MAKING THE RAILWAYS PAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 836, 7 June 1910, Page 2

MAKING THE RAILWAYS PAY.

BY INJUSTICE TO THE NORTH. Sir,—The Hon. J. A. Millar has been making the usual .Ministerial boast to his Dunedin supporters. Probably ho did not know any more than his hearers did all he was telling them. But, among other information he gave was this, that he had made the average fare paid by the 5,791,000 passengers which he says passed over the North Island lines during the year, fivcpence and thirty-four hundredths of a penny (5 3-t-iOOd.) more than that charged to the 5,324,000 who travelled on the South Island railways. As a matter of fact, according to his own statement, during last* year he raised the average price of the North Island tyre from Is. 10 16-100 d. to 2s. 1 G5-100d., ail increase of, say, threepence halfpenny (3 19-100 d.) on every journey, the shortest as well as the longest, taken in the North. This, in addition.to tho differential rate against the North of lour shillings and one pennv farthing (4s. Ud.) on every ton of goods, including road metal and all the material used in public works construction, means a disability which the North will not long be able to stagger under, and it is my honest belief that they have been deliberately imposed for the purpose of the progress of the North, and compelling ir to pay interest on tho shameful squandering in the South. I should have said that the average passenger faro in the South Island, according to Mr. Millar, is only Is. S 31-lood. As regards the South, Mr. Millar did not dare to apply his remedy. He had to curry favour with the electors, so ho actually reduced the South Island fare; not much, but still something, an average of 19-100 of a jienny. At any rate, there has been no increase there. AY hat kind .of men are wc in the North, that we put up with this treatment?—l am, etc., SAMUEL VAILE.