THE The NeW Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1907. NEEDS OF ONEHUNGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13613, 5 December 1907, Page 4

THE The NeW Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1907. NEEDS OF ONEHUNGA.

The Onehunga deputations which waited upon Sir Joseph Ward not only put forward questions of harbour improvements which affect the entire shipping trade of .the West Coast as well as the borough itself, but certain telephone and railway difficulties which concern a large part of.the metropolitan area. For although under our antiquated local government system Onehunga not only has a distinct local authority from Auckland,, but is separated from the' City proper by a series of independent districts, there is an actual unity of interests which covers the entire area between the harbours and makes it impossible to benefit or injure one without benefiting or injuring all. In replying to very reasonable requests for a readjustment of telephone and railway charges, which under the circumstances are quite excessive, Sir Joseph Ward said that he could not make any distinction between places, and that any concessions granted to Onehunga and Auckland would have to be granted all the country over. We would represent to the Premier that there can be no good reason why the concessions asked for should not be made wherever the conditions approximate to those existing here. Nobody wishes anything unreasonable, so that we cannot be antagonising the right to equal treatment of any other part of the colony. Auckland and Onehunga being really one, it is not good business to apply to them—or to any, *>>hcr -places skni-

larly situated—telephone rates which were intended to cover quite different conditions. It is recognised by Sir Joseph Ward that use increases with cheapness. This has been the principle upon which he has successfully made a number of beneficial reductions in postal and telegraphic charges, and upon which he stoutly assails prohibitive cable charges. There can be no doubt that if the telephone rates between all such places as Onehunga and Auckland were moderated it would lead to such an increase in business as would compensate the Department for thus meeting the public. We hope that the Premier will consider the point in connection with other reductions and'concessions which-must be made before telephones can be regarded as popularised throughout the Dominion. As compared with other countries we have no telephone services worth speaking of, and the cause for this is presumably the Departmental idea that the cost of working can only be met by high rates.

A much more glaring incongruity was brought under the Premier's notice when railway rates were referred to. Owing to modern developments in suburban transit facilities it is quite impossible for the Government to get people to pay for the privilege of being carried some miles out of their way, and as the One-hunga-Auckland line, like the Kings-land-Auckland line, follows an extensive circuit, the arbitrary rating methods of the Department cause trains to run empty for half their journey and many thousands of pounds to be lost to the consolidated revenues. The Premier protested again that the difficulty was in making an exception—but who asks for exceptional treatment Wherever the same extraordinary deviations from direct, route are to be found in any suburban railway system throughout the Dominion the same complaint must be made and the same empty trains seen. A remedy can easily be found which would apply to every suburban railway alike, and could not depreciate in any way suburban. railway revenues. That is to establish a mile-zone charge for suburban railway travelling instead of the existing railway-mile charge. This would give the Government what it now receives wherever«.the suburban lines run approximately straight, and would enable the Government to do business wherever it carries its suburban- passengers by a roundabout route., There seems to be some vague notion in the official mind that people sit in trains for pleasure just as they sit on ferry steamers in the hot weather; but although London magistrates are sometimes called' upon to correct schoolboys who have been illegally travelling all day upon the Underground Railway with a station-to-station ticket, even London boys would not pay mileage for that to them mysterious pleasure. Without going into the question of the Vaile system as it might be applied to the railways of the Dominion or to the transport of goods as well as to the transit- of passengers, there seems to be good reason for, and no sufficient reason against, ■ a zone system for suburban travel. " In the case of trie Onehunga-Auckland and KingslandAuckland,services it is plain that the Government would lose nothing and would gain much, while the convenience to the public would be very great if only through the relief afforded to traffic congestion at th.e busy hours. We are sure that if oir Joseph Ward divested himself of all but business considerations and thus freed himself from red-tape influences, which are only strong because the unfortunate taxpayer can always be called upon to make good losses by bad management, he would immediately realise the absurdity of the present basis of charging on the suburban lines and would institute ! a sensible reform that would not only gratify. Onehunga, but every suburban district similarly situated in New Zealand. - :