The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1890.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2824, 19 August 1890, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1890.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Or whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

The Canterbury Industrial Association is a body consisting of men of all kinds and with all kinds of political opinion. Freo Traders and Protectionists are alike included in its ranks, and the object of all is to advanco, apart from political means, the productive and trading interests of the colony. Among the points to which the attention of tho Association lias been directed is that of railway management and tariffs. It regards this as of tho utmost importance in connection with tho progress of New Zealand, and has devoted to it much attention. We have now before us a pamphlet issued by the association, being the re-print of a paper read by Mr Cr. W. Russell at its meeting on the 20th May last. The pamphlet is full of interesting facts and figures, and its arguments run much in tlie line with which Mr Yaile has made us familiar here. In fact Mr Russell makes special referenco to Mr Yaile and to the Parliamentary Committee that investigated his proposals in 1886, and he goes upon much tlie same principle, namely that the main purpose of the railways is to diffuse population and production and intercourse. Like Mr Vaile, he holds that the more successfully they perform this duty the better pecuniary results will be showu, though he does not appear to have entirely adopted Mr Vaile's plan nor to have even studied it completely. Mr Russell is most successful when showing up tho anomalies in the present system. He complains of the complexity and inconsistency with which the tariff is framed. He tells of separate rates and classes for "apple blight mixtures, banners, juniper berries, bills of exchange and other securities, cash, coin, valuable documents, artificial flowers, fog signals, lace, maps, racecourse stalls, silver coin, surveyors' pegs, title deeds, trinkets, writings and hobby horses/' These absurdities he attributes to the tarifl being based on the model of older countries where the trade was large enough to admit minute handliug. Even there he considers it unwarranted, but here he declares the I tariff as hard to master " as a Hebrew dictionary or (Jrudens Concordance," Both of these works be regarded as light reading in comparison. Equally incomprehensible is the claasitication of <»oods to be carried at "owners' risk." He holds that the articles enumerated, nearly one thousand in all, might be divided into those produced in the colony or admitted for manufacturing purposes, and those which are in the nature of luxuries. He holds too, that the rates of carriage and the fares should be greatly reduced for the longer distances, as tlie prices now charged are prohibitive, and prevent business being done by the railway. His statistics on this point are striking. In ISSJ, only 1139(5 miles of railway were in operation, but they carried 1,700,000 tons, ;?,-J72,0U0 passengers, and yielded .£001,301. Five years later in 18SS-0, the number of miles had increased to 1777, but they only carried 1,9i'0,000 tons, li.L'iii.OUO passengers, and only yieided .£097,500. The number of horses, cattle, calves and pigs, show a continuing and steady decrease, while wool has fallen of! 6,000 tons. I his and other more striking results lie attributes to the difficulties of various kinds thrown in the way. People only use the railway when forced to do so, and avail themselves of every other means of transport that offers. This, too, in spite of the persistent attempts of the railway, often successful, to run competitors off the road or river, and to monopolise the traffic for themselves. According to the Commissioners' account, this intention lies at the bottom of much of tho disparity in rates between seaports, for example, and those for inland places. For the former, the rates are fixed to compete with sea-borne traffic. The latter the Commissioners have at their mercy, and squeeze accordingly. 'Ihe unfortunate people, so situated, have not only to pay their fair share, but must make good the lower fares of their most happily situated fellow colonists. Yet, with all this, Mr llussell maintains that the railways are only paying ,£2 fa per cent, towards the interest, on their cost, and the departmental charges and exchange, and cost of negotiating loans, which are not, but ought to be, included in that cost. It is satisfactory to find that the discontent with our present system is finding forcible expression in other important places besides the Auckland province. The resolution come to by the Association, after discussing Mr Russell's speech, was this : " That the railways should be administered so as to assist the producers and industries of the colony to a much greater degree than at present; that the tariff should be

simplitied, and very large concessions made on the carriage of the natural and industrial products of the colony, especially those going to I or coming from districts distant I from a seaport.'' The Association also passed a second resolution declaring that in its belief a system of cheap fares and rates was essential to the progress and settlement of the colony. In both these resolutions we heartily concur. But the Association must go further. It should acquaint itself thoroughly with Mr Vaile's proposals,and could do a great service by taking them in hand for full investigation. If that should lead it to approve of these proposals, it could do great good by joining in the agitation that originated in the Waikato, and is now spreading over this province. If it disapproves ot the.in inany way, the opinion will be worthy of the most marked attention, butjthe discussion could not fail to be beneficial. We have no other interest than to seethe best system adopted, and there can be no better means of arriving at that end than the fullest discussion. Would it not be well for our Railway Reform League to open communication with the Canterbury Industrial Association, if it has not done so already 1