RAILWAY REFORM-MR VAILE ON MR MAXWELLS REPORT.-NO. VII.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2086, 19 November 1885, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM-MR VAILE ON MR MAXWELLS REPORT.-NO. VII.

TO IHF hl>l I OH. Sir,— The length of my la«t letter prevented me replying to the Utter part of the paragraph under review, in which Mr Maxwell *a\s passengers cannot he profitably carried "at such low fares with the conditions under which we are working." The reply is obvious. Ad veise "conditions" ought to he removed. For many, if not most of them, Mr Maxwell is himself responsible. 30. The demand made for lower fare*, rates and charges is a natural one, and it lh one which the ( Jnvcnnnent and the officers mint always be nin«t desirous of meeting, because the granting of concev.ionn and remedying of grievances are always popular, .md there-fore grateful t'» tho«e in control as well as to the public. Mr Maxwell appears to think that the railways of the colony are his pin ate propel ty, and that it remains with him to grant " concessions " as lie thinks fit. :H. Last year the railway* yielded i'B"»."»,«iSr», after deducting uorkingexpeiisex, which Mim was available towards the payment of interest on tho loan*. This anionnt was about 33 per cent of the gr i<» re/enue. If, then, tho rates and farrs were lowered bv about 3.5 pel cent, .ill round, we might expect the revenue would just co\er working excuses, and there there would be no net proceeds ay ulable towards paymrnt of interest, and would lie .in additional -urn of Wm.OOO <>r thereabouts to bei.ii-ed by taxation. What a gem we have lierc ! Ke.illy I am afriid to touch it for ft ar of damigmg its pristine beauty. How it sp-uklcs ! How it gleams ! How in one bright flash ' it reveals the full and tine cause of all our lossi s and trouble*. To speak seriously, we here have the general manager of our railway* deliberately .signing hU name to a st.iti ment to the effect that no matter what inducements in.iv be offeied, no mattei what facilities mly be gi\cn, both to consumers and pioduccis, that it is utterly impossible to expand railway traffic. Could we lia\e a moio emphatic proof of the truth of m\ as>>eition that Mi Maxwell does not possess one gram of commi rcial or financial ability ? There can be no doubt Mr Maxwell really means uh.it he sat a. He believes that there is only so much trade to be done, and that therefore he had bettei charge the highest possible price for doing it. He has persistently conducted the work of the department on this assumption, and that rs the cause of the serious lovi we have made, and the greater loss we are now making. I am aware that the following informa tion will be lost on Mr Maxwell, but jt may not be on the public. In the Southern States of America the average faro paid by all travellers is 2. 84 cents per mile, and they shift their population only a very trifle o\ er once per annum. In the Western States the average fare is 2'l,"><» cents per mile, and they shift their population four and a half (4^) timed per annum. In the Middle States the average fare is 2*17 cents per mile, and they shift their population ten (10) times per annum. In the New England States the average fare is only '2 13 cents per mile, arwl they shift their population eighteen (IS) times per annum. The above f icts prove conclusively that the lower the fire is, the more often will the popul itioti true!. 32. If tin- colony i« of opinion, with Mi Vatle, Hi«t it i- i nu-thii'ViiiH error to try toinikt tli- i « 1 » tv s piy interest on tlnnr capital co-t, it i* <|inte (*i>\ to l educe the r*te\ fan s, ui<l i !i ngi -, - ■ .ts to make no profit. This is nddnssjd to the public, and it roads, \ ( [-3 lik' 1 an insult Kxeryone above the level o! .in idiot known that it is easy to reduce and lo<< . It is (jmte possible to reduce and in ike a liiif pioiit, but it takisamanof abilitx that Mr Maxwell to do it. 33. A second-class single fire fm eightyfoni null's is now IK Sd. If it weir redmed bv 3.i per cent, it would be 7s '.ld. Mi Vailr proposes to ni'ike it Is Kd. 31. We must be clear on this point. We have srrji th.it, were, fares, l.ites and charge" reduced .ill round bv .13 per cent., we might expect to lc.ilise no piofit, and additional taxation in some form, to tho extent of about t'.W»,OOO a year, would be needed to piy interest. 3"> It is easy to see that if they were reduced all lou'mi, as Mr Vaile suggest*, a further large sum would have to be raised to pay the deficiency of the revenue below the cost of woi king. These are but a reiteration of paragraph 31. They, however, serve to show howrooted and fixed the idea is. in Mr Maxwell's mind. 3»i. The (inestKin is asked by Mi Vaile, " If applying tho law of averages has been s-o -uccessful in the cases of letters, patcel', and telegrams, v\ hy should it not succeed in the ewe of iailwn3's''" 37. Thens is ,v stiange confusion of ideas in classing the transmission of telegrams with the conveyance of good". It sounds like a suggestion that the tiatisnn-wion of telegi.uns should be by the ton. As regards letters, letters .it i uniform postage of 2d each will cost about l'f>oo pei ton to trans nut. They will at tins rate bo earned fiorrr Auckland eithei to Onelmng.i or the Bluff. ! There is a ruateiutl <liffeienee m dealing with letters or with parcels of light weight md with tfooiK In the foirnei the ele n\ent of weight only affects the cost of operations in a most tufling degreo in proj)oition to the other elementn which determine tho cost of woi king tho pout omce. I» railway goods tiaflic the bulk and weight tank as cluef factors in making up the co.sfc of conveyance. There is no doubt "a strange confusion of ideas "in Mr Maxwell's mind on this subject, but thnre is none whatever in mine. Mr Maxwell has got the idea of "by the ton " so fiimly fixed as to incapacitate him for dealing effectively m ith that very importaut branch of railway tiaflio, the half-tons, quarter-tons, hundredweights, and smaller parcels.— l am, &c, S^mvfi, Vaile, Auckland, 21st October, 1885.