ON THE MANAWATU.

NZ Truth, Issue 58, 28 July 1906, Page 6

ON THE MANAWATU.

Wellington to Johnsonville.

Vexati6us- Increase of Fares'

After Twenty-Years' Mutual- Satisfaction.

The Manawatu Railway Company have just discovered,, after being; iri error for twenty years, that they have been conveying the Jonsonville residents to and from the city at a deplorably low figure. During two decades business men living, at Johnsonville have purchased yearly, .tickets, (second-class) at £6 10s. The general public have contented ■'.themselves with monthly, tickets at 14s a time, second-class. The fa'res which have so long obtained were, it appears, fixed on a six miles basis. Actually, it has been discovered, very late d-n the day, Johns onville is distant rather less than six and a half miles froni the city. And so the cost of travelling has gone up. The yearly tickets (second-class) are now only obtainable for £6 17 6d a time, the monthly tickets cost 16s each. Among the travelling public there are curses loud and deep, and, apparently, very well • deserved, too, against the Mana.watu Company. In the absence of Mr Hanny, the general manager, can it be that Mr March-banks, the acting manager, is ; endeavoring to make a name for himself ? Or must a scapegoat be sought elsewhere ? Anyway, some one has blundered. Had the Manawatu Company been desirous of earning the maledictions' of their patrons and fervent prayers for the hastening of the time when the Government shall take over all railway lines in the colony,' they could not have gone a better way, to work to achieve the object. ' .Jgljs