TRAVELLERS' EXPENSES.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 58, 19 August 1875, Page 6

TRAVELLERS' EXPENSES.

(To the Editor of the Clutha Leader A) Sir, — I see by your issue of the 12th August that Mr Canning, formerly travelling agent for the ' Bruce Herald,' has been obliged to render a public explanation to the brief and very inexplicit report of Canning v. Mackay in the ' Bruee Herald ' of August 6th. j From the manly and straightforward statement of Mr Canning, it would seem that Mr Mackay had not been charged enough, instead of too much, the judgement of Mr Maitland notwithstanding.; The difficulties of the position of a newspaper traveller demand a • large amount of tact and the assistance of cash in the most of cases, especially when dealing with a second rate journal. The scale of travellers' expenses may be reckoned up thus : — For horseman : Man, three meals a day, 2s all round on the South Road, and horse livery 6s a night; total 14s per day. On the North Road, man three meals a day and bed, all round, 2s 6d, and livery, 6s • total, 16s. This is without any extras, of which may be enumerated shoeing, 8s all round ; average on the road, a set a month ; tip to the groom a half-crown now and then, or a " bob," according to the weather arid the' time of sojourn; a glass of beerwith a friend or client, or a shout all round for a tip. To turn up the generous element of your customers is always supposed to be a square method of. getting subscribers for anything, and in charging these expenses there is nothing but average justice done to both sides. The upcountry charges are 16s a day, and the only way of avoding these demands is by starving yourself, or sponging, the horse to live on odd feeds, tussocks, and posts and rails, or to luxuriate on the good provender of our "mutual friend." Travelling by wheels with one horse is more expensive, and by two still more so ; while 'travelling by steamer only embraces distinctive points, such as Oamaru, Christchurch, Timaru, or Invercargill, and may be. summed up thus: To Timaru. L 2; expenses in Timaru, hotel per day 10s 6d, extras 4s 6d per diem — total, 15s a day ; say four days there, including a trip to Geraldine and Temuka, and return to Dunedin L 2, would bring thp expenses to L 8 for 14 days' travelling, or Ll 3s 4d a day, and very cheajv too for this kind of travelling, The stage is the next irind of getting about. Travelling by stage, as every one knows, is about as dear a method of going around as can be thought of in the newspaper and commercial line, especially in the former case, where business is scattered all over the conntry. The charge everywhere to coach travellers is 2s 6d all round, which brings expenses to a pound a day. and upwards. This brief glance, Mr Editor, at travelling expenses, it is only fair to state, is drawn from the mildest point of view, to correspond to the case in hand. I must say, as an old traveller, that I am at, a loss to understanding how Mr Mackay could expect any respectable man to travel for him for less than it actually cost, him — an injustice which the plaintiff in this case has evidently had forced udon Him— rand will conclude by saying tnat the sympathies of. the travellingcrommuriity ;i ai?e with Mr Cannigjj.p-r «n, &&, Traveller,