RAILWAY REFORM. Lecture by Mr Vaile.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2095, 10 December 1885, Page 3

RAILWAY REFORM. Lecture by Mr Vaile.

Mil Vailk delivered a lecture at Te Awamutu on Saturday evening, Mr Teasdale in the chair. There was an exceedingly goo<] attendance, m.my persons having come from considerable distances, to hear Mi Vaile's address on a subject of such public importance. Mr Vaile said that a gentleman proposed that he should give a lecture on Railway Blnndenng and Plundering. He thought it would bo a most mutable title, it would have the merit of being not only truthful but amusing also. Under the present system of miHinunagemcnt it would entail a positive loss to constiuct any more lines of railway. Under the present system we not only wasted the money spent on these lines out we weie now paying money on the money that was waited. It would be better to thiow tho money m the sea, for then we would be done with it, and would not have to pay any interest on it. He had been accused of ignorance of railway matters, and that he had never any training in the subject. The latter wan true, but he had given the matter a good deal of study and he vva» perhaps lest ignorant of the matter than his accusorn, who never took the trouble to study the matter. The Hon. Mr Richardson said, in the House, that ho (Mr Vaile) had proposed three several schemes. Now his henreis knew perfectly well that he had never proposed more than one scheme. Some of his friends said he went to extremes, and that ho should be content to reduce the fares by half, but this would not do. Tho fare from Auckland to Te Awamutu second-class, is now 13s lid, or in round number 14s. If that were reduced to 7s, it would mean 14s from Auckland to Te Awamutu and back, too high a fare for the artisan. At harvest time when labour was required, the labourers could not at those fares afford to como up here for a few days work and then return or go to some other place where work could be got. Wh.it he proposed wa-> that the fares should bo reduced so much that it would admit of working men travelling about wherever work could be got, for when work was slack in one place it was not so in another. When the fares were reduced 25 per cent it Uid not increase the number of passengers, and it w.is a loss to the department, because tho reduction was not sufficient to induce j«ople to tiavel. Make the fares low and people will travel. A reduction of four pence per ton on co.il from Huntly to Auckland was made, but did that benefit the consumer ? No it did not, but it was prat tic.dly putting that four pence into the pockets of the propiietors of the mines, for no difference was made to the consumer. On the Erie railway in America the fare was only one cent per mile. In India a passenger was carried 450 miles for nine shillings and six pence. In spite of tho enormous population thero were only sixty-five million passengers during the twelvemonths. Mr Maxwell's argument that labour is too high here to admit of linen being cheaply constructed is not a g«od one. The London and Metr po'il«i railway cost £653,000 per mile, the New Zealand railways only cost under £800* per mile, and pas-cngers were carried on the former line for less than one-third of my lowest proposed fares. On the basis of expense they would require in London 82 times as much interest as we do here. Mr Maxwell's argument that the population in London was so much greater than in Now Zealand was not sufficient to account for the difference in faro, for there were not 82 times as much population in London as in New Zealand. The coht of hauling a train in New Zealand was 4s J)}d per mile ; this was an official statement. There was no other country in the world with 1400 miles of railway in which the cost of running was anything like what it i-> here. Tho people here blindly followed the English and American system of so much per mile. Now the conditions are very much different in England, for theie tho population is evenly distributed all over the country, but here the population was not so distributed, it was more massed, for there were many thinly-populated districts and the people in those [laces wanted helping. When the country was thickly populated it would be time enough to adopt the system of no much per mile ; but at piesent that system would not do. There wa«, under the present systcn, no inducement to travel. For overy hundred miles of train run la.st year only £13 13s was earned by passenger traffic, while the cost of running was £23 10s 2d, the difference between thebe two sums was made up by those persons who had to have goods and produce carried. Not only was thiidifferencemadeupout of freight, but the JL'3"i>,ooo piofit besides. Now this state of things was monstrous. By reducing the fares the freight on goods could be reduced, and not only could the freight be reduced, but the fares would also miovt k big profit (Mr Vaile showed on a diagram the fares he proposed to bring into force.) Ho instanced the case of tho tramways in Auckland. The tram earn ran to Ponsonby for 3d, the 'busses charged Gd, and only carried 700 passengers per vv eek. He predicted that the trams would carry three times tho amount of the 'busses, and he was 1 uighed at ; but what was the actual ■tate of the cise. The trams carried 10,000 persons per week for the 700 carried by the busses. The population did not increase by that much, but tho inducement was offered to the public to travel. The fares on the ferry boats to tho North Shore were reduced with «irmlar results. This was an answer to those who said the population in New Zealand was not enough to warrant any great reduction in fare*. He was asked to turn his attention to the reduction of freights, but in his opinion the fares •hould bo reduced first. Put tho producer in a position to go to where he could raise the produce, and he would raise it. If the freights were reduced and not the fare% it would result in a positive loss. Both should be reduced, but tho basis of railway refentte is the passenger traffic. Mr Vaile hore read an extract from Mr Maxwell's report, in which he said differential rating was not carried far enough in New Zealand. The fircat Northern Kail way m England had ten million ratrs. Tha English Government said they must publish the rates. They did so, but no one could find out any rate he wanted, and the came system was rapidly gaining ground in New Zealand. Some people were under the impression that the railways should bo in the hands nf private companies, as in England, but tho tune was not far distant wlien the English Government would be compelled to take the railways over from the companies, for they were Mirely ruining the country, and we were steadily tending tow, r U that in this country. Ho suggested that during tho next session there should be a |>etition from each district instead of one large one as before. They should be taken in charge by each member and the Government would not find it so easy to evade a number of petitions ns it did the one. At the conclusion of the address Mr Vale was loudly applauded. Mr Gresham asked whit the annual loss wns to the country under the present system ? Mr Vaile said it must be half a million it not more, this was a direct loss but the indirect loss was very large as settlers would not come into the country. Mr Vaile quoted extracts showing the prohibitive rates of freight charged on tome of the Jines in England to the detriment of the country and showed the effects it had on the districts. Mr Gresham moved a vote of thanks to Mr Vaile in his efforts. Some said he asked too'much, but he (Mr Vaile) had studied it deeply, and knew more than the general public. He thought tho meeting should go farther and pledge them•elves to support the proposed reform as much as possible. Mr Cunningham seconded the vote of thanks. Mr Vailn's piojwial to have a scalo of fares and freights which could be understood by all was a good one. At present when a man took a parcel to the station he had no idea, what the freight would be. The motion was carried most enthusiastically. Mr Vaile briefly responded to the vote of thanks. The usual vote of thanks to the chair brought the meeting to a close.

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