasing for the same reason. The rail-, ways have killed the milling industry. The freight turns the scale against the home produce. A parcel which travels five hundred miles in England for sixpence costs one shilling for thirty miles in Ireland. . . . There is no passenger duty in Ireland, yet passengers do not profit by the exemption, The passenger fares are higher than in Gre/il Britain. The average fare for each passenger in England is BAd, in Scotland 10,fd, and in Ireland Js 3.fd. The pleasure trallie in Ireland is_ on an illiberal scale, and it is said that it is cheaper for Irishmen to vjsit England or Scotland than to go io tliolr own holiday- resorts." Mr Waring, who, like Mr Vaile of Auckland, advocates the principle of a single rate irrespective of distance, considers that it would be exceptionally feasible in Ireland because jit js a country of short distances, it being nowhere 'njpi-e than fifty miles to tho seaboard, and also because the greatest proportion of the traffic travels for a short distance only, Isi)t be holds that neither this nor any other beneficial alteration can be effected until the railways become the property of tho State. The financial part of the transaction Jje regards as a comparatively small matter, involving only a sum of about twenty millions. " TJfere would be," ho says in conclusion, "no claim for unearned increment, for it is abundantly clear that the Irish railways under jointstock management havo no prospective value. It would he far otherwise, however, jf they wero in the hands ot the Government; and jf and when the democracy once realise the valns pf (he

unearned increment of such a wealthcreating instrument as the railway system, which they may possess themselves of wishont violating any of the rights of property, they will soon find a statesman of a stature equal to the magnitude of the undertaking.