South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, MAY 17, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2235, 17 May 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, MAY 17, 1880.

Tun railway authorities have entered entered into competition with the Port of Timaru in a manner that threatens to be a caution to shipowners and Colonial enterprise generally. Recently they brought building stone' for certain public works here all the way from Lyttelton, a distance of over 100 miles, although equally good material could have been obtained from the local quarries, within almost a gunshot of the point of delivery. However, the object aimed at was attained, the Lyttelton quarries ■were patronised, the railway rolling stock was employed, and the mining resources of Timaru were studiously ignored. The great stone traffic with Lyttelton has ceased, but another plan has been adopted of snubbing our shipping, and ignoring, as much as possible, the trade of the port. The carriage of coal from Lyttelton to to Timaru has been reduced to Bs. per ton. The result is that Newcastle coal can be delivered in this town for a very little more than the cost of colonial lignite. This, we need hardly say, is monstrously unfair to the colonial miner, and it is particularly disastrous to the enterprising companies who have established collieries at such places as Shag Point, Green Island, and Kaitangata. The cost of carrying coal from Shag Point to Timaru, a distance of ninety miles, is almost as great as the freight between Newcastle and Lyttelton. If our coal mines are to be developed, and local industry is to be fairly treated, this system of handicapping must be discontinued. It seems something iniquitous that our railways should be so managed as to un duly favor the transit of foreign coal and depreciate the profits and consumption of the produce of our local mines. Is it fair to the miners of the South that the tariff should be specially reduced in the interests of imported coal ? Is it reasonable, for instance, that 60 per cent, more should be charged for the transit of coal from Shag Point to Timaru than is charged for the conveyance of Newcastle coal from Christchurch and Lyttelton ? As far as distance is . concerned we believe Shag Point has the advantage. We are in a position to state that since the new coal tariff between Lyttelton and Timaru came into force a week or two ago, the Newcastle coal trade has been enormously developed. This means that the consumption of colonial coal from the Southern mines has been materially diminished. Surely a sufficient amount of the capital which we can so ill afford to lose is being driven out of the colony, without assisting with our railways the coalfields of other colonies. We call the attention of those interested in the development of the coal mines of New Zealand to this matter in the hope that their united representations may cause the Government, and especially the head of the Hallway Department, to reverse the policy that has been begun. If concessions in the way of tariff charges are to be made they ought certainly to be made in the interests of colonial industry, and notin the interests of foreign products that are brought into competition with native enterprise.