RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 69, 21 November 1913, Page 4

RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

For Ji loii£ time ther* n«s keen in the public mind a feeling that the law which makes it an offence for the original purchaser or a railway ticket to sell it or give it to anyone else is indefensible, says the Napier Telegraph. If A buvs a railway ticket and finds that circumstances prevent him travelling, why should he lose his money? He knows somebody who. is able to travel and intends tc

travel. Why should not A sell hire his ticket? Nobody is wronged, any more than anybody is wronged if the purchaser of a theatre ticket sells it to another. The train will run, with or without A, and the theatrical performance will go on just the same whether the seats are occupied by tin original purchasers of tickets or l>\ others who have, purchased from them. Apparently the Government, considering'the feeling in the public mind wc have referred to, has determined that the public is an Ass—Ass enough tc stand kicking and contumely, anywaj —and in bringing down a Bill t< amend the Government Railways Act has seen fit to reassert the silly old principle that to transfer a railway ticket is a crime, and to make the punishment for the offence range up to a £lO fine or two months' har< labor in gaol. At one time there was a weak but colorable excuse for male ing a railway ticket non-transferable. This was when a return ticket cos: less than two single tickets. By al lowing transfer it would ,have beei possible for two conspirators, one (say: in Wellington and one in Napier, t< arrange by letter to swindle the Go vernment out of a few shillings. A in Napier, wanting to go to Welling ton, might arrange by letter with 1 in the other town, who happened t( want to come here, for a timing o! the two journeys so that one return ticket would serve the pair. Eacl might then, as a solatium foa the tinu and trouble" involved by the conspiracy make two or three drinks each at'the cost of the Government. The idea is far-fetched, but not; out of tin range of practicability'. With nc difference made in the cost of the return jo'Trriioy ' even thr: danger van ish,os; ami that it should be now mad' a,-.crime to transfer a'railway tickesuggests a'Toi'ni of red-tape m'l lines:, (Vpproaeliiiig' to lunacy. ■v,l;> I