REPRISALS ON THE RAILWAYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 10

REPRISALS ON THE RAILWAYS

MR. H. H. STERLING, general manager of railways, announces today a policy of discrimination in railway freights by which he hopes to attract to the railway system more of the profitable high-rated goods traffic than it is at present receiving. The method by which this end is to he achieved is so near to a principle of compulsion that perhaps “attract” is the wrong word to employ. For, if Mr. Sterling’s plan works out, the high-rated traffic will be not so much attracted as diverted by a shrewd system of discriminating freights. In the past a good many people have undoubtedly been inclined to make the railways a mere convenience. The lowrated goods of heavy bulk and no particular urgency were sent by rail, while small parcels to be delivered in some specified time have been sent by motor-truck. Merchants and business men favouring this arrangement have probably never given a thought to the possibility that it might he considered unfair. Probably they will have read the reports of the railway system’s difficulties, and reflected: “Well, I send wool, road metal, timber, and all those other cumbersome things by rail, so I am doing my part, anyway.” And with a consoling feeling of righteousness they return to their own concerns, and leave Mr. Sterling to worry about his.

But the handicap to the railways through this unconscious discrimination is obvious. The heavy, slow, low-rated traffic is carried at low freight rates and, through various concessions, is often a non-paying business. On the other hand the high-rated traffic, consisting of crates, boxes and packets, often wanted in a hurry at the consignee’s end, pays good freights and is highly profitable. The development of motor services has tended to deprive the railways of this class of business, while it retains the heavy loads which pay only a moderate or negligible return. To divert more traffic to the railways Mr. Sterling proposes to raise the low-rate freights of those who do not patronise the railways with their high-rates traffic. Obviously this discrimination can only be applied against big firms whose freight arrangements are under constant observation. The railway management is quite entitled to make reprisals, but the danger is that the people concerned may retaliate by using up-to-date motor-trucks for low-rate traffic, as well as the other. It is to he hoped Mr. Sterling lias not overlooked this possibility.