The Ashburton Guardian. Manga et Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1889. FARES TO THE EXHIBITION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2304, 17 December 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Manga et Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1889. FARES TO THE EXHIBITION.

Although we have on several occa sions already advocated the running of cheap trains to enable the public to visit the Exhibition, yet, as the Commissioners make no sign, although the Christmas and New Year holidays are close at hand, we again advert to the subject. Numbers of our contemporaries have urged that liberal concessions should be made, pointing out that it would be the certain means of making a large haul for the railway revenue ; but either the Commissioner*) do not believe it, or they are obstinately determined to show their contempt for public opinion. Possibly though they pay no regard to what New Zealand people generally think, they may be amenable to the counsel of outsiders. Let us see then j what an outsider has to say on the subject. A visitor from England writes to the " Otago Daily Times " as follows : — «* Will the Exhibition be a success ? It is a success as an exhibition , but as to whether it be « success m an educational Bense to the people of New Zealand will depend upon the word ' if the people can see it. This can be attained only by liberal treatment on the part oi the railway and steamship companies. The middle and wage-earning classes oi a community are its backbone, and it will be by them that the indirect benefit to the country through tho practica teachings of the Exhibition mus' be got. How can the farmer, shop" keeper, or artisan and his wife visi' tho exhibition at the rates offered' jokingly called " exhibition rates ?" The Union Steamship Company is a credit to the colony ; personally I could not say too much m its favor, and yet i mako bold to say that the monopoly ol this large company, dovetailing as it does with the Government railways, is literally strangling the development of New Zealand. Competition has been the soul of all progressive prosperity iv every country. The Union at present is essentially a company for the rich and well to do, and it is a farce to expect free intercourse between the centres ol population at its present rates. At the Paris Exhibition excursionists from London and return were taken ior 25s ; London Exhibition excursionists for 30U miles, return, 5s ; and from Southampton, and towns over 100 miles, for the day, 2s 6d. To say that you have not the population is true enough ; but the question is : Will you got the population to visit the Exhibition without offering such an inducement as will enable them to do so ? If such inducement cannot be offered, then it is a mistake to call it a New Zealand Exhibition, and the (Government had no busines3 to lend its patronage and name. The exhibitors who have spent large sums of money have surely some claim to consi deration. They have gone to the expense and inconvenience with a belief that this was to be what it really is — an exhibition worthy of New Zealand, and what they ask and what New Zealand 1 venture to say asks, is that the Government, having encouraged this exhibition, should do all m its power to enable the New Zealanders, and that the Union Company should ec-operate, to visit their own exhibition. Your exhibition will be a success or failure according exactly to the measure of fair liberality it meets with at the hands of jour rail way and Steamship Company." All this is simple truth and common sense, and it is to be hoped that, whatever the Union Shipping Company may do, our autocratic .Railway Commissioners will at lagt be persuaded to take a sensible and business-like view of the matter, If it be true that Mr Maxwell sets the saving of the wear and tear of rolling stock above all other considerations and would rather prolong the " life " of his engines and carriages than wear them out m earning money, then all we can say is that the idiocy of such a policy would be equal to that of an hotelkeeper who 6h.0u.1d bar out would-be guests lestthoy should wear out his carpets. Really it seems to us that it will soon become a question whether it would not pay the colony to repeal the Railway Commissioners Act, give the Commissioners compensation, and revert to Government management.