RAILWAY REFORM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 107, 10 April 1885, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM.

Writes the Post m reference to this question, one phase of which was dealt with m our leading columns yesterday :- We are quite certain that Parliament and the country will back up the Minister of Public Works m making a clean sweep of official obstructionists if they will not adapt themselves to the requirements of the public interest, but persist m raising difficulties m the way of railway reform,. which is really one of the most important and pressing questions of the day. We are not at all prepared to go the length which Mr Samuel Vaile would lead the colony, but there is a great deal m his facts and figures which deserve the most serious consideration of every man m the community. The recent institution of cheap excursion trains has shown that high fares prevent large numbers of people from travelling by rail, who would gladly do so at a lower rate. Mr Vaile would determine tliia lower rate by an abitraiy rule of general application. This would be a great mistake. The Railway Department should have no difficulty m determining it on each particular line, so as to discover the minimum of rates at jwhich the maximum of profitable, traffic can be ..attracted and carried. -Xni other words the object should he to' develop the largest possible traffic o whicji. can be induced by the adbjkioi|i , of the lowest profitable rates- on each line of milway. It is far better that a line should carry 10,000 passengers within a given time at a profit of, say, two per cent, over actual cost of conveyance, than that it should realise the same profit by conveying 5000 passengers within the period. Whore the traffic is doubled, however, the rate of profit can easily be increased without perceptible pressure m any direction. We need hardly say that considerations of this kind have never yet influenced professional management of New Zealand railways. Encouraging traffic is about the last thing thought of— -in fact, such are: suit would be regarded as a nuisance if we are hot iriislakep,. however, the present Minister of Public Works is likely, whether he continues to Administer the railways directly on be; half of the GoVernmentij or whether he places the administration m the hands of one or more' boards, to give a good many rudeshockg to professional and offickl ideas on the subject of railway management, and our -advice to the powers that have been, and still am, charged with administration is to try and adapt themselves to circumstances before it is too late. In th«se days obstructive officialism has no real chance of permanent success against the public interest. The colony is determined that its railways shall pay.