MANAWATU RAILWAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8829, 22 March 1909, Page 2

MANAWATU RAILWAY.

/DEPUTATIONS TO THE MINISTER.

deveral requests connected with the running of that portion of the Government railways known as the Manawatu line were put before the Minister (Hon J. A. Millar) by a series of deputations on Friday afternoon. The deputations were introduced by Mr W. H. Field, M P., who said that they represented the Horowhenua, Hutfc. and Makara County Councils, Levin Borough, Otaki Road Board, and the boroughs of Johnsonville and Onslow. They had heard from the Minister that he was willing to consider how he could assist them in the matter of rates, and it was decided* to put the matter before him in further detail. The Government of the day which gave a vast area of land did not protect the local bodies in the matter of rates or of the roads which the company constructed. The chief point was that the local bodies had not received inything like the amount of rates which they would have received had the lands been Crown lands. The local bodies had also had to raise a number of special loans, but if the Government said it recognised no liability in regard to the land it took over from the company; they would be placed in a very disadvantageous position. The ex-Minister of Railways (Hon W. Hall-Jones) had already led them to believe that the Government . would deal fairly with the local bodies. . It was pointed out by the deputation that the .local bodies suffered a serious loss by the Government taking over the lands of the company unless the Government, for a time, at any rate, paid rates the same as the company. Mr HallJones had, in regard to the general rates, suggested that the Government should go in for a tapering-off policy, extending over ten years. If the Government of the day had sold the land instead of handing -it over to a private company the local bodies would have received a very much larger sum by way of "thirds," and would, therefore, not have had to go to the Government for loans under the Loans to Local Bodies Act. The representative of the Hutt County Council stated that that body was losing £250 a year by the Government taking over the line. That sum would have to be made up in some way. It was added that the Makara County Council lost £150 a year. Other bodies represented pointed out proportionate losses. The total losses of all local bodies amounted to between £1000 and £1100 by way of general rates.

THE MINISTER'S REPLY. The Minister, in replying, said the Government could not. see its way to pay any part of the general rate. A departure from that principle would mean that the Government would be asked to pay rates on Crown properties throughout the Dominion. The deputation must remember that in getting rates 'from the company it was getting what no other local bodies obtained. Aβ to snecial rates, he was not suro that under the Act the Government might not be forced to pay any rate for which the company wae liable. He was getting the opinion of the Crown law officers on the subject; the Government had no desire to get out of a legal liability, and it was quite probable that the Government would pay the same special rates as the company had been paying. As to "thirds," the railway had enhanced the value of the lands to a sum much greater than it would have been if it had been sold by the Government. He would advise Mr Field of the opinion of the Crown law officers'as soon as possible. As to rates of freight, no differential rates could be made on that line. At present there were local rates on timber; he was trying to stop the whole of them, because he was not going to run the railways at a loss. As to the timber industry, he remarked that in the past six weeks eleven mills had started work and were sending down timber as fast as possible. The industry, was he believed, slowly but surely improving.

One of the requests made to the Minister for Railways was that the Auck-land-Wellington expresses should stop at Levin. In reply the Minieter said he thought that when the line became more settled down in about a year, the 19-hour journey could be accelerated, and Levin possibly substituted for Ohau as the crossing place. •.-,,; When the on the Manawatu section of the North"leland,jVlain Trunk line are-completed, all traffic on the Napier-Wellington section north of Eketahuna will be taken to Wellington via the West Coast. Thie will 6avo the huge haulage charges which have now to be met in the case of goods and passengers which have to be hauled over the Rimutaka incline. A long siding is being put in at Pukerua, and the tablet eyetcm is now in operation between Wellington and Auckland. As soon as possible the interlocking gear will bo established at all stations on the Manawatu section.