Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCT. 4, 1892. The Railway Commissioners.

Manawatu Herald, 4 October 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCT. 4, 1 892. The Railway Commissioners.

The Minister of Public "Works went out of his way to attack the Railway Commissioners in the Public Works Statement. He complained that the Commissioners management ap* peared to the Government so dis quieting as to require some special remedy. The only " remedy " the Government are anxious to make is one by which the control of the railways will be placed again in their hands for political purposes. It is strange that the Minister sees onty what is bad, whilst all business men, represented by the different Chambers of Commerce, have seen the far better system that has existed in the management of the railways under the Commissioners to what it was under political control. The Minister looks hungrily forward to the end of one more year when the term of office of the Commissioners terminate, but we trust all those who have the interest of the colony at heart will see that a further tenure is given them. "We have given the Minister's story, which appears to be very much of a st -ry, as the falling off in revenue has been emoted without the natural reasons for its doing so. However, Vhis is the other. The Comrr^ggioiiers state, through the colivmns of the Pod, that while the';' d was a falling off on the Hurunui-Bluff section, there was an increase on the remaining sections, and the decrease on the HurunuiBluff section was foretold in their report of 1891, in consequence of failure in the harvests of that year. There was actually 86,000 tons of grain less carried on this section in 1891 92 than in the preceding year, and there was a large unforseen falling off in the sheep and meat traffic, but notwithstanding this the falling off in goods traffic over the whole of the railways (absorbing the Hurunui-Bluff) the deficiency was only 19,000 tons, while, instead of a decrease, there was an actual increase of 122,000 passengers and of 2500 season tickets The Commissioners took over the railways in 1889. In the previous three years they earned an average revenue equal to £2 8s per centum on the capital value. For the three years during which the Commissioners have had the management the average profit has been £2 18s per centum — one half per cent more — and representing on a capital value of nearly fifteen millions over £70,000 increased profits per annum ; and this, in spite of large reductions in tariffs, as for instance, the introduction of retur.i fares, which meant a decrease of 83 \ per centum in rates to travellers, and reductions in the rates for carriage of staples like New Zealand coal, agricultural produce, lime, road materials, &c, of from 10 to 20 per centum, and a variety of other changes, all tending to reduction in charges As to the claim made in the Statement that the Civil Service Bill contained insurance provisions to meet the case of the railway employees, the Commissioners state that while the Minister admits that the Government Bill was not approved by the railway employees, 1600 of them expressed approval of the Commissioners' Bill.