Wayside Jottings.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4498, 2 December 1909, Page 3

Wayside Jottings.

(By our Roving Commissioner ) At this time of the year, passengers from Auckland to Wellington by the night express have no reason to complain of darkness preventing a view of the best part of the scenery, for by the time Ongarue is reached, 4 a.m., daylight appears, and the lengthy stream flowing alongside the railway to the Wanganui is seen in one of its best moods. But it is not only in the King Country that beautiful scenery is to be viewed from the Main Trunk railway. To the south of Taihape there is an abundance of magnificent river scenery, where the railway runs along a ledge cut out of the towering side of the valley wheiein the river Hautapu wends its way to the sea. Perched at a dizzy height, the train passes through tunnel, over lofty viaduct, or along side cutting. This is railway construction indeed, and such that the lover of scenery can well appreciate. The river below, forced by hill or crag to follow a serpeutine course, combines harmoniously with the variably coloured cliffs and expansive bush above, to make a pleasing picture.

Ohakune promises well as a growing township, and during the past few months has made rapid strides, and the nucleus of a busy centre appears to be springing np around the railway station, where enterprising business people are taking their stand and for the old order of tents and shack dwellings, are substituting properly constructed premises. A large hotel which has been erected near the station eliminates the necessity for the coach drive to the township for accommodation. Ohakune is apparently on the eve of a struggle for supremacy between the original township and the newer settlement at the railway station.

Farmers down the Wairarapa district are very well satisfied with the season so far. Paddocks are making a good show, and the country in general presents a reassuring aspect. Shearing operations have been in full swing, and several large sheds are already “ cut out.”

Briefly put, the increase in long distance railway fares means that the present second-class fare between Te Aroha and Wellington of 19/1 single, or 38/2 return, will in future be 30/11 single and 61/10 return, or an increase of 23/8 on the double journey. This rise in price will be a consideration to a large section of the public, and the unemployed worker who is travelling round in hopeful expectancy of running up against a job. will feel most severely this extra call upon his often too scanty resources. The general public cannot be expected to bubble over with delight at the prospect of paying in future an increase of more than one-third for its long distance travelling. But to be just we must look at the matter from the other side also. For some years past the people of New Zealand have enjoyed the benefits of, probably, the cheapest long-distance railway fares to be found anywhere, and during the same time a section of the people, chiefly in commercial circles, have been wailing in a more or less plaintive key over the alleged high charges for freight on the Go.ernment railways. If there is any truth in the assertion that freight charges arc too high, then the idea suggests itself that when concessions were made in passenger fares, there was no justification for such a change if the railways were to yield the necessary three per cent m irgin for interest In the Old Country, where the cost of running per train mile is less than half such cost in New Zealand, the ruling fare for the cheapest class is a penny a mile for any distance, and this in a country where almost everything can be purchased more cheaply than here. The public of New Zealand, if paying low railway fares and high freights, are really paying to the support of the i ail ways—at least in most districts—through the storekeeper, but they also by this plan must pay the percentage of profit which he puts on the freight, 'there cannot at any rate be any desire to make a greater contribution to railway expenses on this plan, so that the only alternative is to increase the fares to an amount below which they should perhaps not yet have been reduced. If North Island during the next few years receiver its fair portion of railway extension, including the East Coast and North Auckland routes, receipts will, with ordinary care, rapidly gain upon expenditure, and thus place our railways in a position which will allow of concessions that the Department has evidently granted a little too soon.