OUR RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 3

OUR RAILWAYS.

——-» • MR. S. VAILE AND .THE PRIME MINISTER. INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. Some interesting correspondence on tho '>' subject of the New Zealand railways lias 10 passed between Mr. Samuel Vaile, of '• Auckland, and tho Prime Minister (Sir " Joseph Ward). •J Writing on December C, 1310, Mr. Vaile " addressed the Prime Minister as fol- }; lows:- . Sir,—By this morning's post I received "• a letter, of which the following is n t copy:—"Abstract of Report of tno Rail- , ways Committee of the House of Rcpre- . sentatives on the Petition of Samuel J " Vailo of Auckland. liefcrrcd to tho Gov- „ eminent for' consideration.—(Signed) 11. J Otlcrson, Clerk of tho Houso of Kopre!l sentatives." I understand this to mean J that the Government undertakes to deal J with tho matter; therefore, seeing that timo with mo is getting short—l am now i in my eighty-third year—l shall bo ex- " tremely obliged if you will bo good u enough to let mo know when I may exit psct a reply to tho questions raised in , my petition. 'j Tho following is a copy of Sir Joseph j. Ward's reply:— ;r Frime Minister's Office, Wellington, De- -- comber 30, 1910. Sir,—With reforenco to it your inquiry respecting tho petition rei- cently presented to Parliament on your 10 behalf, asking for a trial of the Stago or s. Zono system on tho Now Zealand railso ways, X have the honour to inform you n that the matter has been carefully cond sidered, and the Government is unable ■o to sanction a trial of tho system except tt on tho basis of the terms offered to you i- ill my letter" of October 3, 1000, namely, is that a cash guaran'ce bo deposited with 1- tho Treasury, the amount of sucli guar;e ante© to bo fixed after you supplied the ie Department with full particulars of the a charges to bo made for all classes of io traffic. Owing to the completion of the >s North Island Main Trunk railway, tho is conditions existing in 1900 have materially ft altered, and it would not now bo practe ticablo to mako a trial of your system on it tho Auckland section, as was contemit plated had you accepted tho terms offcrlo ed last yenr. I'lio wholo of the prins - cipal sections of the railways of tho Do- ** minion hovo now been joined up, and , any trial of your system that is author- '; ised would require to ie on an isolated " section, and the amount of the cash guarantee would bo notified you on learning tho particulars of tin rates you propose should bo charged, and tho Motion of railway on which you desire thn experiment should be made. Any trial that is made must, however, include all classes of traffic... In reply, Mr. Vailo, under dnto Janup ary 31, 19U, wrote a lengthy letter, in I- tho course of which ho eaid:— 5" ". . . In paragraph 2 of tho petition reX fcrred to, I showed that for tho six ? years 18DD to 1904 the expenditure on the 1 railwnys of tho Dominion was stated as l " follows:—Tho late Hon. Mr. R. J. Seddon, as Premier, said it was .£2,395,937. Your Minister for Public Works, tho Hon. Mr. Roderick M'Kenzio, says it was only £2,- ~ 182,850. You (Sir Joseph Ward) and Sir j Alfred Cadmnn say it was . .£5,601,165. _ There is a discrepancy between vou of .£2,118,310. I think 1 have a right to ~ ask: How docs this arise? 0 "No. 3 paragraph slates that during . the eight years, 1901 to 1908, wo have an--0 other three; different Ministerial statc(t ments as to our railway expenditure during this period. The Hon. Geo. Fowlds, . Minister for Education, says it was Xt.490,077. The Hon. Roderick Jl'Konzie,' Minister for Publio Works, savs it was .£3,23.1,153. You (Sir Joseph Ward) and tho Hon. Mr. Hall-Jones, as Jlinis- ,. ters for Railways, unite in saying it was f. .£9,180,868. So hero again Ministers disagrco to the extent of .£4,890,191. i. "SCo. 1 paragraph of my petition shows ,f that during the 19 years from IS9I to 0 1909, inclusive, tha statements of tho vari,f ous Ministers for Railways.. show < that 0 .£13,731,723 wha expended on our railways; 0 Mr. Roderick M'Kenzio, whom-you recent- ,. ly »PPointcd r Mi;i l i£tsrJor_y.ubl,jp, I W.ork? l ■. however, loudly asserts'that oniv .£0,901,- . 