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Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1932, Page 4

The benefit of .free carriage of .lime by rail will be denied by the Railways Department in future to those farmer's who use other means of transport for conveying others goods, when rail carriage is available, according to a decision announced!. It has- been found thnt some farmers are having produce transported by road, and it has been decided that they will be precluded from any assistance as far as the concession on lime is concerned. - For many years lime has been carried free by the railways up to 103 miles. In the first instance the cost was borne solely hv the Railways Department, but in 1924 the Government decided that the department should be recouped from the Consolidated Fund, and that the cost should be a charge on the estimates of the Department of Agriculture. From ipril 1, 1929, Dm cost was home equally by the Railways and the Department of Agriculture, hut from April 1, 1931, the whole cost has been placed on the Department of Agriculture, Since 1924 the Department of Agriculture hao made the following payments to the Railways Department for the carriage of lime-1924-25,. £23,229 (full amount); 1925-26, £31.311 ; (full amount) ; 1929. 27. £29,044 (full amount); 1927-28, £31,184 (full amount): 1928-29, £3B- - (full amount); 1929-39, £24,788 (half amount); 1930-31, £24.606 (half amount); • 1931-32, £44,395 (full amount). It is set out in the Railways' Department’s scale of charges that New Zealand 1 lime for use in dressing farm land may, at the option and convenience of the department, be conveyed free for distances up to 100 miles, but there is a proviso that the department may decline to ex'tend the benefit to farmers who decline to use the railways for the carriage of other goods to and from their farms when the railway is available.