!>.-_.

As examples of what is done under the present system, we direct your attention to the table on page 89 of Parliamentary Paper I.-9, 1886. This shows that on the Auckland Section of railways, during the year ending the 31st March, 1886, 424,914 passengers travelled, and that they paid collectively £39,909, in the following proportions:—

ft appears to the League that such a state of things is neither fair nor desirable in the interests of the community generally. As instances of " local preferences" now in existence, the League directs your attention to the following examples:— First -class Passenger-fares. Per Mile. Avondale to Kingsland, three miles ... ... ... Is. Od. = _~ Auckland to Bemuera, three miles ... ... ... os. 6d. = 2d. Avondale to Newmarket, six miles ... ... ... Is. 4d. = 2-66d. Avondale to Auckland, eight miles ... ... ... Is. Od. = 1-Jd. Auckland to New Lynn, ten miles ... ... ... Is. lOd. = 2-20d. Avondale to Onehunga, twelve miles ... ... ... 2s. 6d. = 2Jd. For the worst example of these " local preferences" you are solely responsible. The three miles of railway between Auckland and Bemuera is used by the richest portion of the community, and they are charged at the rate of 2d. per mile. The three miles between Avondale and Kingsland are used by the poorer portion of the people, and they are charged 4d. per mile, or just twice as much as their richer fellow-colonists. Passengers from Avondale to Auckland must pass Newmarket, and yet you charge them Is. 4d., while for carrying them past this station, and two miles further on, you charge only Is. It appears to the League that "local preferences" like these are not only unjust, but senseless and injurious to the best interest of the community. Such things could not occur under the proposed new system. It is the object of the League to introduce a system that shall be alike fair to every section of the community. Auckland, 27th November. 1889.

APPENDIX E. [Extract from the Otago Daily Times, Thursday, 13th February, 1890. | The Zone System. The new passenger tariff devised for the Hungarian State railroads came into effect on the Ist August. We are now able, says the Bailroad Gazette, to give more detailed information concerning it, and especially the opinion of the traffic manager of the system as to the results. This traffic is not only new but novel, having, we believe, no precedent in the history of transportation, at least on any considerable system of lines. Regular passenger rates in Hungary have been high. The country has, for an agricultural country of its area, a large population and a small railroad mileage, conditions which we are accustomed to look at as most favourable for yielding a large passenger-income. But, while Hungary has fifteen and three-quarter millions of inhabitants on an area about as great as Illinois and Missouri together, and only about five thousand miles of railroad, the three thousand people per mile of railroad, which is more than seven times the average in the United States, have given a very unsatisfactory passenger-traffic. The population consists very largely of extremely poor peasantry, whose expenses must bo limited to the barest necessities of life; and there are comparatively few manufacturing industries. The management of the State railroads has heretofore sedulously cultivated the passenger traffic. While the ordinary fares have been higher than in most European countries, attempts have been made to meet the special wants of the population by means of commutation and mileage tickets, and the like. The use of these tickets at reduced rates was sufficient to show that there was a public which would travel at low rates, and would not at the regular rates ; but the mass of the population continued to neglect the railroad, and long journeys among the lower classes were very infrequent. The average yearly number of railroad journeys per head of population was scarcely one in Hungary, whjle in Austria it. was more than two, and.in Germany five. The means by which it is hoped to induce these stay-at-home people to travel is a " zone " tariff for-the longer distances, and what we maj call a " vicinity " tariff for local travel. The latter consists of two tickets only —tickets to the next station, which are sold at the uniform prices (whatever the distance to such next station) of 10, 15, and 30 kreutzers each for the three classes

12

Travellers of Distances of Den miles and under ... Dver ten and not exceeding fifty miles ... )ver fifty miles Number of Passengers. 292,949 107,203 24,762 Percentage of Number. Amount paid. Percentagi of .Revenue. 68-9 25-3 5-8 it . 9,597 15,647 14,666 24-1 39-2 36-7