MAKING RAILWAYS PAY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1866, 10 March 1913, Page 2

MAKING RAILWAYS PAY.

THE TAILE SYSTEM.

An interesting pamphlet on the stage system of railway administration has just been issued by Mr Samuel Vaile, of Auckland, the inventor of the system. The pamphlet contains Mr Yaile's system, an explanation of the stage system, examples of fare* by the stage system compared with present fares and a copy of a petition Mr Vaile intends presenting to Parliament during the coming session.

In his references to the stage system in other countries, Mr Vaile claims that it had been an astounding success in Russia. He strongly condemns the English railway svst«n, and says that: "Wherever an English expert has consented to what he has been pleased to call a trial of the stage system, he has invariably insisted that the pretended trial should be confined to a section not exceeding 10 or 12 miles. This was done in New Zealand, in Melbourne, and in England. I say that we want no further proof that these experts either did not understand the stage system in the slightest degree. or that their wish was to destroy it. There can be little doubt that the latter was the case, because as soon as it showed good results it was invariably taken off. This was especially the case in Melbourne. It will be remembered that the writer, during the last thirty years, lias repeatedly stated that if a railway has any mission, it is as a long distance machine. The truth of this is proved by developments in England. There the motor lorry and motor car are rapidly appropriating the railways local traffic. It must be so, also, in this country. It is only a question of time. The stage system was specially designed to develop long distance traffic." In his petition Mr Yaile asserts that for the year 1911 - 12 there was a dead loss of £648,681 on the working of the New Zealand railways. He asks for trials of the stage system between Auckland and Te Hana, between Auckland and Rotorua, and on "the 148 miles of the Otago Central line, which Sir Joseph Ward has described as the worst paying in the Dominion."