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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

The Cost of a Trial

The Cost of a Trial,

say for one year, on the Auckland Section—what would it amount to?

The number of passengers carried on this Section during 1896-1897 was 582,280, and they produced a revenue of £46,952. the same number at my average fare of one shilling (1s.) would yield £29,114. Thus, if, through the enormous reductions in fares, we did not carry one extra passenger, or carry them one single mile further, the loss for a whole year, on the department's own showing, would be only £17,838. page 13 The officers of the department know well that there will be no loss of revenue, but a great loss of credit to themselves, for they know that a trial would convict them of a contemptible want of knowledge of the business of their own department. I do not suppose there is a man in New Zealand who believes they would hesitate to spend £100,000 of the public money to prove me wrong. They know the new system will be a great success, and that is the reason why they are determined to prevent a trial if they possibly can. No trial of the new system will ever be obtained by consent of the department; it must be ordered in defiance of it.