The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 605, 10 April 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1878.

Mr. Sumpter, Ch-ii-- v of the_Oama.ru Harbour Board, has received T h-Mowing reply by telegraph to his nicr-a = - ..I yjiterday, embodying the gist of a rpso'iuon passed by the Board in reference to the inequality of the railway tariff and the scarcity of rolling-stock : " Questions of tariff, Ac*., referred to Commissioner of Railways for report and explanation. Will communicate further when they are received. "J. Macanorew. Mr. "W. Conykrs, the Commissioner of Railways, has already bren made aware of the views on these subjects of those concerned from Timaru to Dnnedin. The Chairman of the Oamarn Harbour Board and several merchants waited upon that "entleman when he wa3 last in Oamaru. q"hey urged that an alteration should be immediately made. Mr. Cosyers, in reply, stated that the change was brought about by the Lyttelton Harbour Board. He supposed that as the Dcnedin Chamber of Commerce was moving in tue matter, _ it ■would doubtless receiye due consideration at the hands of the Government. No langua"e could have been more explicit than tha? which has been addressed to him on these questions; and with explicitness it combined the additional virtue of reasonableness. Mr. CoNYKRS, however, seemed to think that the proper conduct of the department over which be has control demanded that he should refuse to permit the arguments of those who felt themselves aggrieved to lead him to reform what they deemed an injustice to them, but what the Commissioner of Railways viewed as a toup </>' mnitre, necessary in the interests of his department. The Hon. Mr. Macandrkw has referred the communication of the Har bour Board to the Commissioner, and there are several reasons why we shot; Id be hopeful as to the result. Mr. Cgxykus has now had ample opportunity of testing his new system. He will, by this time, be fully aware that its virtues are microscopic, whilst its evils are legion. We would be doing Mr. Convers an injustice to suppose that, after his experience of the working of his unequal tariff, he is in love with it. If the truth were known, the new Commissioner of Railways will only be too glad to abandon what, in a'moment of anxiety fortliesucciss of I his department, he adopted as a measure to cope with the supposed evil of cheap water carriage. What if the department has augmented its receipts under the new system That is not the only question to lie considered. We contend that it is the duty of a Government to take care lest the bag it is tilling at the mouth does not let everything out at the bottom. Coasting craft, whose masters and owners have been barely making a livelihood, may be driven from one part of the Colony to the other by means o£ the railway tariff, and be compelled to reduce their charges below what they can bear, or to lay up their vessels altogether for want of trade at a reasonable rate. The railway tariff can either make or break towns. Natural advantages may be nullified, and expenditure on harbours may be money wasted, through injudicious tampering with the railway tariff. It is not an evidence of the paternity of a Government that it should permit, through the action of one of it; officials, the upsetting of our commercial equilibrium—the building up of the merchants of one town at the expense of those of another. The principle of unequal tariffs is so thoroughly rotten that there is no lack of sound arguments against it; but its rottenness is so self-evident that it will be unnecessary to introduce them on this occasion. Let us hope that it will bo unnecessary to revert to this subject. We have every confidence that Mr. C'OKVKlss will report that he is disappointed with the result of his new system, and that he is desirous that it should be discontinued. If the Commissioner for Railways should perist in maintaining the present unjust state of things, we trust that his reasons for so doing will be thoroughly sifted, and we would not fear the result. However, seeing that Mr. Conyeks had no other object in view than the benefit of his depaatment, he will—or we are greatly mistaken—initiate a system of charges by which the receipts will be more commensurate with the wear-and-tear, and wh ch will not have so much the effect of "robbing Peter to pay Paul."