MR VAILE ON RAILWAY REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1883, 31 July 1884, Page 3

MR VAILE ON RAILWAY REFORM.

Mb Vaile delivered an address on " Railway Management; arid Reform " ab the Lorno-stieefc Hall, Auckland, on Tuesday night. The chair was occupied by the mayor. We are indebted to the Herald for the following repoit of the address: — After some preliminary lemaiks Mr Vaile said the lailways of New Zealand had cost about thirteen millions. The losses had attained huge dimensions, and were mci easing so fa>>t that unless something were done to arrest it, we must ex-pect speedily to be placed in a position of severe commercial distress and loss. Mr Vaile gave a bnef sketch of the history of railway construction in the colony. Last year in the South they had 907 miles open, and in the North theie weie only 450. In March, 1883. thme was 1353 miles open for traffic. The total coht and liabilities in connection with this 1338 miles was stated in one return to be £10,759,259, and in another ■4311,803,570. The whole of the returns for the yeai just ended weie not yet published ; but those that are -state, that the mileage is 1390, and the total approximate cost £12,103,000, of which sum £8,297,000 w.is expended in the South Island, and only £3,805,000 in the North Island. Eiom all ho could learn, the interest, paid on the outlay is neater six per cent than 5 per cent. In estimating what oui i ail ways cost us per annum, he had taken the inteiest at 5f per cent. If fiom the amount this gave the net e linings weie deducted, the annual loss would be at rived at. Taking the figures quoted as a basis, the pioblom woikod thus: — The loss made was for the years eudmg Maicb, 1881, £180,8)3; 1882, £207,133; 18S3, £2(52,311 ; 1881, £377,180 : a dead loss of £1,027,48") in four years. TheMmisteiial .sUtement of the rate of inteiest earned by our railways dining the past font yeais was at, follows :— lBBl, £3 8s 3d per cent ; 1882, B3 7s 3d ; 18S3, £3 3s 2d ; 1884, £2 10-, 2d Tins last i etui n shows a falling off as coinpaied •with last year of 13s per cent, rather a seiious item on £13,000,000. If the loss went on increasing like this, the l ailuays would soon rum us. The loss could not be'attnbuted to the fact of the hue not being completed, because undei thp piescut management the further the lines weie extended the woise they paid. The losses aiose fioni sheer incoinpetency on the patt of oui manigcis. He i>ttiihuted much ot tho bicakdown to the rum In ous tiiiitl. At pie>rnt it was a moral ceitamty if six diffeiont stationm.isteis neni asked the same quotum the que-tionei would get foiu difi'eient answcis. (Laugtei and applause.) Oui lailuays woo not u .cd loi the publlie, but as a huge o\eigiown taxing machine. It pio\euted settles settling ■it the country, and deban ed aiti-uins fm ining home-) theie, foiccd them into the towns, and when a slight depression came they packed up their goods, withdrew their money ftoin the savings banks, and left the colony. The present tai iff was complicated and \exatious, and no language could describe how unsuitable it was fot the lequnements of the colony. What was wanted was a simple tariff containing a few charges only, and one that evei ybody c mid uudeistand. lie would give some examples to show how the ptesent system attested the small producei. Ho hid account sales of 1211b- of butter fui wauled at six; di(fetent > times. The i ail way chaiges alone on canying this butter was 18 \>ci cent of the whole sum tealis-od. The butter was sold at lOd petIt). After paying commission and other chaiges, what would the unfoitunate fanner get? A small fanner Ining 50 miles out wants two tons of bunedust, the chaige foi caiiymg this will be either 34s lOd or S'.h lOd, whichever the lailway officials please ; and should ho be so unfortunate as to want thive t ra? and a half they had it m then powet to change him eitherSlslOJoi 01s (Liughtei ) Should lie desne to got half a ton of seed potatoes, the chaige will be either 25s 5d oi only 8s S',d, whichever the officials choose. Regulations like these weie a displace to the colony. Mi Vaile then coinpaied the passengei faies and some of tho goo'ls lates of New Zealand and New South AVa'e>, which showed that a. much lmm scale pievails in the sistci colony. Theie they offeu'd evcty possible inducement to the countiy settler ; heio they seemed to exeit ' themselves to the utmost to ci'i-h him out of existence. Theie they fully lccogmscd the <ji eat fact that the only way to bung posperity to a countiv was to settle a population throughout its length and bieadth, to spicad them out over the tace of it. iieie e\eiy elioit appealed to be made to compel tho people to congiegatc m the Luge cities, to convcit the countiy into meio sheip walks and cattle l uns, and to foice up the city befoie theie was any ieal backbone of countiy to suppoit them. The lailw.iys. of New South Wales last year paid a piofit of £120,000 o\cr and abo\e niteiest aud woikmg expense. Veiy often railways after being laid out heie in distiicts whcie they weie not leally aequned, weieconstmcted by half-educated engineei", whose blunders had cot-t the colony Luge sums of money to lectify. When the lines weie handed over to ti iflic managcis oi locomotive engiueeis to experiment upon, the Government appaiently forgot that the knowing how to handle It ticks oi take a, locomotive to piecos did not necossanly imply tho requisite ability to fiame a tauft. As an illustiation of what our lailway authonties were capable of doing, lie would give an instance of what w.is done on the Waikato line. The present late for eai tying a ton of goods of cla c sD to Rangniri (50 miles), is 25s 2d, wlvls foi taking them to Hamilton, 28 miles further, the chaige is only 18s 4d, or Gs lOd per ton less for the longet distance (laughter) ; and they actually take a ton of goods of this class to Te Awamutu, 44 miles beyond Rangnni, for 255, oi 2d per ton less for 100 than they chaige on the same line for 50 miles. (Liughtcr.) A gentleman stopped him in (^iieen-street the other day, and said that he wanted to send seven hoises to Ohaupo. Ho asked the pi ice, and the railway official said between £8 and £9. A few days aftei lie sent the seven hoi.se-> and twenty calves, and he was chaiged £4 14s. (Laughtei.) If any of those piesent had hoises to send, they should take his advice, and get a call oi two to send along with them. (Laughter and cheeis.J Mi Maxwell, our " general mismanage!-" (laughter) in a lepoit ptesentcd to Parliament said he considered differential rating was not carried far enough, and he asked for m oi e power in tins matter in order to make the lailways a success. He (Mr Vaile) had hitheito caiefully abstained from thiowing blame on any particular individual, but as Mr Maxwell asked for nicieas-ed power it might be as well to enquire into the manner in which he had used the power he already possessed. Under Mr Maxwell the ratio of loss on our railways had considerably more than doubled every year since he took office, and he had cost us in all a sum of over £1,027,000, to say nothing of the niteiest on the annual los*. He believed this sum, which would have built the North Island Trunk Railway, had been lost thtough sheer incapacity on the part of our lailwav manager. Between December, 1882, and March, 1883, Mr Maxwell had treated us to no less than three of his lumbering, bungling, cumbrous tariffs, and in his comic attempts to do something far above his ability to accomplish, had generally blundered and floundered about, reminding one more of a stranded whale than of anything else. Nothing could show more clearly that he had no defined idea or plan to work upon than his fiequent change of tariffs. Mr Vaile criticised Mr Maxwell's last report in unsparing terms. As to increasing the revenue by popularising the use of the railways and so extending trade, that was an idea pa&t the power of Mr Maxwell's mind to conceive, or his ability to carry out. Mr Vaile pointed outcome of the evil effects of differential rates. Under the new tariff, Auckland would suffer severely, and it should be got rid of without delay. The fact was Mr Maxwell was the exponent and the advocate of the worst and moat vicious features of the English and American systems. He had brought our railways to the verge of ruin, and now asked for further power to tax us to his heart's content, in order to extricate himself from a great difficulty biought about by his own commercial incauaeity. He (Mr Vaile) held that the railways of a country were but its roads, its main roads, its chief lijhways; and it was a violation of every true political prin ciple to use the highways of any country for the purpose of raising revenue. And he would go further, and say that it was wrong of any Government to allow railroads to be used for the purpose of paying interest to private investors. So far as he w. r » aware, he was the first to propound this principle, but", he hoped to live to see it universally ' acknowledged, and he believed he would, yet see the railways of *Great Britain and A ! ine'rica become public property, and used for their legitimate purpose^- that ,of , joads. f Vaile advocated a 1 very large Reduction, Mi fares and freights, 'and explained in^d&ail^ ticket station system,' I 'which he thoughtshould take the place b*f the present system! 4 He : would relieve the.GoYennne^t from; all *

