THE MARKET TICKET QUESTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1919, 15 August 1888, Page 2

THE MARKET TICKET QUESTION.

The Dunedin " Star " m an article on the "market ticket case " says : — The rase brought before and decided \ by the Kesident Magistrate at Ashburton last week is likely to be a cause celebre, as illustrating m a marked manner the utter want of common sense which characterises the management of the railways. That Captain Wray should hare adopted the view of the Department is very much to be regretted, and we are unable to understand on what he based bis decision, which is so manifestly wrong, both at law and m equity, that we can only persume that the worthy Magistrate must have been laboring under some hallucination which disturbed his usual sound judgment. After giving the circumstances of the case the article goes on to say : — "That Captain Wray was entirely wrong m his law will at once bo seen when it is considered that a railway ticket is a simple contract under which the Department, m consideration of the fare, fixed by jtself, agrees to convey the passenger m a carriage of the class designated to the place indicated ,on the face thereof. The Department .has nothing further to do with the passenger, or the passenger with the department, nor can either party be bound by anything outside the contract m respect to conveyance or destination. It is alleged that m this particular case the tickets! were issued under certain regulations to that effect for a special purpose, and that no one had a right to make use of them except for that purpose which is, to say the least of it, most arrant nonsense. The only way to enforce such regulations would be to require every one applying for a « market ticKet " to make a statutory declaration •that he is going to market ; and m respect to excursion tickets the excur sionists would have to declare that they are on pleasure, not on business bent. If "market tickets" or "excursion tickets " are isß ( ued with the object of " bringing grist to the mjll " by inducing people to travel, what matter to the Department it can be where the purchasers go, to or what their business may be, passes conception. Mr Graham, on market ticket, was duly conveyed to and from Washdyke,and the contract on that ticket was complete; his joumoy to Tioiaru from Temukftwaguftaer anther

contract embodied m a single ticket, and his return journey to Waohdyke under still another. As the regulations m respect to these market tickets were not cited m Court, or are not at least reported as having been so, it is not possible to judge how they can even be assumed to come within the scope of section 144 of the Public Works Act, under which the action against Mr Graham was brought. The clear presumption, however, is that they are ultra vires, and probably enough compiled by some departmental officer without direct ' reference to the Minister at all. Mr Mitchelson will do well to look over the by-laws which have officially his sanction, and submit them, where he has any doubt, to the law officers of the Crown In this instance, even were the depart ment m tho right, the regulations legal (which they are not) and capable of enforcement (which, notwithstanding the Ashburton judgment, we take leave to doubt), they should at once be cancelled as contrary to sound administrative policy, m that they tend to restrict the use of the railways for public convenience. It is high time there was a complete sweep out of the red-tapists who manage our railways with a loffcy disregard for the people who have to pay for them, and who would seem to cast a glamour over successive Ministers, and thus prevent practical reform. The "Timaru Herald" says, m a short paragraph on the matter :— According to this ruling it is unlawful for anyone to travel on an excursion ticket if he or she has business and not merely pleasure m view. The impossibUity of making such a law effective makes it absurd, and the market-ticket regulation comes under the same condemnation. The ticket collectors on the train have no business to know anything at all about their passengers, so long as they can show an authorised ticket for the journey then being made. •