TRAINS VERSUS SHIPS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17408, 22 May 1928, Page 7

TRAINS VERSUS SHIPS.

, IS COMPETITION UNFAIR? RAILWAY OFFICIAL'S REPLY. AUCKLAND, Tuesday. Replying to tlie charge that the Railway Department competes unfairly with shipping, Mr E. Casey, divisional superintendent of railways, denied yesterday that the trains were carrying goods at uneconomic rates. He stated, too, that shipping companies often lowered their rates to meet railway competition. , The accusation of unfair competition on the part of the railways had been made lay Mr Charles Rhodes, chairman of Ihc Northern Steamship Company, Ltd. ‘•The fixation of special rates to meet competition is one that is common to railways the world over,” Mr Casey stated. In England, for instance, about 75 per cent, of the total tonnage carried is conveyed at ‘special’ rates, as distinguished from the ordinary ‘scale’ rates laid down in the tariff. “While the principle of applying special rates in New Zealand is on a comparatively small scale, it must not be thought this principle is applied only where the Railway Department is in competition with' (he Northern Steamship Company. There arc, for instance, special rates in force between Lyttelton and Tiinaru, Port Chalmers or Dunedin and Tiinaru, and Dunedin and Invercargill, as well as in other parts of New Zealand. Notwithstanding what has been slated lo the contrary, none of these rates is below the economic level.” The advent of a railway into a district was usually followed by a cut in llii! shipping,rates, .Mr Casey added. A case in’point was that since the railway was opened lo the Ray of Plenty the shipping rates on manure from Auckland to Tauranga had been reduced from ft Us Gd a ton to I Os a ton. a reduction of over 50 per cent., whip tile shipping rate from Auckland to Whakalane on manures had been reduced from £J 2s Gd lo 10s a ton.