The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 987, 18 June 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1879.

Thqpoh the speech with which the Hon. E- Richardson regaled his constituents on Friday evening was not marked by any display of oratory, it contains much that is worthy of consideration. It was not rendered attractive by the presence of any particularly new or brilliant idea ; 'indeed, we have yet to learn that Mr. Richardson is capable of originating anything possessing th«* virtue «»f • it.tii ;. But, whilst he cannot boast "t an imaginative mind oracreativebrain,Mr. Richardson is just one of those calculating, plain men of business who are able to think for themselves, and who not infrequently give utterance to remarks worthy of notice. We do not by this mean to infer that »uch politicians are always correct in their opinions, for your cool, calculating man is just as liablo to err as the spontaneous enthusiast ; he is prone to look most strongly at matters from the point of view most congenial to his personal feelings, and thus loses Bight of many strong arguments that may be brought against him. err, Mr. Edward Richardson is one of this class, and even though we may be accused of giving undue prominence to Jus remarks we feel constrained again to refieF to his speech in order to prove that the hon. member for i Christchureh is given to looking at matters ! through highly-colored spectacles. It will be remembered that at the commencement of the grain season of 1878, the grain merchants of C'hristchurch succeeded in inducing Mr. Cony en?. Commissioner of Railway#, to bring into force a railway tariff very much in faror of Christchureh, and very much to the injury of Timaru, Oamant, and Dunedin. i It will al-uv be borne in mind that this differentia! tariff gave rise to a considerable amount of unfavorable comment in every direction except the city of the half-built Cathedral, and that strong protests were entered against ; it by the various public bodies in [the three towns more directly affected. [ It will also be remembered that the reply given at the time was that the alteration had been made in order to enable the railway to compete with vessels, and secure a larger amount of freight; but the real reasons were to afibjtl the Christchurch grain merchants opportunities for competing unfairly against those of tlie Sooth, and to divert the shipment of grain to Lyttelton, and ao enable the Lyttelton Harbor Board to obtain the benefits derivable from increased traffic, and, consequently, a greatly augmented

income. As will be fresh in the minds of our readers, things were then made so] uncomfortably warm for several members of the Ministry who visited Timaru, Oamaru, and Dunedin that, after a considerable amount of badgering, the Government stepped in and settled the matter by adopting one fixed scale of charges for the whole of the .railways in the Colony. This has, apparently, given offence to Mr. Richardson, who seems to think that the old differential tariff was a very excellent arrangement. But he does not storm and rave over the matter as some men might do. No. that might be a dangerous proceeding, and would at once show in which way the feline domestic sprang. Mr. Ricliardson is too astute a man of business to adopt such a course. He seeks by a very ingenious means to show that the granting of power to the Commissioner of Railways to make special charges for the carriage of goods would materially benefit the railways. This he does in this wise:—

Now, o3 to the administration of the railways The House directed that the fiovemrnent should appoint Commissioners of Railways who should have very large jiowers, and lie responsible to Ministers. Now, so Jar as I can understand it, the commissioners have not those powers, and have to work by certain hard and fast rules made to apply all over the colony, whether they can lie worked more cheaply by a departnre from those rules or the reverse. Thus a loss is sustained in some instances for the want of a slight reduction in the rates, which would, as in the case of Timaru for instance, enable the Government to monopolise the trade, and earn a very much larger amount of money on the railways than they do at present. In the case of Timaru, 1 am credibly informed that a large amount of trade has lieen drawn away from the railway because they would not reduce the rates. In this single instance alone a loss has been sustained of L - 20,000, and I know other parts of the colony where the same thing exists, although not perhaps to so large an extent. It is not only the damage done to the railway, bat the district suffers ako. No less than LIOO,OOO worth of grain has been lying there lately, the greater part of which would, under other circumstances, have been brought on to Christchurcli, and shipped from Port Lyttelton I tlijnK t)ie Government should^ use the railways to the best advantage, and take all the tratßc they can get, so iong as they receive good rates.

All this sounds very pretty indeed, and we were half inclined to adopt the opinion of Mr. Richardson, when we suddenly remembered that he is Chairman of the Lyttelton Harbor Board, and a very good and energetic Chairman too. 'NVe also remember in what manner this power to the Commissioner of Railways to " work the railways as a commercial enterprise " was previously used. In theory theproposal of the worthy " Companion " appears perfect, but we have seen that in practice it is unjust and fraught with great danger. Mr. llichardsoni when he declares that a loss of L 20,000 has been suffered in a single instance only, must have undergone a flight of imagination so unusual to him and generally so disastrous to men of his stamp. We can scarcely swallow the gigantic pill prepared for us ; it is such a terrible "crammer." Mr. Richardson must know that it would have been impossibio for the railways to have performed a greater amount of business than that with which they have been favored. He must have known that throughout the grain season trains have been running throughout the night in every direction, and that even by adopting this means it has been found difficult to overtake the business of the department. He must have known that in the South, at anyrate, there has been a lamentable deficiency of !-<>lliug stock, for complaints on that head have been alike loud and deep, and of frequent occurrence. It may be—and we really believe that such was the case —that "in C'hristchurch there was no such deficiency of trucks. 13ut to say that the railways might have carried a much larger quantity of grain than they have done is to display a want of knowledge of fact 3 unpardonable in a man of 3lr. Richardson's position. Possibly, however, the lion, gentleman's limited power of vision in such matters prevented his looking beyond the immediate vicinity of Ciiristchureh and Lyttelton. Very likely he thought that the whole o. the railway trucks should have been onbailed carrying grain to Ciiristchurch, with the double object of enriching the Christchurch grain buyers and tilling the coflei'.s of the Lyttelton Harbor Board. It was not for the accomplishment of such purposes that the railways were established. They were formed for the general good of the Colony, and not for the purpose of annihilating smaller towns in order that tiie larger cities might be bolstered up. We object to any system that would give an undue advantage to any particular town. Let all be served alike and progress by natural and fair means, and there can be no room for dissatisfaction. If Lyttelton and Christchurch cannot under such circumstances compete successfully with Timaru and Oamaru they must be contented with taking secondary positions. A fair field and no favor is all we want, and so much the greater creui r to those who under these conditions can win.