RAILWAY CHARGES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2700, 31 October 1889, Page 2

RAILWAY CHARGES.

1 THE FARMING INTERESTS. ' 'L'iib Railway Commissioners have at length spoken (in the question of reducing tho freight on lime for agricultural purposes. Wo have already in these columns had something to s; iv on the subject, and it was in luvercargill and elsewhere in Southland that th". matter was first brought under Mr 1 M'lCcrrow's notice. It will be remembered that the pleas were manifold for cJniuj; some--1 thing to bring lime, as a manure, into general use on the cold lands of Otago and Southland. That these lands needed lime ' above all tilings—drainage only, perhaps excepted—was admitted by all. That productions could bo enormously incieased by the free, use of thac stimulant experience had abundantly proved ; and the most intelligent of our agriculturists were simply wait- ' ing for such a reduction hv the two parties 1 who held the matter in their hands to give orders which the cost of the article had precluded them from siv ing before, it was desired and expected that by substantial . concession by the lime burners on the one hand and the carriers on tile other, lime would be brought to a figure that would make its consumption in large quantities possible and profitable to the farmers, Another point was urged—viy.., that seeing how under any carrying tariff regulated by distance the consumers far removed from tho lime quarries would bo hopelessly handicapped, the charges made fur all distances should be uniform. This is a principle that is already acknowledged in several of our public departments—the Post-office and Telegraph departments, for instance—and one that it is intended in another country to apply in a very bold manner to railway affairs. The answer made to the appeal of the fanners by the Milburn Cement Company was prompt and liberal. The company offered to reduce their price, in the case of largo orders for lime, by 2s per ton. The Railway Commissioners hesitated long, and finally resolved to make a reduction that would bring the freight for 311 miles to -Is 4d per ton and that for 100 miles to 7s lid per ton. Now the test to be applied to this concession in order to ascertain its practical value is a veiy simple one. It is this—Will it effect the purpose that the agitators had in view? The object is to bring lime into universal use, and the question to bo asked is, will the paltry reduction proposed by the Commissioners make the consumption universal, or even general, over the country. We fear the answer must be decidedly in the negative. We are in a position to state that, even with the full reduction promised on large orders by the burners, and the concessions made on the freight by rail, a ton of lime laid down and spread on tho laud would cost a farmer, say 35 miles from tho kiln, over £1 per ton ; it would cost 100 miles from the kiln about ±M 4s per ton. Now, two tons of lime to the acre are but a moderate allowance, and the cost would be, in tho two cases supposed, respective!}', about £'2 Is cmd £'2 8s per acre. This is a tremendously heavy outlay for a farmer to encounter, and many will be unwilling and many more unable to incur it. It is a miserably small concession that the railway authorities propose to make—about 20 per cent., it is reckoned, overhead on former rates. The lime-burn-ing company makes one nearly as great, although its powers of reduction are necessarily limited from causes that have no existence in the case of a national railway. The company has no function but to secure a direct profit, after which it derives no benefit whatever from the transaction. The railways, we have always understood, exist for tho purpose of promoting the national prosperity, and their first profit—or indeed any profit at all of a direct character — ought to bo (,f only the slightest consequence in their policy. In this particular ease however, the Commissioners cannot be blind to the fact that a secondary and not remote profit enormously greater than any they could rloiive from linn! carriage awaits them, if only lime be carried to a sufficient extent. It is hardly too muchtosiy that if the use of limo were to become general or universal, the produce of cold lands would be increased from 50 to 100 percent., and the freight on the increase would be such as to make it a splendid bargain for the railway to have carried the limo for nothing. These facts and calculations have been laid before the Comissioners. They have not ventured to contradict them, but their peddling policy would seem to show that either they have failed to grasp or are determined to ignore them. Wo havo said nothing of the vast gain that would accrue to the fanning community, and through them to the colony at large, of so great an iucrease, through cheap lime in the products of the soil. Neither have we brought forward the benefits to live stock that arise from sweetening and wariniug the land as it can be wanned and sweetened by the application of lime. If what may bo advanced on all these points were well pondered, it would be seeu that in no one direction could a better opportunity be found for the railways performing their true functions than the one in which they have been invited to look. But it would seem as if it wore the last thing that the Commissioners will do, to abandon the principle of high rates, which they maintain with the view of securing a direct profit, or of making the railways ■'pay." There are two objections to high rates, one being that they are not the way to make the railways pay even directly ; and the second, that their paying directly is not the object, or at least not the primary one, for which they were constructed. At this moment it is well known that old fashioned methods of carrying arc in operation alongside of our railways, freights being snatched by bullock «raggous, and stock being driven long distances—transactions which the railways ought to render impossible. It is alleged too that in districts close to railway stations travelling on horseback and by private vehicles to the towns is increasing, on account of the high fares that the authorities persist in maintaining. It seems abundantly clear that the present system has failed, and applying a common; well-tested principle—that lowness of price increases almost indefinitely consumption — it is equally clear that a sweeping reduction in railway charges for both goods and passengers offers the best prospect for increasing railway revenue, while it would give the people the full benefit of a system that was created, among other things, for their use 1 and enjoyment. That the day of cheap i fares and rates is coming here, no one who ; watches what is going on in other countries ; will for a moment doubt. An obstinate i and blind policy may retard its arrival, but < it cannot do more.—Southland Times. i