The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1214, 8 March 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. MONDAY, MARCH 8, 1880.

Thai the colonial railways do not return as large an amount of profit as may fairly be expected from them is a fact that none will attempt to deny. It is also equally a well admitted fact that, in view of the failing 1<""* revenue and the large burthen that has been placed upon the Colony by the public works policy, we must devise some means of making every line of railway in the Colony at least pay the interest upon the cost of its construction and provide for renewals and repairs. How to do this is the problem requiring solution ; how not to do it is the only problem that any Government has yet apparently cared to consider. Times almost out of number has attention been drawn to the miserable failure of the mileage tariffs that have been brought into operation in the Colony. We have," ourselves, frequently drawn attention to the matter; we have pointed out the fallacy of supposing that the railways can ever be made profitable concerns where no heed is paid to the cost of construction, the cost of maintenance, and the cost of working a line, when fixing the tariff of charges to be levied. It has been clearly demonstrated that no hard and fast rule can be laid down for the management of our railways ; there can be no uniformity of charges where there is not uniformity of cost of construction, maintenance, and haulage. Yet what do we find 1 The Government declaring that there shall be no consideration paid to the very matters to which any business man would first of all direct his attention —the questions of cost of making and working ; that, while there shall be a semblance of uniformity, there shall be neitller uniformity, justice, nor anything ehe that might reasonably be expected. The semblance of uniformity is given to the tariffs on all the Colonial lines by dedaring that the charges shall be the same on all railways, no matter what their cost of construction and working; but the principle of uniformity is at once annihilated by creating a code of differential charges vastly in favor of the larger centres of population —what Mr, Macandrew once termed sliding scales of charges. Here arises the want of fair<play, honesty, and justice, for, while all the Colony has been called upon to pay the piper, the populations of the large cities are alone permitted to dance to hi 3 piping. In other wor4s the railways are used as means of benefiting Dunedin and Christchurch, while they inflict injury upon Oamaru and Timara. We know that the people of Dunedin and Christchurch will pooh-pooh this statement, but we are prepared for no end of denials, and can show what we state is a fact. As our principal interest J3 in the direction of Dunedin, we will just cite one instance in which that city is favored at the cost of Oamaru. According to the present railway tarriff a ton of grain can be sent from Ngapara to Dunedin, a distance of some 92 miles, for 14s 4d; and from Ngapara to Port Chalmers, a distance of 86 miles, for 13s lOd ; while the same ton of grain, if sent by railway from Ngapara to Oamaru, a distance of 17 miles, would cost 5s 4d; or to the Breakwater, a quarter of a mile further, 5s Gd. In other words, in order that Dunedin may be pampered, and. the tpide of her_ miserable port increased, the railway tariff is so framed that a ton of grain can b# copied something like 7o miles for 9s, of about ljd per mile, and that too over the most costly and worst piece of | line for haulage in the Colony. Is it possible to imagine anything more unjust or suicidal than such a proceeding 1 Is it possible to conceive anything more calculated to render our railways the very reverse of remunerative than the flagrant outrage upon common sense ai)4 onsjness capacity here displayed lls it 3.1} possible that a charge of ljy for ! coat of hauling a ton of grain over a line of such a nature as that of Bunemn can leave anything towards the payment of interest upon the cost of construction of the line 1 We will go even further and ask, Will any sane, reputable, and intelligent ruau so far forget himself as to assert that the charge made even covers the cost of haulage? Any man who would make such a declaration would give evidence of madness, unscrupulousness, or ignorance. We know that we shall be met with the reply that the railway must have the traffic, that to get it the department must enter into competition witn the cofutipg vessels, and that it is forced to put .down the tariff in order to secure the business. But to this we reply that the Government has no right to enter into competition with ship-owners when that competition results in a direct loss, and necessitates the further taxing of the already overburdened taxpayers of the Colony. There is neither rhyme nor reason in such a proceeding, YVe are aware that a few persons benefit by the competition, but the many have to guflep J for if our railways do not pay there arises the necessity for imposing additional taxation to meet the interest upon the loans out of whiph the railways have been constructed. Whan any cries have been raised against further burrowing and attention has been directed to t&j troubles ahead, those who have raised thos# warning cries have been met with, the reply, " W&re is no danger, for the money being borreygd is to be expended upon reproductive worfcz.