The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. SATURDAY, NOV. 19, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2707, 16 November 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. SATURDAY, NOV. 19, 1889.

We have received a reprint of the correspondence between the Auckland Railway Reform League, and the Railway Commissioners, on the objects the League have in view and wish to attain. The Commisioners do not meet the League's communication in a decisive straightforward manner, nor consider the platform laid down on its merits. They have singled out just one of the declared objects of the League— the abolition of differential rating— upon which to create a covert for retreat from the discussion of the whole question. They profess to be puzzled as to the meaning of the term " different rating," which they say is not a technical one, and has no existence either in English or American railway law. The expression, they state, has been loosely introduced, conversationally and critically, in English circles; it has been used vaguely in New Zealand, without any precise meaning, and is succeptible of various interpretations. In their anxiety to discover what the League really mean by differential rating, the Commissioners submitted the question to their Auckland solicitors, Messrs Devore and Cooper, for their definition and interpretation of the actual construction intended by the League. The legal gentlemen approached the subjectvery cautiously, and, after careful inquiry and without committing themselves to them, elaborated a variety of definitions in explanation of the sense ascribed by the League lo the term in question. In a word, they consider it to mean any " undue preference or advantage " given to any particular person, firm or locality in respect to traffic charges. The Commissioners' minds appear to be greatly relieved of a serious disturbing element, and they are delighted with Messrs Devore and Cooper's explanatory letter. They then make the positive assertion that objectionable practices, such as unjust discrimination, undue or unreasonable personal preferences, drawbacks, ifcc are uot and never have been in operation on the New Zealand railways. They also pick out a discrepancy in the examples of fares under Mr Vaile's proposed stage system to condemn it as providing the way for establishing local preferences, and they, thereupon, shirk the principle"altogether. Notwithstanding the Commissioners' disclaimer differential rating, in the sense contained in the legal definitions, have been in operation on the New Zealand lines; they are in force between Auckland and Te Aroha for the express object of killing the competition on the Thames river, and again between Auckland and Rotorua to injure the coastal trade to Tauranga, ' In both cases, the public railways of a protectionists colonv. sensitive for the well-being of its' local industries, are made in eool deliberation a vehicle to destroy private enterprise. The Commissioners arc merely splitting hairs to evade the main issue, namely, the crying need for altering the railway policy, and amending the tariff accordingly. Public opinion is strong in that direction, and the League do represent the general feeling on the question. The official intellect may amuse itself by calling upon the whole bar for legal definitions, but temporising with the matter in this manner will not allay the irritation felt by industrious settlers and producers at distances from central markets, who are hindered by the present scale of charges from farming profitably. The Commisioners will not improve the wealthproduction of the colony, nor assist settlement by the course they are fixed upon following.