SATURDAY, AUG. 14, 1886.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2200, 14 August 1886, Page 2

SATURDAY, AUG. 14, 1886.

All tilings considered, we are Satis find that Mr Vaile has more than scored a point with the Legislature. Ho lias achieved a victory. A commission, such -is would in all probability have been appointed, would probably have been valueless. A trial on some one line, unhampered with conditions of guarantee, was what would h;i\e fully satisfied the advocates of 1 a ilway reform, and of Mr Vaile's scheme in particular, but we must accept the compromise contained in the committee's report, > published elsewhere, on the prin- j ciple that half a loaf is better than no bread at all. And really, we may be fairly satisfied. We have the ground given to us on which.

we may stand and move the whole system of railway "policy and management. If we have the courage 6t our opinions, if we believe as Mr Vaile believes, and as indeed we do believe, that the scheme needs only a fair trial to achieve success, then .our guarantee means no risk whatever. All that we have to secure is that the trial shall be so worked in detail" that ther<* *Ji&ll no inherent weakness, ho JnHer^arring; of 4 " the* works, to* put the. wliole machinery out of gear and bring it to a standstill. The trial must be over a fixed period of not, less thari •three years 1 ; for the great element 61 success in Mr Vaile's scheme is the encouragement it will give to the j settlement and cultivation of the* country lands, and the consequent increase of both passenger and goods traffic ; but if the cheap rates of carriage can at any moment be cancelled, no such inducement will exist. ,The management, too, of the line itself, must to a certain extent be under the supervision of a lociil railway board, or otherwise a manager interested in the collapse of the experiment could kill \t by adverse management in details. All these, however, are mere 'questions for after consideration. The 1 promoters of railway reform have^btaiued a decisive victory, and must follow it up to . its full fruition. Waikafa, as tjbe, head and front of this movement; may well be proud of the part she has taken, and we are glad to see that our Auckland morning contemporary isl>egmning to warm to the .^contest. Yet, even now it cannot quite rid itself of the town versus country feeling, and puts the antagonistic case of "Otahuhu and Drury," for which wp should rather read the words "Auckland and i suburbs," for that is what is really meant. The truth is Otahuhu and Drury would have no cause to fear, for in place of country they would become the suburbs, and , Auckland itself and its present suburbs' would be such enormous gainers by the produce and traffic, which would of necessity find its outlet at the port, that any temporary tendency; to the lowering of the value of the present suburban lands would be almost immediately counteracted, and more than made up by the increased trade and general prosperity. Auck-, land would not become the less populated because population settled on the country lands, but all the more so. As well might Waikato, if it were so unwisely selfish, look with suspicion on Mr Vaile's scheme, and demur to it on the principle that the extension of the line beyond Te Awamutu, under the new system of management, would bring the lands of the King Country into competition with its own. On reading the report one of two courses presents itself for our consideration. Firstly, the acceptance of the trial experiment as offered, under guarantee ; secondly, the renewal of the agitation during the recess with increased vigour, so as to secure better terms from the Legislature in the coming session. We do not hesitate to say that the first presents itself to our mind as the wiser and safer plan - — provided, of course, that the trial be carried out not on a mere section of the line, which would mean certainty of failure, but from Auckland to Te Aroha, to Lichfield, to Cambridge, and to Te Awamutu and under some safety guard of supervision by a local railway board. If we really believe all that we profess, then we know that .the guarantee is after all a mere matter of form. The Railway Reform League may take credit for the work it has done in the support of Mr Yaile, whose indomitable energy and unselfish advocacy have after all been the mainsprings of the movement, but the real work of the League has only now commenced. It will be its duty to agitate the question of railway reform as applied to this part of ihe country on purely local lines — 10 show to the ratepayers of the several local bodies interested, the desirability of accepting the terms offered, and succinctly to lay before them the amount and the character of the liability on which they are called to enter, and to obtain from the Government every information which their official knowledge enables them to give to insure these figures being correctly i arrived at. The Department alone are in possession of the facts and figures with regard to the goods traffic — information which was not ! open to Mr Vaile. It is not right ! in the interests of the public that this should be so. The. fullest publicity should be given to any infor* mation which may lessen the intricacies and difficulties in the way of settling a question on which so largely hinges the profitable working of our railways, the successful settlement of our country lands and the general prosperity of the colony. And whilst on this subject we cannot but drawattention to the remarkable disclosure which appears in the report, namely, that the evidence taken by the committee shows that more than two-thirds of our railway revenue has been derived from the goods traffic. It is the struggling country settler whose goods from the towns and whose produce to the ports have been charged an almost prohibitive rate, and who has been fain to be content with a miserably incomplete passenger service, who' has "been paying for tho hourly trains and bogie travelling cars, provided for passengers in more favourably situated localities. The country settler has been the tortoise on whose back has rested the superincumbent weight of tho whole railway fabric. Of tho report itself wo do not care to say much. Tho committee do not seem to have grasped the real question at issue. In all enses it is the management not the policy of our railways that is referrod to. The committee would seem to have looked through the small end of tho official glass, and to have considered

