THE RAILWAY TARIFF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 21, 12 November 1880, Page 2

THE RAILWAY TARIFF.

(Wairarapa Standard.) We do not know whether our readers consider wo are wearing the question of railway rates bare or not, but we intend to the bebt of our ability to make them thoroughly understand tho character of Mr Oliver's new experiments. To begin with, we may as well inform them that there seems little chance of much timber being carried on our branch line, as the freighters propose carting their timber to Foatheratnn - instead of putting it in the train at Grey* tiwn. They will save three or four pence pet hundred feet they cay by so doing, and in theße hard timea this means money at tl» end of the year. The Manawatu Times in a recent issue remarks : — " We could repeat numberless instances in flinch sawmillers have refrained from sending timber by rail, but that course is not alone confined to the timber merchants. We know for a fact (hat Mr Chamberlain, of Feilding, having made a Imge purchase of wheat near Greatford, preferred to have it caitcd to his mill rathe? than paj the extra freight which has been impose! by the new tariff. We haTO been informed by Mr Jenssen that while in the South he made arrangements for an»*unlimited supply of timber, the first 100,000 feet of which was to be delivered this month, and when the increaie of tariff wa« announced he communicated with the pur* ' - cha>>ers asking that 3d per hundred should be allowed. As might have been expected the request was refuged, and the con». quence is that the order had to be abandoned. Unfortunately his case is only one of others who are similarly situated through th». action of the Government." On several .- r occasions w« have told our readers what the Feilding paper says on the subject. On the Picton line some very strange things huve been done. Let us take the passenger regulations first. The Ficton Prets says :— " Some travellers between Picton and Blenheim have discovered a weak place in the railwaj fares, and instead of paying the sum of 4s, second-class faro from Picton to Blenheim, succeeded in doing the through journey at 3s .Gd^.jgftd^hit, too, without infringing: the : regulations. This is the way the sohenYe is wofHB; The ordinary fare from Picton to Tua Marina is . 2s )>d, and from the latter place to Blenheim it is In, so that travellers may take a ticket for Tuu Marina, and when thsy arrive theie take another for Blenheim, by which fid is saved. Tho echemo will not work so well for return tickets, nor for first-class faros, but there surely is room for alteration* when, by giving extra trouble to the book, in a clerk, persons travelling can effect a saving on the through rates." But this js nothing to the tin-ber tariff there. Some time since timber waß carried under these * conditions. Four miles from Picton there- : '~ is a sawmill; the rate from the mill .to. the port was four pence per hundred superficial feet, provided that only 1500 feet was carried ia a truck. Any excess on this amount was charged at the rate of seven pence per 100 feet. Although the trucks would carry three or four thousand feet, the saw miller like a sensible man refused to send more than 1500 feet at' the rational tariff. Of course the Government could not, stand this nonsense and so toon increased ' the freight to ten pence p*r 100 feet, with the result of it all being carted along the main road instead of travailing over the railway. Let us look at the passepger fares further South. It is 230 miles from Dunedin to Christen nrch. The fare is 44* Gd. But while the fare from Dunedin to Christchurch is 44s 6d, that from the same place to Ashburtou -a distance of only 178 miles —is 44s 7d; tp. South Rakaia, 48a JOd; Selwyn, 62s Id; Rollestori, 63s 4d, &c. \ t Commenting on this novelty the Oamaru Mail says, pertinently enough : " All that now remains to be done by tha railway- authorities is to provide the fullest possible printed information showing how travellers can economise by working the oraole. We have ordinary railway time tables, which are useful for nil ordinary, purposes; but to expect fen intending traveller 4o himse'f work out the problem of what will be the . cheapest way to travel to a given spot under the new tariff, would be esjteotisg too much. We think that the railway depart* ment might cap their wise policy by iituiog ready-reckoners for this purpose." Going North the same story is heard. The Auckland Herald last week made the following complaint :— " The new tariff on the Auokland railway is so ill-advised as to be likely to interfere in a very great degree with the utility and profits of the line, and persons t. interested are now reverting to horseleth I * as the cheapest mode of transit {or the material they require. Under the old tariff the charge for gravel and sooriaj from Mount Albert or Mount Smart to town wag 4s 6d per truck, or about a shilling per pubic yard. Under the new tariff the rate is 13s Id per truck. One contractor , who requires n great quantity of this material has made fresh arrangements, and has his scoria carted and delivered without the cost of unloading, at the tarn* r*t« whioh he formerly paid the railway. Others ',ar» following the same lead, and in a •h'pirVtiihe ■ ■<• the whole of this profittWa Irad* Wfl ■%*■>, diverted from the railway." It b*iibjfefa«rto been our ill frrl^ta, pQni«>Oj^ ft gnljr , one newspaper in the Colony that has baa ' the hardihood to defend the new tariff, end that was our Masterton contemporary, bat the line w»s not then optnei that MDgtb

We cruld My an amusing thing or two on this matter, but refrain, adopting for the none* tbe role of the Sailor'a Parrot. It win be Been that Mr Oliver has thoroughly luooetded in " reachiDg iho multitude."