997 (sco Hansard, December 23, 1910, page j 1511) was 60 expended. Thero is. a „ difference hero of ,yCG,769,72G, nearly seven 5 millions of pounds; I must remind: you, s sir, that all this Ministerial misrepre- ; scntation has been modo in tho endeavour to convince. North Island voters that tho Seddon and Ward Governments had spent more money on railways in tho North, ;. than in the South. . . . Tho caso of Mr. i. R. M'Kenzio is particularly scandalous. .. What ho in effect savs is that tho enor- ;. mous sum of -CC7C9.72G has been charged to the railway account, not ono penny of which, ho says, was spent on them. . ".'.■ '. No. 5 paragraph of my petition asks which of these widely varying Minisa terial statements, all of which we're given r to'tho public as authoritative, I was to i o take as the real cost of our railways. « Further on you will seo that I had a very >- cogent reason for nutting this question, d I ask you, sir, when tho leading Minisi- ters of the Crown arc prepared to shamefully misrepresent tho railway oxpendi- ;- ture, what coniidenco can tho community n havo 'in any of tho public records. "Paragraph 7 of my petition refers-in d a mild manner to tho disgraceful wrong r you did mo personally in tho speech I. you made at our last Chamber of Comi- mcrco dinner, where, you represented mo r as 1 saying things not ono word of which s I, ever said. If you want further par- -- ticulars I refer you to my reply to you 0 published in tho 'Now Zealand Herald' i at Auckland on June 21 last, and repro--6 duced in numerous papers throughout tho Dominion, but to winch yon havo never ■. attempted to make any reply. I 'enclose e a copy. t Nos.-G, 7, 8. 9, and 10 paragraphs call attention to tho shamclul dillerential t rating iniposod against tho North and in r favour of tho South Island of this Do- . minio'n. This in March last, according > to tho public records, stood ns follows:— ;, Average charge for transporting every ■, ton of goods of every class, including t minerals of all classes, ns well as lime, which pays no freight, and no matter what distance carried, was in tho North Island ten shillings and cightpenco per ton (10s. 8d.); in (lie South island it was ~ but tivo shillings and niucponco farthing j per ton (ss. 9Jd.-). For carrying every | "ordinary passenger," including cliil- % dren's half-tares, the chargo in the North . .was 2s. ljd., in tho Soutli only Is. BJd. s Tho differenco against tho N'orth Island was" thus, on March 31 last, for every ton of goods, no matter of \vhat class or what the distanco carried, 4s. lOJd.j and on every passenger, including children, 5Jd. Appended to my petition I gave comparntivo North and South distance and charges tabks, proving incontestably tho truth of my statements as to tho expenditure and rating. To tho above.very serious charges brought against you and your Jlinistors, permit me, sir, to direct your attention to tho fact that yours of B tho 30th ult. does not contain ono single r word of• reply or explanation. I havo 5 repeated'these "charges-here because I . very much doubt if you havo over seen . tho petition referred to. ■ May I also remind you, sir,.that during tho wholo of J the long Parliamentary session just concluded, Ministers repeatedly refused to J dovoto even half a day to the discussion . of railway matters; I think I may nlso . add that if my accusations are not truo f and provable, it is tho duty of tho Gov- , eminent, especially of tho Ministers 1 openly accused, to show that I am wrong, , and so stop tho serious damage being 1 done to tho Dominion by allowing such 1 charges to remain unchallenged and unI answered. , This, sir, brings mo to tho 11th and ' last paragraph of my petition, and tho ' only ono of which you hovo eloigned to | take the slightest notice, notwithstanding tho serious nature of the charges brought ". against you and your Ministers. There is no man in this Dominion who knows , ns well as you do that no offer of a trial of the Stago system, that any sane man J with tho smallest amount of business . knowledge could possibly accept, was ever . mndc to me. That I have been right in . steadily refusing to comply with your t outrageous and unbusinesslike demand that it should be tried as a complete j system in every branch of traffic nt oiio . and tho fame time, or not at all, is fully proved by tho action of the four European Powers who havo adopted my millu ideas;. not ono of them was unwise enough to do ns you demand shnll be done. Hungary, Austria, and Russia nil commenced as I proposed, with pnssenircr traffic, and plucky little Denmark with goods traffic. You will excuse me, sir, if, I say Wat as a diligent and not altogether unknown student of the "Railway Problem." I do not eonsider iyour administration of New Zea- [

