CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8887, 25 May 1892, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

RAILWAYS: AN ENGLISH OPINION OF THE STAGE SYSTEM.

TO THIi EDITOR.

Sir, Some time ago a gentleman in England sent me a pamphlet on " Free Railway Travel," by a Mr. R. A. Cooper, with a request that in return I would write to Mr. Cooper and send him some of my printed papers. Mr. Cooper proposes that the Government "should acquire the railways and make them free to the public, like the highways." Ho has a considerable following. By the mail just to hand, I received a long letter from him. The following extracts may interest your readers : — " I received the pamphlets on your stage system, which I have read and re-read with very great interest. I have been acquainted for several years with the outlines of your system, and was, therefore, much pleased to receive from its author his own exposition of its details. You appear to have been led to take up the cause of railway reform by the same facts and reasons that induced me to examine it, and at nearly the same time— about two years earlier." Mr. Cooper goes on to say that, after living 22 years in America, he returned to London in 1863, and was very deeply impressed with the evils of the overcrowding of the great city. I returned to London in 1862, after being out here for 19 years, and my attention was arrested by the same great evil. Mr. Cooper came to the conclusion that the only way to relieve the poverty and distress was for the State to take over the railways and make them free to the people. After giving his reasons for arriving at this conclusion, he says :— " I dismissed—perhaps too hastilythe idea that very low fares would be a solution of the question because I thought that in large families the scanty wages of the boys and girls would not afford any fare. A penny fare means at least a shilling a week with dinner from home, that is to say from 25 per cent, to 35 per cent, of a boys or girls wages in those days, and in some cases in these. But your system, if culopted, is good enough to revolutionize the ways of modern life, and. if you can establish it in New Zealand, I doubt not that it will soon spread over the world. It will be such a vast reform over the existing system that once tried it is sure to extend."

This is the opinion of a man who knows me only by my work, and whose writings prove that he not only has studied the subject, but that he also is capable of dealing with it. Mr. Cooper thinks that I make a great mistake in not proposing much lower fares for city and suburban traffic, he says, "Surely your grand scheme deserves improvement here," and goes into the argument to show that a fare of one penny for ten (10) miles would pay well. From a presentfinancial point of view he is undoubtedly right, but the acquisition of railway revenue is by no means my main object. From the first I have held that revenue should be a very secondary consideration, and that the true work of our railways is to develope the trade and commerce of the country, and promote the welfare and happiness of its people. If this were made the first consideration, increased and highly payable revenue must follow

A railway in my opinion is essentially a long distance machine, and I believe that it ought to develope industries and not to destroy them. It is manifest that very lowfares in and around great cities, must destrpy a very lame amount of tramcar, omnibus, cab, and carriage business. Now, all these are very important industries. The manufacture and working of these vehicles employs vast numbers of people and might employ many more, and the breeding and feeding of the horses largely helps the farmer class, which city and suburban traffic by rail does not. The main work of the railway should be the long distance traffic, leaving the greater part of the local traffic to the above agencies, which they could more effectively perform seeing that they could land a larger number of passengers at their own doors. I believe that the keen competition of the railways for city and suburban traffic has caused much of the present poverty. They are undoubtedly a great inducement to people to congregate in the great cities. It must always be borne in mind that the arrangement I propose with regard to the country is only a temporary one, and is made in order to induce people to settle there, and also to aid the growth of small towns. Ultimately the charges would be the same everywhere, and fares and rates could, and will, be reduced far below any that I have suggested. It is only the stupid " no-system " we persist in that maintains the present high rates. There is no need whatever for them. Mr. Cooper says, " I quite agree with your argument—especially in a thinly populated country like New Zealandof developing the long-distance or country traffic." _ I like your objections to partial, instead of adequate and large reductions. Your experience (of mismanagement) is more than paralleled here." What do the advocates or selling our railways say to this ? " I venture, to think either stage travel orfr< travel luill be found to be the only effectual preventatives of over-crowding;. . . Mr. Cooper's whole letter is highly interesting, and proves that he has closely studied his subject. His calculations of the cost of working the different classes of traffic are most elaborate.— am, - SaMOEL VailEAuckland, 14th May, 1892.