NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 December 1917, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

parcel charges. RAILWAYS AND CARRYING COMPANIES. WHY RATES WERE INCREASED. WELLINGTON, Dec. 10. When the railway rates "were recently increased, the carrying companies of New Zealand, w T ho deal with, a large parcel business, protested strongly against a change from the old charge of ordinary parcel rates for bulked parcels, with a two hundredweight minimum, to double rates and a minimum weight of five hundredweight. In reply to the points raised by the carrying companies the Railway Department your correspondent that there appears to be an impression that under"the new railway regulations express companies and forwarding agents are required to pay for | railway conveyance charges that are in excess of the amounts they collect from the public. This, states the Department is not the case. Express companies and forwarding agents can send any single package consigned from one person to another over the railways for precisely the same charge as the public. They have, in addition, the option of bulking together into one or more packages any number of parcels from different persons in one town to different persons in another, and paying railway freight on the aggregate weight at double the ordinary gazetted charges for scwt. The public in the ordinary course pay to the forwarding agent the actual gazetted rail charge for each separate parcel based on its actual weight, such charge being in addition to the agent ’s~ own charges for collection, delivery, and other services rendered as apart altogether from railway conveyance. Where the separate rail charges collected by the forwarding agent amount in the ag- * gregate to more than the railway 1 freight for scwt. at double rate, the * forwarding agents can retain to "Sup- j plement their legitimate earnings the difference between what they actually ! collect from the public for railway 1 carriage and the amount they themselves actually pay to the railway for I conveyance of the bulked goods. j

On the other hand, where it is cheaper for the express companies to for-

ward the parcel for each consignee singly they may adopt that practice. The Railway Department provides all the machinery for dealing' with the business, and the public pay no more by way of freight. The charges made to the public - in the ordinary course of'business by express companies and forwarding agents for services they render to the public no doubt provides for the usual profit on services rendered. No increase in rail freight accrues to the public

ALLEGED EMBEZZLEMENT. GISBORNE, this- day. At the Supreme Court, John Sheriff Dods, who pleaded guilty to embezzling £ISOO, the property of the Gisborne Gas Company, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. RE-EXAMINATION OF RESERVISTS. GENERAL HENDERSON EXPLAINS. WELLINGTON, Doe. 10. The Director General of Medical Services has sent a memo, to the Minister of Defence regarding cases who have been originally classed ‘'D” mid who had been called upon to present themselves for medical re-examination j General Henderson states: In the be- i ginning, Medical Boards had insuffiei- ( ent experience to guide them in the grading of men partially unfit for service. They did not fully understand that men must not be graded “D” unless they are mental or physical wrecks. Some of the men graded "D” should have been ranked “C,” or even higher. The Medical Board which was re examining the files of C men, also looked over those of i D ’ men, and when it w r as appar-1 ent that they should not have been j classed “D” and that possibly they i might be made fit for service, the men | had been called up for re-examination. (

SUPREME COURT. GISBORNE, Dec. 10. At the Supreme Court John Sheriff Dods, was again tried on the charge | of setting fire to the Gas Works office | The jury again failed to agree, and his ! Honour ordered a now trial for next ; sessions. Dods will be sentenced tomorrow on charges of embezzlement, to which he has pleaded guilty. A case opened at the Supreme Court in which Minnie Ogilvie, of Auckland j sues Fred. Hall, proprietor of the I Masonic Hotel and Eva Parker, the j licensee for £2,000 damages in respect of the death of the plaintiff's husband , who, when employed at the hotel, fell from a back stairs landing and died as the result of injuries. Plaintiff alleges that the landing in question was j neither fenced nor lighted. The case * will be continued to-morrow.