-*" All clamor has been silenced by this sago re? mark, and the assurance that the interest upon the borrowed capital would be obtained from the railways. It i 3 about time that som» realisation of these prophecies was forthcoming. Hitherto our railways, taken as a wfroJe, h#ve not paid the interest upon the ffagi of. their construction —they have not even, in some cases, returned sufficient to. pay the expenses of working them. We hare been reduced to the necessity of oaying interest upon the loans out of borrowed capital, and now that our powers of borrowing have received a check for a time at least, we are reduced to the necessity for devising some ctji.er means of keeping faith with the EngiisJj money lenders. To do this, we must adopt one of two alternatives —either we must make the jrjjoJe country pay for works that directly iaeneijt only a portion of the inhabitants, and jwpojte fresh taxation, or tlie tarifls upon tHe .apygpal sections of railway must be framed #po» & basis as will moke the receipts from eaph fan# sufficient to pay working expenses ap£j interest and provide for renewals and; repairs. Every sensible man must admit that, of the two, the latter is by fa? the fairest course to adopt. To carry out this principle it will be necessary to divide the rail ways into sections, and, the cost of formins and working these having been ascertained, the aim of the department must be 'jo make each section self-supporting, no itmtfer whether there is a uniformity of lariris .or not. The Minister for Public Works has declared in favor of some such ichciriPj ayd has told Parliament and :he jemmtry fy&l upon its adop:ion deueiidg itl\a /attire success of jur railways > ftas not yet nade any move in the gi vlD g dradical effect to his proposals,. hw ieclared himself, both in Besww am .9#; >f session, in favor of reform in the: i-orjpng of our railways; but, if we ;xsep£ tj[?e abolition of a few trains that hd not paj/j .and were unnecessary, he las withheld his fetnd from signing the mier that would giyo. practical proof of lis earnestness. It is possible, Jiqwever, hat he has reserved the task for th<3 ffoilway Commission to perform, fearing ;iie storm that might be aroused against lim in interested quarters. In the mean,ime he is keeping the matter " steadily n view."

The Dunedin Star asks, " What is coming over the Opposition Press 1" It is led to pat this pertinent question because the "accession to office of Mr. Dick has elicited from this very necessary counterblast to the journals of the other side, palavering and immoderate expressions of approval. Mr. Dick has been lauded to such an extent, first by one and theii another of the public journals, that there is danger that the old gentleman may lose his head, and aim for the Premiership. This would be really too shocking. We have no intention of depreciating the worth of " Mr. Dick. But we must point oat that there is a vast difference in not being a fool and being clever. Our contemporaries know but little of Mr. Dick. He is a man who seems not to care to travel without jthe limits of teetotalism, or the advocacy of Bible reading in schools, and Young Men's Christian Associations. He even went as far as America, partly with the object of gleaning information on some of these sucjects. Yet he lias not been heard of beyond the boundaries of Dunedin. Nobody ever charged him with possessing administrative ability. Over a decade ago he occupied a seat in the Lower House. He was never heard pi outside the walls of the Parliament chambers, and only heard inside that chamber by those hon, members who could not leave, or " dream the happy hours away." His greatest virtue was that he did not attempt to speak often, and " voted at his party's call." Mr. Macandrejv's enforced retirement at about the same time gave him an opportunity of showing the public what he was capable of doing Superintendent of Otago. In that capacity he filled the official chair and crawled along at the old identity pace, doing neither much good nor harm. The diggings were at their height, and Mr. Dick operated as a brake at. a time when, perhaps, one was required. At tha np?t guperintendency election he had Mr. Macandrpw fof an i opponent, and was beaten by about two to one. He then retired into private life without causing any noticeable vacuum in th© ranks of our public men.