the matter from tho narrow stands point only of squeezing the largest possiblo amount of ro venue from the |lij*Uest possible expenditure. They^gftpre altogether that railways, are, after all, merely iron roadjy the outlay on which is recouped from a score of indirect sources, the result of increased population with a larger money■fipending' capacity. Even in* the pial experiment theyi, qffojf, it never seems to occur' to \hem that the settlement of tho country along the line exporimentod upon will yi(pld an indirect gain to the rev«entte in the shape of increased consumption of dutiable goods, and that this should be taken into acM&otmbin any arrangement made between local bodies and the Government in the initiation of an experimental trial. All these and many other matters, besides the agitation of the acceptance of this proffered trial amongst the local bodies interested, we shall expect the league to see to as part of its duties. One thing we are pleased to notice, the league has not only recognised Mr Vaile's claims to a special recognition from his fellow settlers, but has couraienced the practical work of j&Hingf the executive council to■^jim^far Tuesday next, for the purpBs^ of devising the form /and character that such recognition shall take, and presumably of setting' machinery in motion for carrying it ,to a practical issue. Our Auckland contemporary we see, has, spoken out unmistakably on this matter, and we may therefore hojse that the response accorded to the suggestion will be one alike worthy of the recipient and of the colony.

It is notified in the Gazette that P.ukeko or. Pakura (^waiiip hen) have been declared native game.

Our new serial tale "At Fault" from the pen of that pifted novcliit Hawley Smart, is commenced in to-day's •mpplemwit. The concluding chapters of "The Vicar's Governess " will appear next week.

We are glad to hear that the son of Me Thomas, of Hukuiui, whose leg was broken on Thursday by fin hoise falling on hiiri jvhile riding after cattle in getting on favourably" under the skilful care of Dr. Murch.

jHig Worship the Mayor of Hamilthh hrts'received a telegram from the member foe: Waikuto intimating that the miiii of £IQOQ had been placed on the Sujiplftmentary 'Eatimatcs for the Hamilton Public Buildings, -and was mire to pnss.

At Thursday's meeting of the Auckland's Crown Lands Board, Mr R. Weight (if Cambridge asked for leave to lease certain land. The chairman pointed out that the board had no power to l^ase waste landi of the Crown, and it waa agreed to send a reply accordingly.

We are glad to learn that Mr Knyx has 30 fur recovered from the indisposition under which he has been Kufforitig for the last fortnight, as to be able to resume his duties at the auction mart today, when in addition to other sales that- of some 124 acren of domain lands will be offered to the public.

, Tlie following tenders were reccivd for deepening drain on the Eureku Estate, about 126 chains :— Kelly and Glazier (accepted), 14s per chain ; l'arkin I*,1 *, 17s ;S. Cmnbes, 14* ; J. McSweeney, 24.s M ; Tebbs and Talbot, 19s !>d ; R. Land, 32s fid ; P. Whoollar, 27s Od ; Ja*. Shine, 18s (»d ;Wirma Kikihana, 14s; Maud and Rickey, 39s (id.

The time of the House on Thurs day was taken tip with the Waimea Plain* Railway quo>tion. After considcujble discussion the Bill to purchaso the line was recommitted, and £31,000 iiw,rted in the place of £'27,000 as the amount of c.ish to l>o paid to the company. The Hou-e afterwards, went into committee of supply, and passed a number of items in tho Public Works estimates.

Mr ftevine, one of Mr S. SG lahtini'b employes met with a painful oc ident on Wednesday night. He was retu tiing home to Tauuhere when ha was th own from his hoi so and dislocated lii> sh Milder. He came into Hamilton <m Tmirsday morning and was attended to by Dr Murch, who reduced the dislocation.

George Johnson alias Thomas Carter, and Hugh McAnnally were brought up at the Police (Joint, Cambridge on Thursday, before Mr <r. W. Resell, J.l\, charged with stealing five cows and one heifer, the property of John Hannon, at Hautapu. The prisoners were remanded until the sitting of the R.M. Coint on Fiidfty next.' They were unable to find bail, so remained in custody at Cambridge. Const aably Mm ray of Hamilton lias succeeded in recovering the cattle.

S. Peter's Church, Hamilton, was filled by a fashionable assemblage on Thursday, the occasion being the marriage of Mr Robert Seddon, of tho Bank of New Zealand, Tauranga, and second vm of Mr S. T. Seddon, of Knijjhton, Hamilton, to Mi«.h SwaibiicU, daughter i>f Mv S. Swarbrick, late General Manager of *he (ireat Eastern Railway, and sifter of Mr A. Swarbrick, of The Pines, Kinkiriioa. The ceremony wa< performed by tho Uev. K. O'C. Big^s, Incumbent ot the parish, and the service wax choral. The happy pair loft by the mid'lay train for Te Aroha, where they will spend the honeymoon.

The Borough Council have instructed Mr J. Knox to otfer by auction at hia mart this afternoon u- largo number of very suitable hized blocks of l.md well situated, and of good quality. The council have taken quite a new departure in dealing with their endowninentt*. Conditions are made that the lessee can go on improving and building .is much as he likes, with the aHsurance of being repaid for all he expends, even to the crop in the giotmd at the date ot expiry. This certainly should induce settlement round the town, for the proposal surpasses even the liberal terms offered by Mr Ballance in his land settlement scheme. At the end of the term a valuation is to be made and the land will again be put in auction, .subject to the new tenant paying such amount, the new tenant also having the same privilege at the end 'of his term. Although deterioration mn.st betaken into accout, still the enjoyment and peaceable occupation for which he has paid is seemed to him. Altogether the council are to be commended upon the wisdom displayed in the new departure.