The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 91, 1889. EXPENSIVE CHANGE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1894, 21 May 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MAY 91, 1889. EXPENSIVE CHANGE.

Ws have been asked to explain how we arrived at the conclusion that the new time-table has increased the cost of working the railway from Dunedin to Christchurch by 12£ per cent. That we can do very easily, only that instead of 12£ per cent, we find on re-examination of the matter that the increased cost is 16| per cent., or thereabouts. The way we arrive at this conclusion is as follows:—The previous daily serv’ce was three trains north, .and three trains south; the present daily service is three trains north and three trains south. Thus both the past and the present daily services cost an equal sum. There has now been added a fourth train north and south on three days of the week, and this cannot be run without expense. The cost of running three trains a day each way must be very large, but for a basis of calculation we shall put it down at £3OO per week. Now suppose a fourth train ran each way for the six days of the week it would mean an additional expense of £IOO. Then the question is, What part of £3OO is £IOO ? Of course £IOO is one-third of £3OO, or per cent. The additional cost of running a fourth train north and south, six days a week, would therefore be 33 Jper cent., but the fourth train runs now only three days a week, so that the actual additional expense is half 38| per cent., or about 16| per cent. There is no getting over this; no argument can upset it. The new arrangement has increased the working expenses by 16| per cent.; that is, for every £IOO that was paid away in expenses before there must be £ll6 13s did now paid. A profit of 161- per cent, would be more than railway managers have hitherto dreamt of in their philosophy, yet here it is absolutely squandered, and everyone put to great inconvenience into the bargain. It cannot be said that the traffic will be increased by it. That is impossible, because there is only a certain amount of traffic, and that must go as heretofore. On the contrary it is very likely the traffic will be diminished by a movement which is at present on foot. W© know for a positive fact that certain people are only waiting to see what the outcome of the present change will be to run a coach between Winchester and Timaru. No one believes that the change will be adhered to; people hold that its very absurdity must prove its certain destructions, and those who have the project of running the coach in hand are only waiting to see whether or not the change will be made. If the coach runs from Winchester to Timaru there is not the slightest doubt but that another will run from Geraldine to meet it, and as the journey can be made cheaper, and almost as expeditiously, the project must succeed. At present Mr J. C. Binskin runs a parcel express from Winchester to Timaru, and makes a good living by carrying parcels only. If Mr Binskin has succeeded by carrying parcels only, why should not Mr Binskin succeed by" carrying parcels and passengers ? It is a great shame for the management that Mr Binskin can compete successfully with the railway in the carriage of parcels from Winchester to Timaru, a distance of 16 miles, and it clearly shows how excessive the railway charges must be. But it seems that “ how not to do it ” is the, only thing the railway authorities study. Eor instance, there is a Thursday half-holiday in Timaru, Oamaru, and Geraldine, and if people only got Saturday return tickets on these days a great many would travel, and the railway would gain something by it. But the thick-headed management cannot see it. They charge on Thursday the same as on any other day, and the railway loses by it.

Another instance of the sublime ridiculousness of the management is the stopping of the express train at Orari “if required.” Why should there he any “ if required ” about it? If the train can stop at Orari one day, when required, and make up the timq thus lost, why could it not do it another day, and take the mails ? It is often of the greatest importance that the mails should go, and it is simply ridiculous, and worse than ridiculous, that the express train should pass there on its way to Christchurch without taking the mails. Mr Maxwell has travelled the world at the expense of the colony to study railway management, yet he does not seem to have noticed that on most of the railways in the old country there are places where the mail clerks pick up mail bags from stations at which the mail train does not stop, while the train is travelling at full speed. 'Why should not such a plan be adopted at Orari, and give the Geraldine people an opportunity of forwarding letters by the express ? We think that a very good plan would be to send Mr Maxwell home to England again to study how this could be done. At any rate it is a shame and a disgrace that the people of Geraldine have no chance of forwarding their letters to Christchurch after 7.20 a.m., and if the express is not to stop at Orari some plan ought to be adopted by which the mail could he forwarded.