South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2439, 12 January 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1881.

The Government of New Zealand have a splendid property in their railways. They have at their disposal some 1250 miles of constructed lines available for traffic, with plenty of rolling stock, and all the accessories essential to a first class carrying establishment. For some time past the accounts on the different sections have been so kept that the department can tell at a glance what the trunks and branches, the arteries and the veins, are doing. Some are payable concerns, others are acknowledged to be losing. The country has lately been insisting on railway reforms with a view to rendering the lines as a whole reproductive. The heads of the department have responded by diminishing the number of employes, reducing wages and salaries, and increasing the tariff. Yet with all these reforms the railways of New Zealand are not in a

satisfactory condition. They are not patronised by the travelling, public to anything like the extent that ( might be expected in a colony where,..friends and relatives live far apart and scenciw and climate are delightfully Varieq. We hear of no organised excursions! Crowded trains arc simply a feature the Christmas and New Year’s bolidays. For one week in the year the passenger traffic is of some consequence to the treasury. During the other fifty-one weeks, the carriages that are not half empty, pursue their weary, dreary journey, like the moon, destitute of all animal life, save an occasional “ dead head,” representing the Press, Parliament, or Civil Service. We have repeatedly said that if the New Zealand railways were properly worked they would pay, and we reiterate the assertion. Will anyone deny that if this 1250 miles of railway line was in private hands it would not be made to pay at once? And if so, why can it not be made reproductive by the State ? Simply, we maintain, because for reasons that we cannot altogether grasp, the department is mulish and obtuse. When a better method of working the lines is , suggested, the management dances round the. proposal like a terrier round an ant-hill. Sham reforms are embraced, but real ones arc immediately shelved. The department is an adept in reforms but it makes all kinds but the right ones. Its study is not how to make the railways pay, but bow not to do it.

In explanation of the foregoing we need only call attention to the uneven way in which the goods and passenger traffic are balanced. No sincere attempt has yet been made to devclope the latter. The result is that, instead of shewing a natural growth and increase, the passenger traffic has lately been exhibiting a falling oft’. The cause of this is not that people are unwilling to travel, but they cannot afford it. The agreeable and healthgiving recreation which the railway department, if properly regulated, should place at the disposal of every colonist is not taken advantage of because the fares are prohibitive. If the latter were reasonable, excursions between such places as Christchurch, Ashburton, Timaru, Oaniaru, and Dunedin would be of common occurrence and the scores of thousands of pounds that arc periodically carried away by the peripatetic American circus would find its way to the railway treasury. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are in this way lost annually because the Government will insist on working their travelling show without the slightest consideration for the pockets of their would-be patrons. When holidays arrive, no special effort is made to induce the masses to travel. The single-fare return, extended for a few days, is the Alpha and Omega of railway liberality. Even this concession is advertised in a miserably stingy fashion without placard or poster. The attitude of the department as a caterer for public support is unique. The public arc told in effect, “ Ton can use your railways if you like, or stay away if you prefer it; your patronage is nothing to the department,” The tariff for passengers is a monstrous one. They are subjected to a cast iron mileage rate. The same proportionate rate is charged for a journey of four miles or four hundred. Hence residents in Christchurch. Dunedin, and Invercargill rarely travel between these centres except when they are absolutely compelled to do so, and then if their means arc at all straightened they prefer the journey by water. The railway goods tariff is regulated in a way that is just the reverse of the system pursued with passengers. A reckless spirit of competition pervades the department. The question whether the traffic is profitable or the reverse, is altogether overlooked in the struggle between land and water. In their desperate efforts to spite the ports and ruin the coasters, the heads of the department seem to forget that they are throwing money away. Thus we find goods conveyed between Lyttelton and Timaru for a less cost than the freight between intermediate stations. Timber from Southland travels between Oamaru and Timaru, a distance of sixty miles, at a rate that will not pay for the axle-grease of the trucks, not to speak of tear and wear. Thousands of pounds are spent from month to month in. this insane rivalry between the coasting trade and the railway department. When is this stupid, reckless, wilfully extravagant method of working the railways going to cease ? Surely the lines have been worked at a loss long enough. In a mad contention with the shipping trade the department is -wasting energy, material, rails, and rolling stock. If the railways are to be made to pay, this plan of working them must be altered. The lines may compete with the main roads, but they never can compete with the high seas, and to protract the ruinous and deplorable struggle in which the railways has so long been engaged, is simply to heap additional odium on a sadly mismanaged branch of the public service.