RAIL TRANSPORT.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 November 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

RAIL TRANSPORT.

HELPING FARMERS. Many Concessions Made By Railways. The part played by the Railway Department in encouraging farmers Io send stock and pro dace to the show is often not realised by those who have no more than an ordinary spectator’s interest in the exhibits. The Rail

way Department allows special concessions to the farmers and thus makes the show a less expensive undertaking for them. It is not only al show times or lon special occasions that the RailIway Department makes these concessions. They are allowed to lassist larrners in reaching markets or conveying necessaries from Imarkets to their (aims. Sometimes they consist in reductions in tariffs and sometimes in the waiving of them completely. A survey of the concessions I shows that allowance is made for I most of the substantial farming needs. Nor are they always the most obvious concessions, which indicates that the department has gone very fully into the business ol helping the farmer. There is, for instance, a provision made for the carriage of seeds returning from seed-cleaning establish(ments. If they are New ZealandI grown, and if they are to be sown Jin the locality from which they came, they will be carried back at half rates.

A reduction of 121 per cent. ;in the usual tariff is made on beef frozen for export, butter, cheese, I carrots, parsnips, mangolds, potatoes, onions, and turnips; on (calves, cattle, horses (in truckloads), pigs and pork, and -veal frozen for export. For pigs, an even greater reduction, up to 20 per cent., is allowed.

Farmers who breed quality cattle might find their sphere of choice limited by expense if the I railway ciid not extend concesIsions to them also. As it is, breeders may send stock a conjsiderable distance at a very much reduced cost. Thus, sheep and pigs consigned for breeding purposes wall be brought back free if they are returned within three months; valuable cattle, brood mares, and stallions are also taken back free if returned within five months. Oneway charges only are made by the department on a number of occasions. Entire horses, sent for exhibition in parades, and sheep dogs which will compete in trials, are given the return jourIney so long as they travel within ja month after the closing of the | event. Racehorses, hunters and polo ponies which are travelling either way to meetings or matches are allow'ed a reduction of 25 per (cent. implements also are car ried to and from shows al reduced h-ates. Perhaps the most . important I railway concession allecling the aclua! production on tire farm is that given in the carriage ol limo. I New Zealand lune is conveyed |by rail Irom kilns direct to the i farmer free, although not beyond