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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 60

Railway Affairs

Railway Affairs.

In response to continued agitation the Government decided to make a reduction in the rates on farm produce. This alteration came into force on the 1st May last, and it amounts on the average to about half the advance made on the 8th March, 1881, which excited so much dissatisfaction. The long promised reduction of 6d. per ton in the rate for the handling and haulage of merchandise from ships to sheds in port has also been made. Continued correspondence with the Minister for Public Works has however so far failed to induce the Government to reduce the exceptionally high charge for haulage on merchandise between Lyttelton and Christchurch. At an interview which the Committee had with the Colonial Treasurer in March last, he stated that the Government could not see its way clear to reduce this rate, but your Committee think the matter should not be allowed to drop.

The question of transferring the management of the New Zealand Railways to a non-political Board was exhaustively debated at a Conference of New Zealand Chambers held at Wellington on 18th September last. The facts elicited at the discussion impressed the minds of some of the delegates with the idea that the adoption of this proposal would not be without some practical difficulties, mainly in the nature of the relations that should subsist between the Board and the Government; and the result was that a resolution was adopted recommending as an experiment the constitution of Boards of Advice in the different railway centres. A Bill has however been prepared by the Government for the constitution for each Island of a Board of Control, such as has been in contemplation for some years past. The official conduct of railway affairs in this district has in general continued fairly satisfactory to the public.