Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1884. New Railway Tariff

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 33, 20 March 1884, Page 2

Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 1884. New Railway Tariff

The southern portion of the Colony is at this time in an apparent condition of commercial coma, from wbich it would appear that the magician's wand of a new loan or other expendi- j ture of Government money is needed j to awaken it. The cry for the expenditure of Government money on the one hand is accompanied by a clamour for reduced expenditure in the Civil Service. The Government has made an effort to meet a declining revenue by au increase on the railway freight charges, and, as we mentioned would be the case, the cry of the grain farmers in the South has gone up in the most mournful tones to the Government. We hope that the Minister for Public Works will keep a steady front and will not allow himself to be browbeaten into concessions, which, when made in the past, were attended and followed with such disastrous results. The experience gained in the past two years should prove to the Government and the people the folly of what are known as special rates. In Canterbury and Otago for some months business has been almost at a standstill, and the grain season has been looked forward to as the time when large money advances would be released by the sale of the crops. That these hopes will be realised in a great measure is likely enough, but still the increase of the charges for the portage of grain will fall heavily on capitalists and banks that made advances or purchased standing crops, and indirectly the farmers will be made to suffer loss also. It must not be forgotten, however, that last year the grain was carried at a positive loss to the whole Colony, and that the charges now made will only in part recoup the taxpayers from the loss then sustained from the cheap rates. The outcry of the farmers only goes to prove the rule that we all want economy to be exercised in any other than our own case. We, in the Manawatu, think it is only just that the Canterbury people should be made to pay fair rates for grain, and the Canterbury people think we should pay high rates for timber carriage. We have not seen a single paper which advocates or offers any scheme by which the present pressure could be removed from the Government. One journal fears an increased property tax, and another an increase in the customs tariff, and so on. In the increased revenue hoped to be collected from the railways, no one has to contribute unless he gets a proportionate value, whether as a passenger or trader, and it is almosto ptional, with the roads now open, whether the railways are used at all. There is no compulsion. If less grain or timber is carried by rail, the expenses will be proportionately les.i, and the actual profits will be more. Therefore the Government will be wise to exercise considerable caution in making any great changes at the present time.