WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 June 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

WHEAT AND FLOUR. THE GOVERNMr.N'r.e PROPOSALS. (Specinl to " Guardian ”.) WELLINGTON. June 2. As fur :is can lie judged from such information ns is available, the bread eonstiiiUTs of Wellington are not so well pleased l>y the Government's proposals for the regulation ol tlie price of wheat as the farmers ol Canterbury and North Otago are likely to ho. The scheme enunciated l>.v the Prime -Minister yesterday )or the encouragement of wheat growing is not entirely new. lint it presents the ease for protection in one of its most insinuative forms. • When the current domestic value of tloiir is £l3 per ton of 2,0(!0lbs. average." it proposes. " the duty shall be c."> in,-, per ton; when the current demotic value exceeds (Jill, the rate of duty shall he decreased by one shilling per 2,(>oolbs. average for every one shilling or fraction of one shilling by which the said current domestic value exceeds £l3; when the current domestic value is less than £l3, the rate ol duty shall be increased bv one shilling per i'.OOOlhs. average for every one shilling or fraction of one shilling by which the said current doinostir: value is less than £l3.’' A sliding scale of duty is not easy to operate smoothly hut, this is not a point the contending parties are discussing just now. f ATC■ 111XCI (ON'SI'U Kits. The point -that is concerning the public here, and apparently in other parts ol tla- North Island, is that however abundant the harvest in the Dominion may be or however the cost of production may b< reduced. llh- price of Hour will he fixed by Statute and the consumers will have no chance ol sharing in the good lortune of the producers. That lolk on this side of Cook Strait have sonic cause for alarm may he judged from a statement made in Christchurch as late as Monday last by Mr .T. T). Hull, the president of the North Canterbury Executive of the Farmers' Union. This gentleman, after explaining to a representative of one of the local newspapers how ho came to wait upon the Prime Minister in the interests of the southern wheat growers, staled that Mr Coates had told him that he was doing all he possibly could by way of tariff adjustment to ensure for the wheat growers next year, with competition, fis per bushel for Tuscan wheat on trucks and perhaps more. This statement, has been widely distributed by (he Press Association and the Minister’s silence leaves no doubt of its accuracy. The substance of the whole matter appears to bo Unit there is no escape for the consumers from the duty of seventy shillings per ton oil (lour, RAIL AND HUS. The railway authorities, who. according to their lights, have Keen striving .zealously during the last year or two to restrain the inroads of the motor buses upon their suburban traffic. have to confess themselves beaten. Since tlie financial year 1021 the ordinary passenger traffic has continued to decline year by year till in 1027 it shows a fall from 15.315.340 ordinary passengers to 10,'182,790. a decrease of slightly over one-third during the sixyears. In this period the number ol season ticker holders increased from 104,091 to o'--1,170, in response to the special efforts made by the railway athorities, hut the increase, of course, goes only a very small way towards balancing the falling-oIF in the number of ordinary passengers. •• That the decline in passenger traffic on the railway is due to the inroads of motor competition.” it is authoritatively stated this morning. " is considered to be proved by the fact that, the chief falling off has been from short distance runs —ilie average receipt per journev increased from 37.07(1 in 1024 to 48.-12 J in 192"—and it is in the suburbs that the motor bus does its business.” No one acquainted with the Wellington or the Auckland suburban services will doubt the accuracy of this conclusion nor question the popularity of the buses.

THE PLIGHT OF THE RAILWAYS. In their statement this morning the railway authorities make an almost pathetic appeal for protection from private enterprise. " The policy of the Government.” they say, ” has been to encourage suburban residential settlement by the provision of cheap faros and improved timetables, the success of that policy being based on the expectation that the ‘day’ traffic at ordinary suburban rates would c-ommen-snrate the Department for the exceedingly low fares charged to workers and the cheap season tickets used byothers who ride to and from their place of employment. That expectation, as the figures quoted reveal, has not altogether materialised. In actual ex perience the Railway Department has found that in many instances the families of early morning concession ticket holders patronise the opposition service for their city shopping excursions in the afternoon.” The truth of the matter is that the bus services running out of Wellington offer a much more convenient service to many. suburban residents than do the railways. They pick up passengers at their own doors, give them the choice of half a dozen stopping places within the city, and. “ free, gratis and for nothing,” render them many little personal services which are not expected from a railway employee. If the Government wishes to retain the patronage of all the people it has assisted to .suburban residences it should adopt some of the better methods of private enterprise.