The Goods Tariff.

The re-arrangement of the goods tariff will be a work of vast importance, and the future of this country will largely depend on the skill, and the fairness and impartiality with which it is dealt with. If Messrs. Maxwell and Hannay are allowed to control this important matter very many people and great public interests will suffer severely.

The evidence these gentlemen gave before the Parliamentary Committee of 1886, and reproduced in my Paper, No. 8, conclusively proves that they could not correctly calculate the simple averages of the passenger traffic, neither with regard to their own system nor mine. If then they made such a fearful mess of this comparatively easy task, what will they do with the much more complicated and important question of the goods tariff.

It appears to me that there is nothing for us to do but to repeal the disastrous Act of 1887 with the least possible delay, page 4 and let the railways revert back to the Crown and be managed under the control of a responsible Minister.

What, then, are we to do with the Commissioners? As to Messrs. Maxwell and Hannay, the colony has surely had enough of them. To pay the cash value of their salaries, deducting therefrom the amount of their compensation as civil servants and the chances of their lives, would mean a very small thing. It would pay the colony to give ten times as much to get rid of them. Mr. McKerrow, who is a good departmental officer, and must have acquired a great deal of routine knowledge of the department, might probably be retained with advantage.

We ought, then, at once to introduce a stage system. If a better one can be found than the one I propose, by all means let us have it; if not, let the system that has already been investigated have a fair trial.

There are now before the world three stage systems.