The Financial Outcome of the Stage System.

My contention has always been that if only two of my low-priced fares were taken, where one is taken at the present prices, that we should secure a much better financial result than we do now. This the officers of course denied. To them it no doubt seemed incredible that we could cany people from Waikare to the Bluff for 18s. 6d. or 12s. 8d., when they were charging £4 10s. 11d. or £3 9s.; yet this solid fact remains, that for now nine years people have been carried a greater distance every day in Europe for three shillings and fourpence (3s. 4d.).

In this instance again time has brought its revenge. Actual experience, and the evidence of the Railway Accountant—their on man—has proved my finance to be sound.

When the Hungarians commenced their adaptation of the Stage System, they did so by reducing fares exactly as I had proposed here six years before, that is, to an average of one-fifth of the former charge: They saw, as I had seen and asserted six years previously, that no less reduction would secure the desired financial result. The following table will show what has Wen done in Hungary:—