RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3385, 3 August 1885, Page 3

RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

(By Telegraph.) Ixvebcaeoill, Aug. 2. The new regulations of the Railway Department enforcing rents for private sidings have been the subject ot" adverse criticism m this district, and on Saturday "a largely attended meeting of those interested was held here, at which the following resolution was pa3scd and ordered to be forwarded to the Minister for Public Works and Members for the district : — " That this meeting views with alarm the disastrous effect the new regulations re private sidings will have on tho progress of the colony, ond further expresses the opinion that they are unjust and oppressive, and calculated to destroy the entire confidence of those who are working the resources of the colony, and that under the present circumstances of tho colony such regulations as were gazetted on the 16th prostrate instead of foster local industries." A suggestion by one of those present was favorably received, that m the event of obnoxious regulations being enforced, users of private sidings should refuse to pay rent. If the Department lifted the sidings they would Btop work, and by throwing hundreds of men idle raise such an agitation as would compel the Government to consider the question. The opinion was expressed by several speakers that the present Government had, while professing anxiety for tho success of the native industries, dono more to hamper tliem, especially m the present time of depression, than any of its predecessors. It was also urged that the previous guarantee of traffic worth .£3OO per annum was all that should be asked by the Department. One speaker said his "firm paid £5000 a year freight, and were now called on to pay £100 as rent for aiding. Mr Conyers, late Commissioner of Railways, said that his first instructions from Mr Mncandrow wero to cncourgo the industries of the colony, rather than make railways pay interest. Sidings were then given for nothing on a guarantee that £300 worth of traffic or its equivalent should be provided annually. Tho revenue from these sidings wns money picked up. The consignors did tho loading, and the consignees the unloading, and tho Department derived the revenue that, if tho sidings wore not thcro, they could not obtain.