THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1905. SUMMER RAILWAY RATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12759, 9 January 1905, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1905. SUMMER RAILWAY RATES.

Unless the public takes an inlelli- : gent view of public questions and endeavours to understand what is being sought after by what we may term sectional interests it cannot complain if innovations arc made without its cognisance or its approval. If as much concern were displayed in political and sociological questions and problems as in horseracing and football, the colony would have much less to complain of. The Educational .Institute silting at * "Wanganui ileal:, last week with a variety of matters that interest its members- -some of an entirely lechJ nical character, which we must perforce leave to the consideration of experts ; some of an unblushingly class character, such as the request for excursion railway rates for teachers during school holidays ; and some of very great national importance, as affecting the intellectual development and physical health of the vising generation. As to the railway charges we would say at once that we have no sympathy whatever with the absurd conception of Government Departments as separate and distinct concerns. Eithci a • volunteer or a teacher, while in the discharge of his duty to the Stale. _ should be carried free of charge over the Stale railways; but when ],<> is ' not on duty, neither volunteer nor teacher is entitled i<> air, more railway consideration than any other 3 deserving private citizen. The teachers have certainly more holidays than any other class in the community, and therefore would be more able to take advantage of special rales than any other class, but lid-: is a very pool argument, indeed for making them concessions. Nobod.v who understands the stress '' and strain of teaching grudges the 1 teachers their long holidays, btP if any travelling concession is given it

] should surely be ghen in those who have but few holidays, and who must therefore make the best they can of their very limited time. But there need be no quarrel whatever with the Educational Institute on this point. Why should hot excursion rales be proclaimed for everybody during the summer months and dining the other holiday periods 1 It is good for everybody to travel about, and not only good, but natural. Nine people out of ten have that inclination and are reI strained from giving it freer rein by the very heavy cost of railway travel ling. Until recently the ordinary fares on our New Zealand railways were quite the highest in the civilised world. Though Sir Joseph Ward managed to persuade his belated subordinates that it was possible, to run trains at a penny per mile per passenger—with the pettifogging penny per ticket added—lie has not yet. been able, and we presume he i has tried, to convince them that the i popularising of the railways is not. only possible but profitable. The "weekend" tickets which the canny Scotch railway managers first offered to the travelling public with such astonishingly successful results, are still undreamed of among us. And. the continually recurring i: excursions" that during the summer months convey passengers from end to end of the United Kingdom for a few shillings are unknown. We have a crude and complicated system of reductions, chiefly on local trains, that is decidedly better than nothing. but erics aloud for reconstruction and reorganisation. But practically the only excursions that the railway provides or concedes are for the great public holidays or for special local events. If a tourist- wishes to spend some weeks in travelling to and fro over our State lines he is very properly provided for; but if a colonist, wishes to travel with his wife and family to some particular point away front his home, there to spend his holidays, or to take some particular railway trip which attracts him, or to go home foi a visit from the strange town he dwells in, he must pay full ordinary fare. The Educational Institute perceives the illogiealness of this and evolves some specious reasons why the muchholidayed, State-employed, child-in-forming teachei should be placed on a different, footing. It is as inconsistent and illogical for the private citizen as for the public servant, and should be amended. Travel, while travelling is pleasant, should be made popular, and as the teachers are intelligent enough to know there is only one way to make a luxury popular— to make it cheap. The Government has never appreciated the rudimentary business maxim that it is profitable to keep machinery going but unprofitable to let it stand idle. We doubt if there is any great industrial plant in the wide world put to such comparatively I'ttle use as the railway plant of this colony. It is not only that great lines such as the Main Trunk is and as the Helensville Northwards ought to be lie unfinished, leading to nowhere, but that even where a railway is finished and traffic is possible the Department:, knowing that the consolidated revenues pay its salaries and make good its liabilities, treats (he public as though a train were a favour. Our railways do not pay for the very simple reason that it is nobody's business to make them pay. Whatever happens the tax-collector makes good the deficit. And it is really very much pleasanter for a Department to rely on. the tax-col' lector than to have to attract custom, offer facilities and cater for the public, in order to make a living. We have the rails laidmostly in the Smith Island, but some in the North —and we have the stations built ; there is a certain amount of rollingstock, and there ought to be more. Obviously it would be more profitable to increase the railway rollingslock and keep the lines busy whenever people were disposed to travel and could be persuaded to do so by reasonable inducements. We have some months of beautiful weather before us, the great majority of people in the colony take more or less holiday between Christmas and Easter, and the railway authorities could reap everywhere a prodigious harvest if they cared to do so. But the Department prefers to carry comparatively few people at high rates, rather than many people at low rates, and when all is said and done would rathei give a. special concession to teachers or to ironmongers or to any other class than to the general public. The sop to Cerberus would please the applicants and not affect the service ; a general reduction would find the rolling-stock insufli- « inn and the engines under-powered for any greatly increased traffic, which difficulty would require hard work to put right. Tins is the view of the Department, in whose estimate the public interests do not count, being ignored, not from any ill-will, but because they are never thought of.