Proposed Railway Tariff.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 11 November 1890, Page 2

Proposed Railway Tariff.

Wo now give the particulars of a proposed amendment in the Railway tariff as suggested by Mr J.imes "Wright Stewart. Before goin™ into the question it will be as well to mention that Mr J. W Stewart is a competent civil engineer, and held, in the old country, many positions of responsibility In the colony, he for many years was the en.-ineev for the Manawatu County, when that body had tho control over the territories now included in the Oroua and Horowhenua Counties- He baa, therefore, had amp'e experience of the difficulties country se tiers labour under with the present system of charging for haulage and passenger fares. In considering the present anomalous and unfair charges of the existing tariff, Mr Stewart discovered this new mode of charging, wh eh could be made applicable to the who c colony, and which he thinks would if adopted, tend in a preat measure to ighten the incubus which now weight down the settlers and minimises their small profits. Mr Stewart argues in this fashion. Ist. That as the railways have been made by money borrowed upon the security of the settlers as a whole, that they belong to them, and should be run solely for their benefit. 2nd. Tha the Commissioners have co right to grant concessions to on • district and withhold them from another. 3rd. That as the colony never can afford to make railways reasonably accessible to ail. it is incumbent upon the Commissioners to devise gome scheme by which the outlying settlers should participate fairly in the benefits derived by more favoured settle s, in point of location. 4th. That the reductions ext nded to remote settlers should increase in proportion to their distance from a market or shipping port. sth. That remote settlers more than 20 miles fron a railway station shou!d gvjt a rebate to enable them to cart long distances and u-e the railway, thus creating traffic.

The diminishing scale of rates and charges which is proposed >y Mr Stewart is simple >n the extreme, aud consists mainly in substituting for ordinary train miles their "square roots," thus 4 miles becomos 2 miles, 9 miles 8 mi es, 16 miles 4 mile*, and 100 mi es 10 mile- 1 , and 8-1 on. With this scale before them, all the C')inmissi< ners hare to do is to fix a fair rate per mile of new scale. Per examp c, if they fix one shilling first class and sixpence second c ass for passengers, these rates would obtain for through traffic all over the colony, through traffic heing that between central stations or from central stations to local stations and vice versa. For example, take the Wellington-Manawiitu Eailway and notice h«)\v it works out in tho following table:—

Wellington to Parrnmatta 16 miles equal i of new scah would therefore be charged 4/- Ist c ass and 2'- '2nd class. Kereru 05 miles equal 8 of new soile would be charged 8/- Ist class and 4/- 2nd class. Palnaeritoa

y ii ami 4 9. It will be observed that this scale differs f'oui any other proposed in as much sis it diminishes in pr-por-ti 'ii to distance, for example a p.irsenger wil pay to Parramatta 4/- «-r at the rate o*' 3d per mil-, and a passe :i;_»or to Kur-.-ru will pay 8/- or at the rate of 1^ per mi c and to L ngburn ab -ir ljd p. j r mile. hus a though each settler would lia^o to pay m re than thosn nearer the wnrkets or ports, he would have less to ])ay per mile and this cup ed wth chfap r land or town reut would enable him to pay his way with, some comfort, and perhaps to employ labour and dmble his output. Local traffic or traffic between stations Mr Stewart proposes should be 2d Ist cla^s and Id second class per ordinary train mile. "With regard to the goods tariff which has become so complex as to be quite uninteUigeble, Mr Stewart proposes to set aside, and do away with all classifications and simply to name the article and charge it according to new scales example on table under.

This table shows that milk at \ . penny per gallon would be carried 1 for the first 60 miles for B£d and for x 10 • mile* fid, In thft san># way 3 grain or 3oa's at 1/- per ton would 3 be carried 50 roileg for 7/- and a t 100 miles for 10/-, all bhowing a i gradual reduction in favor of tht 1 remote settler.

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