The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, OCTOMBER 22, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2696, 22 October 1889, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, OCTOMBER 22, 1889.

Tiik Railway Question lias been taken in hand by business people in Auckland, who, after many years of passiveness, have organised an active crusade against the present reghm. The Railway Reform League formed in Auckland, there is no doubt, has Mr Samuel Vaile for its inastor spirit. He has carried on a long and bitter warfare against the Railway Department and its personnel, and he makes it clear that he has, by no means, relaxed his energy nor exhausted all his resources to attain the object he has been cherishing for years. Mr Vaile aims to popularise the railways, and at the same time make them reproductive on their capital cost, which they have not yet succeeded in accomplishing under past management. The greatest deterrent in the way of the railways proving the public benefit it was originally claimed, they would be, has been the grossly improper political influences infused into the construction and manipulation of the lines of the colony. The public interests suffered immeasurably in consequence of tho selt'.seekiiigs and corruptions of political combinations. Public opinion generally throughout the colony sought to cinanfi; ate the railways from political or even parliamentary control, and to effect a return to the policy on which they were from the first designed, namely to be a leading factor in the promotion of settlement and stimulation of the production of tho soil. These were the purposes intended for the railways, and not that they should be converted into an irksome and cunning invention for the extraction of revenue out of the taxpayers, who are their real owners. Mr Vaile wished to remove the railway system from its baneful political surroundings, as well as

to reverse the entire maanagement; and he was unsparing in his denunciations of Mr Maxwell, the late General Manager. Mr Vaile's scheme has been constantly before the public. Its sole object is to substitute an entirely new principle in tho scale of passenger rates and in the freight charges on goods, merchandise, stock, ifcc. His proposals are enveloped with much that belongs to the theoretical and to speculative experiment. Many railway experts are of the opinion that Mr V.-iilo's scheme is impracticable, but others again have encouraged the principle he has advanced. One thing, at least, can be said of his plan, that it is based on mercantile knowledge and that under it the railways would be managed on commercial lines with a view to gaining both popularity and that amount of success which is the aim of all business men in their own concerns. That would be infinitely more preferable to the policy by which our railway system is at present characterised, and would be a greater auxiliary io the prosperity of the country. Such a change will be secured, we have no doubt, as the outcome of persistent agitttion. When the present non-political Board of Commissioners was created, one advantage was gained as the result of agitation, and the influence of demoralising Parliamentary intriguers was eliminated from tho control of our railways. Mr Yaile, however, refused to look favourably on the Board and its constitution; to him it is tho very embodiment of all that is wicked and destructive of the people's interests. Although the Waikato settlers have beeti not oua whit behind the rest of the colony in giving vent to their dissatisfaction of railway affairs, and wore tho first to form a league to secure reform, standing alone iu their action, they, however, took a more generous view of the position of the newly-established Board of Commissioners, and of tho onerous task before them. Whilst laying all their grievances and disabilities under the pressure of ruling tarifFs before the Commissioners, even obtaining from them some concessions, it Wits recognised that the Board could not act magical , y in their dealings with the railways, and that time must be afforded them to introduce such changes as would meet the demands of the country, without'causing a serious check on the Treisury, which a sudden revolution would be sure to entail since the system has become wedged in a certain groove. So far the result of the Board's management of the lines shows an increase in the receipts and a reduction in the expenditure. With the control of the railways made secure from political jobbery, there only remains to follow a change of the policy to one of a national character, and then the operations of that, policy should be conducted cautiously and in a business-like manner, and not violently. The desire of the country is clear for a, new policy, framed in the interests of land occupation and long-distance producers. We need a reduction of the tariff on outproduce, and on all the necessaries which accompany the cultivation of the soil, irrespective of the passenger rates, which are but of secondary importance. The weight of public opinion, aided by organised limitation will secure the adoption of a wiser policy, and when that has boon decided upon there enn be no reason why the present Commissioners, as men of experience and capacity, .should not carry it out and manage the railways accordingly, as well as any other set of officials. It is a question of policy and not of men. Let Mr Viiile persevere in his cause until the reform of the colonial railway system is grappled -with in roal earnest. Whatever his own personal views on the question, are, and in which he thoroughly believes, lie can do a vast deal to help the movement to ultimate victory, when Parliament and the people come to consider the particulars of the future policy that shall sway our railway operations. At the next general election Mr Vaile's return for Parliament for one of the Auckland scats can be accepted as a forgone conclusion. He would enter the House with a strong backing of Northern members, and with the probability of an uninterrupted triennial period before them iu which to fulfil their purpose. In the meantime the work of organising public opposition to the present policy must not be neglected, if the electors are to be prepared for the next general elections. It would be injudicious in Mr Vaile to weaken his present influence by courting defeat at any by-election, which may take place between now and the expiration of this Parliament next year by effluxion of time. '