The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1895. RAILWAY FREIGHTS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 161, 7 January 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1895. RAILWAY FREIGHTS.

With the purchase of the WellingtonManawatu railway will come the necessity for a radical revision of the present freight tariff. It is to be hoped the Government will see it to be in the' best interests of settlers, and of the colony as a whole, to reduce to a mere nominal charge the carriage rates on the products xjc-tfeesciJ. A much needed concession would be matjle pg the : strujggling settlers, while Jthie rail- .j ; way revenue would really be largely jsindapernianentiy iocrea^l. =T j^here j need be no reduction. wbatsrep ip, ' pJlsenger - fares or in the charg&s on ordinary nierchandise, but everything th^fcriner jraises should be carried for nei v '£? fl9tbJD£r. ■ What ft stim.uju^ m*i§ ;■■:■■-.-.. _ w ■••:_. \:T \ :?:■.' "y^'"^":" r: "■„ :

might thus be given, for instance, to the raising of fruit, poultry, eggs, bacon, etc., leaving out the large products, if the cost of landing them in city or port was reduced to a minimum. The present tariff has been framed apparently upon the one idea of securing revenue only, whereas the chief consideration in the case of railways the property of the colony should be the creation of traffic by that greatest of all stimulants — low rates. If production be increased it naturally follows that population will be multiplied, and that means, of course, increased passenger and goods traffic. Our farmers can never successfully compete in the Home market so long as it costs as much, or more, to have a ton of produce carried from Feilding to Wellington, as it does from the latter port to London. While the Manawatu j Railway remained in private hands any such alteration in the rates could not be expected to be effected, but with the Government owning the complete system from New Plymouth to Wellington there is nothing to prevent the adoption of such a scale of rates as will go far towards promoting settlement and prosperity throughout the country.