The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1049, 15 March 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. • ' * * * itHere Bhall the Press the People's right maintain, Uhawed by influence and anbribed by gain.

Amongst the passengers by railway to Hamilton oa Thursday were, Mr , Lawson, Commissioner of Railways for the North Island, Mr A. "V. Mac Donald, and Mr Low, late of Queensland, spoken of as the proposed General Traffic Manager for the Auckland lines. Mr Lawson came down to Waikato.for the pur- ' pose of making himself practically acquainted with the traffic necessities of the district, and to arrange with Mr Mac Donald on the spot such changes as might afford, as far as possible, the conveniences for travelling desired by the Waikato settlers,, and at the same time reduce the too rapidly increasing cost of working the line. A happy mean has, we understand, been arrived at which will serve both purposes. It was intended to hav9 run the afternoon passenger train, now leaving Auckland for Ohaupo, no further than Mercer, except on Fridays. On other days passengers would have slept at Mercer, and come on by the 6.30 a.m. train, reachiug Ohaupo at 10.30 a.m. ; also to have discontinued, except on Saturdays, the mid day up train, iv which case the only second up train would have been that leaving Ohaupo at 6 p.m. for Mercer and reaching that station at 10 p.m., passengers would then have slept at Mercer and travelled on to Auckland by the 6.35 morning train, reaching Auckland at 930 a.m. One through passenger train was to bave left Ohaupo and Aucklaud stations at 8 a.m, each day. Thus there would have been considerably more accommodation thiin was supposed, for by leaving Waikato m the evening and stopping at Mercer a passenger could have reached Auckland at 9.30 a.m. next day, and have returned that afternoon by the 4.15 traiu, sleeping at Mercer, and reaching home by 10 am next day. Some little consideration of the matter, however, has led to a proposed general arrangement, to be yet elaborated m detail, wbish will give the Waikato public almost the same travelling accommodation they have hitherto enjoyed, and yet enable the railway management to reduce considerably the working expenditure of the line. This is by adopting the system of combiuing a goods with a passenger truin each way daily. A

passenger carriage, or two or more if the traffic require them, will be attached to a mid-day goods down train arriving at Ohaupo about 10.30 p.m. Tbe same will be done with a morning up goods train. Ab the same time, ond quick passenger train will run daily each way, the down train leaving Auckland at 7 a.m. so as to meet the coachos m Waikato and em bie pissengors to reach the various settlements the same day, the ap-train leaving Ohaupo at mid-day to enable passengers from various settlements m Waikato to reach it which they could not if it started earlier. Thus very nearly the same passenger conveniences will be afforded, the.only difference being that the combined goods nnd passenger trains may be a little longer on the road. Whatever definite form the last proposed arrangements may take will be early announced to tho public— a week or ten days at. least before the change is made at the end of the months And from what we learn, a change was necessary. . A comparative table of the runnings of the I several lines m the North Island and of the expenditure as compared with the returns: showed this. The Auckland line as. has been stated, was paying, but not m proportion as other lines. Seme five or six months ago the proportion of expenditure to receipts on all these lines was large, and a determined attempt to reduce expenditure was made and successfully soon all except the Auckland line. While the proportion of working expense has been reduced from 103 per cent, to 66 per cent, on the Wanganui line, from 72 to 65 ' m the case of Wellington line and from 72 to 68 m that of Napier, the cost of working the Auckland line has increased from 79 to 85 per cent. A perusal of tho mileage table of the various lines shows where this occurs, a loss which made up will make the A uckland- Waikato line the best paying one m tbe North Island. It is m the numbet of trains run daily. On comparison with the line nearest m length, whiob is epened 87 miles against the 97 miles of the Auckland- Waikato line we find, dropping odd figures, that there is a mileage traversed on the latter line of 23,000 miles m the month as against 13,000 miles on the former line. This is what runs away with the expenditure, and m such case to curtail the mileage to the utmost possible limit with the least possible infringement upon the convenience of the public is the delicate task of a railway traffic manager. Mr Lawson believes that he has hit upon this happy mean, and we believe the new time table, when published, m a few days, will show that~he-htfsf done so. There are only two railways m New Zealand on which two passenger trains run each way daily beyond a distance of 50 miles from the capital. The Auckland - Waikato is one of these, the Christchurch and Ashburton line the other, so that virtually with the proposed arrangement of the combined train the Waikato-A uckland line will, with the other above mentioned, still form the exception to the rule. With respect to the suggestion made by this journal that the time return tickets should be available ought to be extended, we are informed that the matter will shortly be taken into full consideration, and that m all probability arrangements satisfactory to tho holders of such tickets will be made.