Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10. 1890. TAXING NEWSPAPERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2325, 10 January 1890, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10. 1890. TAXING NEWSPAPERS.

The Railway Commissioners appear to be determined to make their administration as vexatious and annoying to the public as possible. Not only are they deaf to all suggestions an to how beßt to serre the convenience of settlers in the way of train times, fares, etc., bat they have insisted upon carrying into effect the threatened tax upon newspapers— for that is what it amounts to. From and after the first of the current month all newspapers, sent by rail, whether forwarded singly or in bundles, have to bear stamps to the minimum value of a halfpenny and twopence respectively, that is to say parcels are carried at rates ranging from 2d upwards, while single copies thrown off by the guards have to carry a stamp each. In the latter case the impost is equal to a charge of 50 per cent on the price. of a penny paper, and means that subscribers who gat their papers delivered in this way must be asked to pay- 13s a year more. This will also mean that in a good many cases the country settler will stop his paper to the inconvenience and often loss of himself and to the certain loss of the newspaper proprietor. Now why should all this be ? If the railways cannot do without the paltry revenue desirable from this source, they must be in a bad way indeed, and even were that revenue ten times what it will be, it would be dearly bought at the cost of , the annoyance and inconvenience which will result. It iB indeed a curious commentary upon the supposed progressiveness of the times that the railways should in this particular fail to serve the public as well as did the coaches thirty years ago. la the days of Cobb and Co papers were always carried free, and thrown off at various places by the drivers with a regularity which has never been equalled by the guards of the trains, and until now they have been carried by f the railway free, with one single exception, That exception was an attempt a j few years ago to inaugurate the syßtem of charging, now again proposed, but it was speedily abandoned. We see that] Mr Maxwell, writing to the " Timaru Herald " takes credit for its abandonment on that occasion ; but if that be so we should like to know whether it was owing to his counsels or to those of the chief Commissioner (Mr M'Kerrow) that it has now been re-imposed. If the former, then Mr Maxwell is certainly not too ingenuous, and if the latter, then «ye can only say that we are astounded at so plain a proof of Mr M'Kerrow's failure to guard tha public interests. The carrying of the newspapers involves no appreciable extra weight of haulage and so cannot conduce to the increased wear and tear of the lines, and as it practically costs the Department nothing, there is no reason why the charge should be insisted on, while as to the trifling trouble of delivery surely the fact should be a sufficient quidproquo that guards, engine-drivers and stationmasters are almost invariably supplied with free newspapers, that is to gay they have been hitherto but it cannot be expected that this free supply will be continued while the new impost is insisted upon. The administration of the Commissioners has been animadverted upon by the press througtoat New Zealand and has now, indeed, few defenders, and it really looks as if instead of taking this in good part, and mending their ways, the Commissioners were bent upon punishing those whom they cannot silence.