"THE MOST ABSURD PART" OF MR WHYTE'S PROPOSALS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2304, 16 April 1887, Page 2

"THE MOST ABSURD PART" OF MR WHYTE'S PROPOSALS.

TO THE KDITOK. sin, —The above definition by Mr Vaile, vith reference to Mr Whyte's suggestion 'or cheapening fares relatively to distance iravelled 011 the ground of proportiocate essening of the cost of carriage, begins a paragraph in which Mr Vaile shortly after remarks, that, "when the cost of service is Dvobably five times as much, he (Mr Whyte) aroposes to charge hi in (the traveller) vjd per mile only." To show'Mr Whyte smjonsistency, Mr Vaile proceeds to say, " the long distance travellers, those who travel distances of over 30 miles only number about 6 per cent, of the whole. Now it is very apparent that the cost of conveying this (> per cent, to their scattered and distant homes must be many times greater than the cost of moving the short distance travellers." Now I would suggest that tho question of carrying one passenger, by unnecessary mismanagement distributed over three carriages, is one of policy as to the locality for the laying down of lines, and is connected with the "indirect benefit" principle which I believe Mr Vaile recognises and upholds, and that the empty carriages cannot fairly be charged to the cost of the solitary fare any more than Mr Carter would do so in charging a through passenger to the Lakes, because some of his passengers do not go the whole way. But without entering at all into the question of the fairness of Mr Vaile's system for calculating the cost of fares, Mr Vaile s argument is, I think, absolutely valueless, for the reason that Mr Vaile forgets that the solitary passenger, has had to leave his home and travel towards the populous part of the line before he can return, that whether he travelled a short or long distance, " the worst feature of Mr Whyte s proposal " as quoted by Mr Vaile, namely, " the same scale of rates would be charged from any place to any place, and in any direction," comes in and equalizes matters, and that the same system would apply to freights, which we must hope will be at least as often for farm produce to town, as necessaries for the farmer to the country. I cannot but think that the above valueless argument would never have been advanced by a gentleman of Mr Vaile's clearness of judgment, had not that been warped by a pernicious habit of taking what may be called a one ended and protective view of our railway traffic with respect to _ the diminishing of fares or freight, that is to say, always from the large town and towards the country.—l am, yours faithfully, Fitzroy Pkacocke. April 15th, 1887.