Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1884. The Railway Tariff

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 30, 13 March 1884, Page 2

Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1884. The Railway Tariff

♦ The new tariff, issued by the Minister for Public Works in the Gazette of the Bth, will come into force on the 17th instant. We have not space in the limits of a leading article to make those comments which the peculiar system followed in making the increased charges would permit. We will now merely discuss those items which more immediately effect the industries in our own immediate neighborhood. The most important article of export from the Manchester Block is sawn timber, and anything which injuriously effects it is of serious importance to the whole community. Freight on timber has been raised nearly five per cent., and although this may at first glance appear but small, yet when the aggregate amount of the railway freight is calculated, its dimensions are somewhat startling. On the 8,000,000 feet of timber annually sent from Feilding and Palmerston the extra cost to the sawmillers will be about £400 per annum. This is the lowest calculation. We admit that when a universal increase is obligatory on the Government, no industry should escape, but it seems hard that when the absurd reductions were made on grain freights to suit the Canterbury farmers, no corresponding reductions were made in favor of timber, although at the time we urged the justice of this on the attention of the Government. Now, when the folly of the grain concessions is forced on them, the timber trade, which has always been a prolific source of revenue, is to be still further taxed to make up a deficit made quite independantly of the sawmillers and which was a cash profit to the grain dealers. That a gross wrong is being done no one can deny. It may be urged, with a certain amount of truth, that every particular class of industry has a right to cry out when the burden of taxation is apparently shifted | upon it for the relief of others. That the farmers in the South will raise an outcry, we have every expectation, but we have very little sympathy for them, as the oppression they may be about to suffer will be entirely the result of their own greed. One matter which appears to have been overlooked by the Minister, or the General Manager of the Railways, is contracts that have already been let to supply the Government with timber, sleepers, &c, the tenders for which were, in part, calculated on the cost of railway freight according to the tariff in force at the time. We are aware that after the new rates come into force no concession can be made by the railway authorities, owing to the difficulties which would be presented by the Audit Department, neither will the Government make any allowance as compensation. Not to mince matters we can call this neither more nor less than barefaced robbery. Beporters' passes are to be abolished at the end of the current month, and season tickets issued to newspaper proprietors at half rates. We do not complain of this because it will have the effect, possibly, of causing the regulation under which gold railway tokens are issued to members of the House, to be cancelled. We complain of the utter silliness of the rate to be charged. Take for example the case of a newspaper on the Poxton-New Plymouth line, 177 miles : According to the tariff, a - reporter's season ticket for 12 months, at half rates, would cost £49 10s, while an annual ticket, available over, the whole of the New Zealand Bailways, will only be charged £50. In the latter case there is not the pretence of a concession, and the imper>inence of a certificate of btma fides is/ not even hinted at as in the case of newspaper tickets. This indirect blow at the Press is worse than contemptible, it is ridiculous. On the whole we believe the effect of the new tariff will be to bring the railway revenue up to a fair general charge on passengers and merchandise, and although undue pressure may be felt in particular cases, no doubt this will be relieved in about six months, which appears to be about the life of a railway tariff (the one now in use came into force on October Bth, 1888), and we do not see many signs of longevity in the new one. The Canterbury farmers cannot suffer, except mentally, as all this season's grain has been carried, of which fact the Minister for Public Works was perfectly aware before the higher rates on grain were established.