The Great Bar to the Rapid Settlement of the Country

And the location of settlers in the interior of the colony is the high cost of transit, the vexatious regulations, and the uncertainty that surrounds everything pertaining to our railways. What man, having ordinary common sense, would take up land, say 120 miles from any of the capital towns, knowing that a "differential rate" may be imposed against him any day as the whim or interests of the manipulators of the railways may dictate. Every land agent, in the Auckland district at all events, knows that under such a system as I propose, it would be easy to locate at least four settlers for one that is located now.

Let me just give one instance of how the present high charges stop settlement and trade. The Rotorua Railway is to be opened as far as Lichfield in March next. Immediately round this new town there are extensive quarries of good building stone, an article Auckland is badly in want of. Hundreds of men could at once find employment at quarrying and dressing this stone if it could be sold in Auckland at is. 6d. per foot, but the present transit charge would be 10d. perfoot, leaving only 8d. for cost of production and profit. I contend that 5d. per foot would more than pay for the transit, and at this rate a good trade could be done. If such an industry were located, as this would be, over 140 miles in the interior, how much it would help to settle that district, and build up a trade for the railway. I shall be told to apply to the Department for a special "differential rate" in favour of this industry. Yes! They would most likely grant it, and when thousands of pounds had been invested and the industry in full swing, thinking they saw a good chance of "making the railway pay," they would again raise the rates and the whole concern would be ruined. People at this end of New Zealand know too much to trust their capital to such a chance. It is this want of fixedness, that is one of the great curses of