MR. MAXWELL'S REPORT ON THE WHANGAREI – KAMO RAILWAY TRAFFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9217, 21 November 1888, Page 3

MR. MAXWELL'S REPORT ON THE WHANGAREI - KAMO RAILWAY TRAFFIC.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin,—The editor of one of the most influential of our Southern papers has written to rue on my letter which appeared in your issue of the Bth of October. Among other things he says :—" It [my letter] assumes that the Wanngarei.-K.aino line is being worked on a system of cheaper fares and other principles which coincide with those advocated by yon. In the face of Mr. Maxwell's report of the 11th August last, I cannot concur in this assumption." Now this gentleman is quite justified in saying this. A document prepared and signed by the head of our Railway Department, and laid on the table of the House by the Minister for Public Works, ought to be thoroughly reliable ; but, so far from this being the case, I shall undertake to prove that it would be almost impossible to inoro grossly misstate the real facts of the case. Mr. Maxwell says that the system in force at Wnangarei "can hardly oe said to be" mine, as " Vaile's system claimed to go in for an enormous reduction in the passenger fares prevailing on the Government, railways ; on the VVhangarei line the reverse course has been followed, and the fares have been raised for the journeys mostly taken where extra fares could be obtained." What I have always proposed to do with passenger fares is, to abolish all return fares, to retain the present " ordinary" initial fares, and to make those fares payable for the whole or any portion of a ■stage. This is exactly what has been clone on this line. It is crue that the initial fares on the longer lines are 6d first and 4d second, and thai I propose to adopt these amounts, but the principle is precisely the same, and I believe the lower figure would haxe given a better financial result. As regards goods traffic, my proposal is to reduce the classification to four classes only, to greatly reduce the rates charged, and to make the same charge for the whole or any portion of a stage. On the Whangarei-Kamo line they have made five classes, and the charge is the same for the whole or any portion of the line, which exactly represents one of my first stages. It will thus be seen that, so far as it is possible to apply my system to one stage only, that it has been applied at Whangarei. Mr. Maxwell has chosen to compare a period of twelve months, from the '-'2nd June, 1837. to 21st June, 1888. with tne twelve months from Ist April, ISS3, to 31st March, 1886, instead of comparing with the year 18SG-7, which in all fairness he ought to have done. In order to prove his case Mr. Maxwell has prepared a table showing the alterations made in some of the fares. His object appears to have been to create the impression that 1b',486 fares have been raised in price. He gives what professes to be the number of trips taken in 18S6, but carefully suppresses those taken in ISBB, because he knows that they would show the amount gained by what he calls raising the fares to bo absolutely insignificant, it would probably not amount to more than £30 at the outside, and for this reason : My system was at work for only thirty-two weeks out of the twelve months under review, and during the whole of that period (twelve months) only 10,740 fares were carried, as against 22,275 in 1880, consequently the increased amount could not have been more than that mentioned above. This will be better understood by the following statement:— Mr. Maxwell's table gives 9126 fares, which at the increases shown would have yielded £103 17s 7d, but as not half of them were carried, and as the "increased fares" were only in force for thirty-two weeks, it is clear £30 is a liberal estimate of the gain. Then 0359 fares are given at the old rates and 1001 as reduced. This makes a total of 10,4.86" fares, leaving 5780 unaccounted for. Why are these loft out? I think I know. Mr. Maxwell s table accounts for £378 los out of a total passenger revenue of £538 19s, which leaves £160 4s for the 5789 fares unaccounted for, an average fare of say 6sd. Mow this low average puzzles me. His table gives fares at 3d, 4d, 4£d, 6d, Sd, 9d, and Is. All the lower fares are thus accounted for. I want to know what has become of all the 10d, 10ki, HAd, Is 2d, Is 3d, Is 4d, Is 4*d, Is 6d, and ls*9d fares It is, to say the least, curious that none of these are also accounted for. There seems to me to be a strong smell of the fryingpan about this return. At any rate, I think I have proved that it is thoroughly unreliable. How is it that the Minister tor Public Works allows such documents to be presented to the House ? To me it seems to be a public disgrace, for they can only be intended to deceive. There are several other statements in this document that are equally untruthful, but 1 will not trouble your readers with them. It must be a bad cause indeed that needs such bolstering up.—l am, &c, Samuel Vaile. Auckland, 19th November, 1888.