sion had cost tho Victorian Government £118,022. The.advertising and refreshment, departments were not looked after as they should be. In order to develop railway traffic and facilitate settlement, he suggested that instead of the Government giving the usual grants to Road Board**, they should construct each year a certain amount of horse tramway along tho main roads leading to the tickttt stations. These tramways ■would ultimately be converted into branch railways. He referred _to Mr Wrights famous return, and ridiculed a system which lequired such a vabt amount of labour and expense to produce the abstract asked for by Mr Wright. He uiged at some length the importance of cheap transit. He was clearly of opinion that tho liulways must be lemoved from the duect contiol of the Government. He inclined to the opinion that there ought to be two Boards of Management— one for the North and one foi the Houth Island. The Boaids should bo elected by the road boards, county councils boioughs, and harbour boaids of those districts where the lailways are situated. They should be elected for a long peiiod, or for life. Their duties should be confined to h\ing fares and fi eights, tegul.itmgtho taufi, keeping the lines in repair, pioviding the nece^aiy rolling stock, appointing and controlling the officials, &c. F.up-s and fi eights should bo fixed by a confoicuce between the two boards. All faies should bo uniform throughout both inland-, and ueithei boaid should have povvei to alter them by separate action. Owing to the lateness of the hour, Mr Vailo was unable to touch on sevcial other points. Mr J. A. Paikos proposed, and Mr H. W. Famall seconded tho following resolution : — "That as it is well known there is a voy heavy and inci easing loss made in woiking the uiilwayt, of the colony, it is desnable that dining the ensuing session P.uliament should select and appoint a comnnwon to euquue into the wliolo queshon of their management and contiol." Tho 1 evolution was put and earned. Mi Geoige Frasei said they all telt mncli indebted to Mi V.ule for the able papei he lud lead. He had denoted a great deal of tune and labour to it. Whether the reduction in fioight and fnies would do away with the lo*s he was not piepaicd to say. [n tiavclling about the counliy lie noticed that theic vvcic often \eiy few passengers in the tiains. He did not think we would got ovei tho difficulty until we got a much laiigei population. He had much ploasuio in pioposing <i vote of tluuki to Mi Vailo. Mi P.ukoi seconded the motion, and it was can led. It was sugqe^ted by a pi»wm m the hall that the lectuie should be ledehveivjd, which Mi V.ule said he would be pleased to do if inducement ofleied. Mr V.iile bnefly lotiuned thanks, and pioposed a vote of thanks to tho mayor foi presiding.