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Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 891, 9 March 1878, Page 2

If one thing; more than another is calculated to puzzle any one ifc is to discover the theory on which the railway management fixes its rate of charges. Some week or two ago Mr Millar of Patemngi wiote to the papers complaining that he|was charged double freight on clover see:d though carefully done up m handy sized bags. As he very justly remarked, he could have understood this if the bags had contained dynamite, but not so iv tbe case of clover seed. On enquiry, however, we find that clover is not the only seed so treated, that all seeds lorwai'ded m bags by the railway to Waikato are charged at the rate of 80s. per ton instead -of 405., and to make the maoter more puzzling we find that old potatoes and new potatoes are not charged a similar freight, but that the one has to pay nine shillings per ton more than the other. Now why these vagaries 1 What difference can there be m the carrying cost between a ton of new and a ton of old potatoes ? and why, above all, double the usual rate of freight upon Beeds ? Had the railway been leased to some excentric capitalists to whom the sight of a green field was an eyesore we could understand such a regulation, but that a department of a government which one would naturally expect was anxioti3 to do ail "m its power to speed the settlement of the waste lands and render them 'productive should attempt to handicap the industrious settler m his efforts to turn fern lands into grass is something inexplicable. The exception should have been m the other direction, and the Government would be only acting with wisdom and foresight if instead of throwing burdens on the farmer it sought to lighten them and charged an exceptionally lo at i\*te of freigho for seeds, manures, agricultural machinery, and all other material required for the bona fide working and cutivution of the soil. The cost of carriage, added to the Auckland prices of artificial manures, stands largely m the way of their general use. Nor is the principle a novel one and without precedent. In the home country all carts drawing manure are free from tolls, and so long as the Government retains the management of the railway lines m its own hands the settlers have a richt to ask that m the matter of freight a similar consideration should m aonie degree be conceded to them m the case of seeds, manures, &c, required for the cultivation of the soil. The Government, that is the public, gains indirectly to a very large extent by fostering the reclamation of thu waste lands, nor viewed iv simply & business light would such concession be other than a wise one : the morn seed and manure sent to the Waikato the greater the grain and other produce grown which would bring increased traffic to the line. The policy of the Government seems to be, however, not to feed the goose which lays the golden eggs, but, penny wise and pound foolish, to starve it.