It is very evident from the steps being takon by tho New South "Wales Railway Commissioners, referred to in a letter appearing in Tuesday's issue, that they are about to make a practical trial of the zone, or stage, system ho long advocated by Mr Vaile, and will accompany it by a large reduction in the freights charged. In the Act empowering the appointment of our own Railway Commissioners a clause does certainly exist that the Commissioners should keep in view tho settlement of the country in their railway policy; but, the Commissioners judge —and, no doubt, rightly—that under existing circumstances the taxpayers of New Zealand look for direct rather than indirect results. They approve of any proceedings on the part of the Commissioners that will increase the difference between receipts and expenditure. When the public realise that to bring back a return of prosperity to Now Zealand every inducement to settle our unoccupied lands and everything to make the settlement of these lands attractive is the first and surest step in that direction. When they make this clearly nnderstood through their representatives in Parliament, it matters littlo who manages or who hits control of our railways if this be laid down as the first and main object. According to our correspondent's letter, the New South Wales Railway Commissioners have taken a step in that direction. When the principle is generally applied to all the products of the soil, with tho ultimate aim of fixing one uniform rate independent of distance, the incumbent necessity under our present system of crowding down upon our seaports and cities will be past. Agricultural lands a hundred miles from these centres will then practically be in as good a position for conducting operations on a profitable basis as those now so much more favourably situated in regard to transit charges. In place of a restricted area of a few miles around our ports, the application of such a policy as sketched above woxdd extend the area of production to an almost unlimited extent, tending undoubtedly to an enormous increase of agricultural products, and to just such an extent adding to our national wealth. We gather from a memo, recently sent by Chief Commissioner McKerrow to tho Minister of Mines, and which bore upon this question, that there was apparently no intention on the part of the Commissioners to make any reductions in freights or fares, such concessions in their opinions not being required. But this is just one of those questions which does admit of very different opinions, and we venture to assert —and none who are at all versed in farming oi business matters in tho country can have failed to realise it—that undoubtedly the greatest drawback to the progress of the inland districts of this colony has been the high rates of freights and fares, amounting in many instances to more than the equivalent of high rents of suburban lauds, possessing all the advantages of close proximity to port and city. We may rest satisfied that until quite a different policy is pursued upon our railways, the principal progress will continue to be made, as heretofore, along the narrow fringe of 3oast line, which lies within easy reach of our harbours and large cities.
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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2947, 4 June 1891, Page 2
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542Untitled Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2947, 4 June 1891, Page 2
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