FARMERS' PRODUCE.

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 506, 28 October 1899, Page 3

FARMERS' PRODUCE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir.—l have read with interest the letters which have appeared in the Waikato and Auckland papers from the pen of Mr Morgan and others on the above important subject. All thoughtful people must recognise that if tho agriculturalists and pastoralists of a country are not prosperous, that there can be vtry litt'e chance of anything like general prosperity. We arc, therefore, all of us, very deeply interested in this question. Two chief causes are named as the source of the famers' troubles. The cost of getting the produce to market, and the fact that owing to the time and money required to be spent, tho farmer is unable to go to town to look after his own business, but must consign his produce to agents, only too often to be dealt with at the most unsuitable times. It is now easy to show that the farmers can, if they choose, remove these two obstacles to success.

I am quite prepared to prove to any set of ordinarily capable men that taking the basis of our railway working for the year 1897-8 we could easily, from our passenger revenue only, Ist. Allow for an increase of 25 per cenf. in our railway working expenses. 2nd. Carry passengers at the low fares I propose. 3rd. Carry every item of goods traffic, including " rents,'' " commissions," and " miscellaneous charge'," absohilely free, that is without any charge whatever to tho farmer or Ihe storekeeper, either for the produce they send into town or the goods they receive from town. 4th. That after doing all this we could still pay a considerably higher rate of interest on the cost of construction than we Co now.

I know that to maDy this will appear like the ra\ ings of a lunatic, but 1 am fully prepared to demonstrate the truth of my assertion. Let me give my Waikato friends a word of warning. There is a Bill actually under discussion in the Senate of the U.S.A. which, if it become l»w, as it surely will sooner or later, will havn the effect of reducing the charges for the transit of passengers and goods far be'ow anything 1 have ever proposed. For instance the lowest passenger {area will be for 15 miles and under, 2£d ; for 40 miles, Is; for all distances of over 40 miles, if taken in one continuous journey, 4s. For goods even greater reductions are proposed, and the classification is to bp made even more simple than mine. When this change takes place in America, what will become of New Zealand produce with our ridiculous railway charges. How is it that when the beneficial effect of this alteration in the railway system was a matter of my theory only, Waikato was enthusiastically with me, but now that it is an ascertained fact, Waikato does nothing to secure its many advantages.—l am, etc. Samuel Vailc. Auckland, 24th October, 1899.