RAILWAY REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1938, 6 December 1884, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM.

Mr Samuel Vaile at Cambridge. Mr Vaile lectured on railway reform at the Public Hall, Cambridge, on Thursday evening, and, considering the wretchedness of the weather, the attendance was fairly large and representative. The chair was occupied by Mr Jno. Houghton, chairman of the town board. The Chairman, in a few complimentary remarks, introduced the lecturer. Up to within a few days past he had looked upon Mr Vaile's ideas in respect to railway reform as wild and impracticable, but he had to confess that sinco reading the report in The Waikato Times and thoroughly looking into the principles of the schemt>, he was pretty well convinced that Mr Vaile was right after all. Mr J. B. Whyte had been invited to preside, but owing to his having to go to Auckland, he was unable to be with them. He was, however, as they all knew, thoroughly with them in this great matter. Mr Lake had also been invited to preside, but owing to some accident or other, he had not yet received that gentleman's reply. Mr Vaile, on comiug forward, was received with applause. Though the attendauce was not so large as one might expect, still the number of gentlemen who w ere present, and who had come such long distances through such a miserable night, illustrated unmisfakeably the very great interest they had in this question, Indeed the attendance was a great compliment to him, as it was better to see a comparatively small number of men, thoroughly interested in the subject, than a large gathering of people who attended merely out of curiosity. Mr Vaile then proceeded to deliver a lecture in the main similar to that delivered at other places in Waikato. It was a matter of great surprise that none of the many writers on political economy had ever devoted a single line to the effect of railways on the social condition of the people. He referred to Mr Whytc ha\ in;,' taken exception at the Hamilton meeting to the diagrams illustrating the railways of the South as compared with those ot the North. Mr Whyte had said these had no bearing on the question, and thuir introduction could only serve a p-ir-poso that it should be their earnest object to avoid —provincial jealously and dissension. If he thought that they would have this effect he would aban lon them at once as a feature of his lecture. But he did not agree with Mr Whyte. lie wanted to show the thorough rottenness of the whole system from beginning to end, and he must therefore comni"iice at the construction, which, to his mind, was the foundation of the evil. In demonstrating the necessity of reform lie could not close his eyes to the nial ulministration of the past and present. Mr Whyte had said that his reference to this matter would engender provincial jealousies, but he would say to that that provincial jealousies had already been cieated, not by anything that he had said, but by the way in which the public money had been unfairly distributed. Had the money been equally distributed then these petty jealousies would never have arisen. He did not believe that the gentlemen in the South were desnous of injuring the North ; tor the people in the South thoroughly believed they had been greatly wronged in the past, tint they had in fact not got their fair share of public favour. Their belief in this respect was genuine. If the present loss on our railways continued to increase at the present rate the additional taxation required in 1888 to meet the deficiency for that year alone would be such that the people would clear out of the country, and those who remained behind would have a very bad time of it. The capital of the Bank of New Zealand was only one million, and its liabilities rive millions. Now supposing it wa? whispered about that this great institution was going to fail, what a feeling of terror it would create from one end of the colony to the other ; but here was an institution (our railways) with liabilities to the extent of thirteen millions, on the very verge of bankruptcy, and there was not a word about it. (Applause.) The great mistake they had made in New Zealand was this : That they were working their railways on a principle 'twixt that in vogue in America, and that in vogue in Great Britain, though there was little in common between the countries so far as the respective railway systems were concerned. In England and America the railways belonged to private individuals ; in New Zealand the railways belonged to the people. Mr Vaile then quoted a large namber of instances showing the vagaries of our railway tariff, which caused considerable mirth. He read to the meeting the first railway time table that ever was published. This was in connection with a railway from Stockton to Darlington. Notwithstanding the newness of the idea then, the comparatively greater woiking cost through waste of fuel, &c, that primitive line was a cheaper means of transit au/1 offered greater facilities and inducement than the New Zealand railways did at the present time. He pointed out that at the present time the merchants of Sydney were competing in the Auckland market with Auckland merchants. Ships were sent diiect from Sydney into the Kaipara harbour and Auckland merchants were completely cut out. Now, would they believe it, that if these same Sydney merchants had only a little more push and enterprise they could come up the Waikato river to Waikato and do the same thing ! The Yen. Archdeacon Willis proposed, " That this meeting has heard with satisfaction the proposal to form a railway reform association, and expresses its readiness to co-operate and to assist locally in the matter." He understood from The Waikato Times that the movement had been begun in Hamilton, and he thought the best step to take was to express their willingness to co-operate. The people of Waikato— indeed he might say New Zealand — were greatly indebted to Mr Vaile for his great energy and self-sacrifice in bringing this important matter so forcibly before them. He hoped that at no very "distant day he (Mr Vaile) would have thoroughly educated the public mind up to his proposals. Now that this agitation was set on foot he hoped the people of New Zealand would not be satisfied with half measures, but would go the whole hog or -.none, and set their faces once and for all against the ruinous abuses of the present system. As to Mr Vaile's proposals in respect to passenger traffic, he agreed with him that fully three times as many passengers