sDjje ijtottljent |pj)OKat*4 WHAU WHAU MINE AND THE GOYEENMENT.

Northern Advocate, 25 August 1888, Page 2

The Northern Advocate WHAU WHAU MINE AND THE GOVERNMENT.

It has always "been a matter of complaint on the part of the management of this mine, and not without reason, that they were treated with great injustice by the Government, in their management of their branch line of railway. At present another instance has occurred which shows that our paternal Government cares but little for the prosperity of the coal industry in this locality, and that little effort ia made to work amicably with the above company. The difficulty which has now arisen is in respect to the maintenance of the company's branch line. In ihe past the Railway Department hats taken the oversight and maintained the line in a state of efficiency, charging the company with the cost. Of late, however, it appears that this oversight has ceased, and nothing has been done to the line to keep it in repair. Without conferring with the manager, and without previous intimation, the Railway Department gave notice on Friday last, that, unless certain repairs were attended to by the Company before the 25th inst., all traffic would be stopped from that date. The manager at once telegraphed to our representative, Mr Thompson, pointing out the injustice of this step, cutting the company short in its work, and asking him to use his influence in securing the maintenance of this line by the Government. This Mr Thompson at once did. but with little result, for a reply came, " Government decline to maintain the line any longer." Strangest of all replies this for the Minister of Public Works to make, when lie perfectly well knew that the maintenance had always been charged against the Company, in addition to 2/ per ton haulage. The estimated cost to the Company of this maintenance in the past is also a matter of complaint, viz., £6 a mile per month. Does the Government incur the same cost in the maintenance of the seven miles of railway from the wharf to Kamo, on which is much greater traffic ? If so, £42 a month is spent for labour alone for this purpose. Returns, however, show that this is not the case, and that the Whau Whau Company has been charged out of all proportion to the actual cost of maintenance. At a time like the present, when the strike in Australia is likely to produce a famine in coal, and in the face of the fact already wired, that New Zealand coal had risen to 15/ per ton, it is suicidal in the extreme for the Government so to treat this company as to stop, or at least to retard, the working and development of this mine. Suicidal both in respect to the mine and to the Government, for this pit has recently so far improved in its prospects that for certain, within a short space of time £700 to £800 will be paid to the Government for haulage alone ; and, as the present works proceed other seams will doubtless be found, which will continue to be a source of revenue. If the Company are to maintain the line themselves, then, in all fairness, a reduction should be made in freight. There is neither reason nor justice in the present state of things. The Kamo mine, immediately contiguous, clear of all other charges, pay the same haulage as the Whau Whau mine, which is another illustration of the injustice complained of.