The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1889 RAILWAY REFORM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2197, 12 August 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1889 RAILWAY REFORM.

Mr Samuel Vailo, of Auckland, has a " fad." It is that our railways are not being made — or rather are being made not — to serve the requirements of the country. Mr Vaile's agitation for a reform of the system of administering the railways began six or seven years •gr>, and has been renewed very actively since the appointment of the Railway Commissioners — an appointment which he very strongly condemns. His principal contentions are that differential rates and mileage rates must be abolished and fares and rates greatly reduced, that the classification of goods and parcels must to sin plified and that all railways must be directly under State control and worked m the m i terests of the whole community. To follow Mr "V aile through the facts and argument? he adduces m support of his contentious would be beyond tho limits of our space, and, most likely, also beyond the patience of our readers, Suffice it to say that Mr Vaile once more urges 'the adoption of uniform railway rates within certain zones as the panacea for the ills which the country suffers from errors m the railway working system on the one.hand, and the unprofitable returns from the railways on the other —the latter, as Mr Vaile contends, being the consequence of the former. Figures are of course quoted to prove this contention, but tho fact that the uniform rate system has not been adopted by companies or Governments anywhere has stamped, the idea m the opinion of most as chimerical. Before long, however, there will be experience of the system, as it has been adopted by the Government of Hungary and was to come into operation on the railways there on August 1. Details have nofc yet reached us, but tho experiment will be watched with interest, as it must bo admitted that the administrat'oni of onr railways has not yet hit upon the plan of working them for the public convenience and benefit and without loss to tho State, and some radical change must sooner or later come about.