NOT WANTED

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 203, 21 May 1908, Page 3

NOT WANTED

FREIGHT ON PUBLIC' "WORKS TRAINS. With referenc'o to tho special rates charged by the Public Works Department for the conveyance of stock over tho sections of the North Auckland Railway not open for regular traffic (says our special Auckland pondent), Mr. S G. L. Peacock, president of the Auckland Railways League, wrote lately to the Minister for Public Works pointing ,out that tho . rates wero excessive, and amounted to 15s. per truck for tho three miles trip from Wayby to Tauhoa, whereas tho schedule rate for a. similar distanco was '2s. per truck. Tho'Minister has replied that it did not pay to run traffic on uncompleted .railways, and the Department preferred not to convey such traffic even "at present rates, but tho arrangements were mado l to suit tho public convenience. • It was usual to charge for freight of this nature as though it' both originated and terminated on tho unopened section, and he could not make an exception in the'case'of the North Auckland lino. A truck load of cattle could be sent from Tauhoa to Auckland for 375. 6d., and if freight was " charged at continuous mileage ratos from Wayby. to Auckland the amount would be only 38s 6d. , It was manifest, added the Minister, that the Department could not haul trucks by its separato train from Wayby to Tauhoa for 25., and hence the distinct charge for the uncompleted section^.