WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 334, 30 August 1898, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(FROM OUI! OWN CORRESPONDENT.) THE RAILWAYS.

AMONG the many pet expressions the Premier is so fond of making when stumping the country is that his Government "gave hack to the people the railways of which they had been robbed by the Conservatives, and now the railways were run by the people and lor the people." By this he implied that while they were under the management of the Commissioners, they were, in some occult way. not being run for the people, although they were still the property of the State and the people's representatives voted the money necesary fortlmir upkeep. But a few months ago Mr Seddon, being then in Christeliurch and in an unwonted humour for giving information, confided to an interviewer the satisfactory intelligence that " Accidents had been fewer, and when all the new engines and trucks are completed, as they will be in a few weeks, the lines will be better equipped than they have ever been before." The weeks have extended into months and Mr S'ddon's predictions have lacked verification Most of his forecasts have that unfortunate failing. Now wo find he must have £300,000 to provide the rolling stock he said would r.e ready in a lew weeks, and as he was granted £200,000 last year and there was only six months of the year left when Parliament sat, it is painfully evident that the method of showing an earning power of over 3 per cent, is an expensive as well as a delusive one if it has to be clone at the cost of borrowing half a million in a year and ahalf. It would bd interesting to know how much of the plant still kept in the books as engines and trucks us lying on the scrapirou heaps. In Victoria last, year when the lines were taken out of political control and placed under a Commissioner, that functionary found that hundreds of trucks and carriages weie only on paper and that locomotives to the value of half a million sterling had no existence, and he wrote them off the books. We were told when the Commissioners were sent to the rightabout that the railways would be run on common sense and commercial lines. The interpretation of these terms varied, and no commercially-minded man would consider it either common sense or common honesty to declare any net earnings until he had charged maintenance aud other recognised charges against the gross earnings first. Then as to the fewer accidents : Taking the Wellington section by itself, there have been more accidents recorded since the beginning of the year than during the whole of the Commissioners' time. Here is a list of those mentioned in the papers, and there were others not taken any note of: January 10th, engine broke down near Peatherston ; January 19th, two engines broke down on express train from Napier; same date, excursion train to Tahoraite races—engine broke down aud passengers walked two miles; January '2oth, engine broke down at Ashburton ; Feb. Ist, encinc broke down near'Wanganui ; Feb. 3rd, express train derailed on Rimutaka ; Feb. 7th, engine broke down near Napier ; Feb. Bth, carriage off line near Gr.eytown ; Feb. 14th, engine broke axle near Masterton ; Feb. 21st, train off line at Newmau ; March 10th, engine broke down at Matarawa; same date, excursion train, with 500 children, off rails at Kaitoke ; passengers camped there all night; same date, guard's van oft' the rails at Newman. Evidently, Mr Seddon was not speaking by the book when he tedd the Christeliurch interviewer about fewer accidents. HAPPY WESTLAND. In the Lauds report there are tables showing the expenditure on roads etc. under the control of this department. Much may be learned by a careful perusal of these. One, however, requires to know something of the geography of the country to fully understand how much more profitable it is to live in a district owning a Premier for its representative than to merely exist in a province where self-reliance prevails. Moreover, it appears to be considered polite to spend largely in places with a declining population rather than where popolation is increasing. Let us take three districts : Canterbury, with its farming population, already served with roads and railways, aud contributing one-fifth of the total revenue of the Colony. Taranaki, rapidly advancing in population and area of cultivated land, but in dire straits for roads for present needs and future extension of settlement ; and Wesiland, yearly lessening in its population aud in its chief export—gold—and with no prospect, whatever, of any other industry taking its place. The comparative progress of tin three districts for the period between the last two censuses, 1891-96, was as follows (in population) : 1891 lS0(i Taranaki .. 22,00.") 31,175 41 /increase. Canterbury 128,302 135,858 (i % increase. Westland .. 13,357 14,40!) 9*B % decrease. Now for expenditure out of the million of Aid to Revenue Loan Act, of 1896 (1) on roads for settlement : Amount Per head of spent population Taranaki .CM.ii/U £1 2 3 Canterbury . r '2o3 o o !)) Westland' 8385 oil 7 There was £111,44," voted, but only the above sum spent. Then Westland had £3894 out of a total of £IO,BGS for the colony spent by the Lands Department for the Mines Department for goldfields roads, of which, of course, none went to the other two pro\inces. Then there is the large sum of £99,867 on the Public Works estimates of last year for the development of goldfields. The account of the expenditure of this is not furnished yet, although nearly five months have elapsed since the year ended ; but in former years Westland generally got the best of the .squeeze. Added to this is the expenditure of about £25,000 on the Midland Railway, all in Mr Seddou's electorate, and an entirely illegal expenditure, inasmuch as the line is still to all intents and purposes the property of the company. Taken altogether, it will be seen that if the population of Westland is decreasing, the spending of public money among those who remain still keeps up on a Liberal scale, and in this way the Premier's constituents have Government reason to be thankful. There arc only 1680 miners in his district all tol 1, and 235 of them are Chinamen. The told value of gold raised was valued at £96,636, 'a ' falling off of £12,475, compared with 1897, and the colony spent over £200,000 on the Kumara Pace alone to enable them to earn this pittance. However, they remain loyal to their member, and he does not forget them in tlic day of their adversity. CONCILIATION AGAIN. That fruitful engine of worry to employers is at work again in the Empire City. This time it is the bakers. In November last year both masters and men came to an agreement as to wages, hours, etc., which looked very like a collusion with the public as a victim to pay tne piper. The terms made by the men wen; very favourable to themselves. Wages for first hands being fixed at £,'>, second hand 50s, casuals 10s per day, and so on, with the usual extra for halftime ; also, 13 free loaves per man per week, a restriction as to apprentices which Las barred any boy in Wellington from learning the trade, and so on. Two master bakers stood out. They were hauled before the Arbitration Court and included in the award. One of then committed the crime of having one of his carters to assist in the bakehouse, and he was pulled up to Court for punishment. Then it was discovered that the award described the master's coalition as an x\.ssoohtion instead of a Union, and the cube fell through. Meantime the masters found that the hour iixed for the bakers to start work—4 a.m.—did not permit them to start their carts out till

0 a.m., and by the time the rounds were comvletcd it was long niter dark. They asked the men to start at 3 a.m. for the three winter months, l.nt this concession was refused, and now there is war. The masters intend to fight the whole question out. They have nt-tfied that the 13 free loaves wiil'.h: ;:iv«-n no longer, and that they intend to hiv.; apprentices and start work whei tlcy clmi .*•'. If the men don't likti it they can go and others will bo brcnuht here, fill of which goes to show that the " beacon to the world " is a miserable f liluie, an 1 that a good oldfashioned strike was quite as good a way of scttlintr a depute.