lniid's'railwavs such a success, as would havo justified mo in accepting your dictum in preference to tho experiences of these four European Powers. If you were right in your much-boasted "railway policy," why havo you been, obliged to abandon it, and appoint n Minister for I'oilways who lias not scrupled to use tho abominable differential rating system to plunder tho North to the fullest , possible extent in order to keep tho 'nonpaying lines in the South open a few years longer? . In reply to your statement about tho joining "up of our main lines, I have only to say there would be no difficulty whatever in applying tho stage system from Rotorua to the terminus of the lino north of The only difficulty about a trial is your determination -that no trial shall toko place if you can possibly prevent it, except under such conditions as would ensu-o its complete failure. I will now sav, sir, that when 1 first read your letter of October 3, 1900, I knew then, as well as I know now, that your pretended offer of a trial was only a cunningly and carefully-designed trap, intended to catch me. . . . May I remind you, sir, that when thrown olf your guard in tho heat of debate you havo more than oneo said in Parliament that if tho Stngo system, as laid down by mo (Samuel Vaile) were brought into forco and applied to the whole system, that tho increase of traffic would bo so immense that tho Government would not be able to supply rolling stock sufficient to deal with it. Could you havo possibly said more in its praise, or havo shown tuoro conclusively that you knew it must nrovo a great success if once tried? (See Hansard, Julv 24, 1992, pages GOG, GO7; do., September 14, 1904.) And now, sir, may I remind you that while you havo talked very largely of tho pretended offer of a trial of the Stago system sr>id to have been made to me, you havo carefully avoided dealing with tho offer made by a number of prominent Auckland citizens to take over tho Auckland section and test tho new system nt our own risk, I undertaking to stake another thousand on it, and haying already spent nearly two thousand. Wo also guaranteed to the Government to pay tho same rate of interest as they wcro then paying, to reduce the then charges, to givo an absolute guarantee against li)ss, to allow tho experiment to bo carried out under the supervision of your own officers, and after tho first year to hand them back to tho Government on receiving six months' notico to do so.' (Sco Hansard, October 7, 1597). Permit me, sir, to say that this is a very different offer of a trial from the pretended ono made by you. You demand of me, sir, a complete tariff under the new system, but neither you nor any of your Ministers appear to 1» ablo to tell mo what our railways havo cost. How, then, could I comply with your lireposterous request? ■ Surety you must mow that tho first thing required of tho new tariff would bo that it must pay reasonable interest on tho capital invested. I havo only to add that if you con prove, the nbovo statements to be untruo I shall bo only too pleased, and will make every amends in mv power, and you have your remedy. ] shall not complain. 1 sincerely believe every statement I have made to bo absolutely true, nntl havo folt it a downright humiliation to bo flblo to writo such a letter to tho Premier of tho Dominion, but 25 years of "referred tho Government for consideration" has exhausted my patience. Jfr. Vailo signs himself, tho Faithful Servant of tho Empire, and for tho last 6S years of the Now Zealand Dominion. On February 10, Mr. Vaile again'writes: Sir,—So far I have not received any reply to, nor even nn acknowledgment of. my registered letter of January 31. I send this to say that I do not intend to waste further time and that unless I hear from yo,n before tho 15th instant I shall tako such action as I may consider most in tho public -interest.