would travel as do now. There certainly was a good few who would not travel more otten than they do at present, but there were hundreds, indeed thousands, who ,"did not, and could not afford to use their railways at present, who would under the cheap system use them , very frequently. Take for instance the population of Auckland. How many people in that rising city used the railways to Waikato at the present time. He ventured to say that for every one person would come up to Waikato now a hundred would take a trip under Mr Vaile's system. The population would shift about more, a stronger community of interest would exist and altogether not only would our railways pay better, but the country commercially aud socially would go forward. As to the goods tariff, personally he would be in favour of reform in that department being entered upon first. The farming industry was being stifled at the present; time and the sooner they relieved it from this great incubus the better. As to the business people, he would ask Mr Vaile, Would his proposals not injuriously effect them ? These were a Very desirable class of people, and he should not like to see their prospects inj nred. Mr Richard < Reynolds seconded the motion. The more he thought of Mr VajJe's daring proposals . the more he lilted them'. , -^lo^^thousnt ii the' tariff ■;Wcr» ? wiy.^,rate !^rfiduced i to , half ; theiiv

infinitely better. He could not see why those people who were settled in Waikato shoulil be so far removed from the Auckland market. He agreed with Mr Vaile that settlers in Waikato and those of the .igiiuultural district lying about Auckland should be equidistant from Auckland in respect to transit. What interest was it to the country that they shoulil be so ruinously handicapped. Land was selling at immense prices about Auckland now for dairy purposes. With cheap transit charge the people of Waik.ato could send a supply of milk to Auckland where it could be put in a freezing chamber and sold much cheaper thati those people who weie paying such a high price for land in the vicinity of the town could alFor.l to sell it at. He fully agreed with Mr Vaile's proposals re passenger traffic. He did not believe that one person in a hundred in Auckland had ever been to Waikato, while with cheap transit charges they would be constantly running up and down. It was the general belief in Auckland that Waikato was a mere wilderness of gravel and j swamp, and Patetere and the interior a desert of pumice. Mr Vaile in reply to Archdeacon Willis, said he had not been able to go into the question of goods traffic as fully las he had liked. The Government had | refused to supply the necessary statistical information. He had therefore no reliable information upon which to foiuid a system. There were, he believed, at present no less than fifteen different classes of goods besides the undefinable "small lots." He proposed reducing the number of classes to four. He would reduce first of all the charges on the natural products of the country. He quoted instances of how the small parcel tiaffic would increase if the rates were reduced. Me though that a 141bs parcel of butter or suchlike should be sent to Auckland for Gd, instead of the prohibitory rate at present in force. This represented £i a ton, and ought to pay. As to the country storekeeper, it was a well known fact that in Auckland the suburban storekeepers competed successfully with the city men. By his system the country storekeeper would be placed in the same position as the suburban m in. The transit charges would be so low, and the expenses so light that the country man would be able to beat the Auckland seller. Again, for every customer they had now they would have fifty then, as settlement would increase at an almost incredible rate. Archdeacon Willis asked if the country was persuaded to adopt Mr Vdile's system in a half and half way would the result be favourable ? ! Mr Vaile replied that it would not ; it would simply mean financial ruin. They wanted settlement in the country, and no half and half measure conld give us that. The main object of our railways should be to open up settlement, develop our resources, and encourage industries. (Applause ) The reverse .was at piesent the case. The motion was then put and carried unanimously. On the motion of Archdeacon Willis it was then agreed that the following gentlemen be a committee to act locally in the matter : — Messrs Jno. Hough ton, R. Reynolds, T. Wells, Geo. E. Clark, J, Meniclc and F. J. Brooks, with power to add to their number. The Rev. H. R. Dewsbury said they were all pretty well convinced that Mr Vaile's idea was good if practicable ; but to his mind it appeared somewhat too good to be true. He had no doubt but that the gentlemen whom Mr Vaile had been in communication with and whose letters he had laid befoie them that evening were thoroughly competent to ghe an opinion as to the probable increase of traffic that would ensue, upon the introduction, of cheap fares. Not being an expert m such matteis himself, he would be excused for not seeing the possible effect so readily as had these gentlemen. He did not see, however, how these tempting proposals were going to double the pasSPUger traffic. In taking for example the Waikato line, probably for every 100 th.it travelled, no fewer than 90 travelled within a very easy distance from Auckland, and therefore this rate of paying would not be materially lessened, and therefore they would not pay any less, and would not travel any more frequently. In regard to the transit of goods, he could not help thinking that any material reduction would be a very serious loss to the department. People had only a ceitain amount of goods to send, and no matter how the department reduced the rates they could send no more. Mr Dyer asked as to passenger tariff, if the passenger tariff would double as Mr Vaile had said, how even then could it be made pay? The fare to Te Awamutu was 21s at present, under the reduced tariff it would be only 3s. If the tariff would double that would only repieeent (is, leaving still a deficiency of about 15s. Mr Vaile said Major Atkinson had asked him a similar question, and he answered it completely to his satisfaction It was all a question of average. Indeed so convinced had Major Atkinson been of the soundness of his principle that he gave him to understand that had he been in office ho would have set about giving his scheme a trial. After a few complimentary lemarks from several gentleman. Mr Vaile was accorded hearty and unanimous vote of thanks.