THE PASSING SHOW.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14584, 5 February 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By Free Lance.) The astute civil servant who conceived the idea of reserving seats on our railways no doubt has received much kudos from,the Minister, for It has been the means of considerably enhancing the receipts from travellers, but against this he has beerixxecrated much and oft by those who have been inconvenience,, —and penalised —toy it. The thing is wrong in principle, and should not be tolerated. The Government certainly would not permit a private company to act similarly, and a State Department should not be a law unto itself. The Government enjoins that a steamer shall not carry more passengers than it lias accommodation for, and it should adapt the same principle in regard to its own trains. Instead it has the eitrontery to issue a ticket for a journey, and then practically demands a further sum from the purchaser before it will undertake to guarantee to carry out the contract it has entered into. The purchase of a railway ticket should confer a right to a seat on the train. If it cannot be done for the sum charged for the ticket then the price should be raised to such a ligure as will enable the Department to carry out its covenant. A taxi proprietor who accepted a sum to carry a passenger points and then refused to provide ear accommodation to carry out his obligation until a further sum was paid yould be held to be guilty of blackmail and a prosecution would follow. Where the difference in principle between the taxi man and the State railway?

A "Tired Traveller" who has recently been through the experience of a long train journey, writes concerning this subject: "If a man wishes to reserve seats for a number —say, four people—lie must pay for a wire to be sent for each individual. This would mean four shillings for wires and three shillings for reserved seats. While lew people would object to paying sixpence extra to. have a seat reserved, surely the ticket showing that the traveller has paid the required fare is, or ought, to be, evidence of his right to demand from the department a seat for the journey. Then, too, payment of a shilling for a wire for each member of a party travelling together w r ould almost appear to be a special kind of profiteering. Why cannot a traveller reserve his seat without such a lot of fuss and expense? Are the seats which are reserved from Frankton kept vacant all the way from Auckland? If so, it would seem a somewhat absurd arrangement, and if not, why does the traveller have to pay for wires—for a wire for each individual? Truly in addition to longsuffering travellers we have either an extremely smart or profoundly stupid management of our railway system. Which is it?"

The system of charging one shilling for a wire for each seat can only be characterised as iniquitous. If the reservation of seats is to be continued a common-sense method would be for the list to close locally at a specified time, and the number of seats booked could then be notified in one word to the train's starting point, and that wire should certainly be a charge against the booking fees. The irony of the thing is that after the lengthy, expensive and complicated business has been scrupulously gone through it is sometimes found that the same seats have been booked twice over, and when the Frankton passenger presents himself he is confronted with proof that the man'in possession has his title in his wallet. Not unnaturally he refuses to budge and tlie local man, who has parted with his cash in all good faith that the Government will carry out its obligation, says some things, thinks others, and fares as best he can.

When the Arbitration and Conciliation Act was drafted and provision made for determining the conditions of labour in an industry, I do not think the author had the slightest idea that the Courts would be asked to consider such matters as are submitted from time to time. Those of us who can remember the conditfons obtaining ,say, 30 or 40 years ago will not hesitate to say that the coming of the labour laws was opportune, for we were drifting into a state of semislavery, and the "sweater" was laying his heavy hand upon the boys and the girls, as well as the working classes. There was no restriction of hours and no minimum wage. Life then was a stern reality, and the people had to labour hard to li\;e. Fixed hours and a minimum wage were regarded as a bnon, and a 48-hour week was hailed as the "last thing" in labour reform.

We have travelled far since then, and the Court lias granted eoncessions and rights to Labour which in the days In which I have referred would have filled both worker and employer with amazement. But withal the worker docs not seem any more contented, and apparently he spends his lengthy periods of leisure concocting schemes as to how he can harass his "boss," and invent absurdities for submission to the Courts. The Christchurch shop assistants have, I think, reached the limit. Last session an Act was passed fixing the hours for shops at 48, and this became operative on January i last. The Christchurch assistants now want six hours clipped off thai limit : they are willing to go to business each day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but. they want morning and afternoon lea provided, the privilege of purchasing their goods at "cost" price, and. in-addition, a very substantial increase to their weekly wage. These concessions, if granted, must of course he charged up against other sections of the community in the form of increased prices, and up goes the cost, of living. The pendulum has swim? from one extreme hiTTie other with a vengeance. There are many, and the number is increasing, who are convinced that we have hut knocked down one tyrant to set up another, and that Solomon with his ships has been succeeded by Rehoboam with his scorpions.