STATE RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND.
[To ma EDITOR. OF ITER " SFIICTATON.,"] SIB,—The enclosed is an extract from a letter which I have just received from my _brother, a farmer in New Zealand. I thought it might possibly be of interest to your readers.—.
I am, Sir, &c., A LIBERAL. "I hope your prophecy re Messrs. Lloyd George and Churchill -*ill turn out correctly. If people could only have an experience of State-owned railways such as we have here, they would not tolerate the idea a moment. Express trains taking two hours fifty minutes to go thirty-eight miles (schedule time) , an abso- lute lack of all consideration for convenience of passengers, and a disregard of ordinary businesss methods to get or create trade,—these things and many others appertain to State owner- ship as we know it. And why P In the first place, no officials ever get the sack' except for dishonesty; all promotion is by interest or -seniority; and of course there is no oompetition in any shape or form. And what is the most extraordinary feature of all, there is &fearful .distrust of putting up the value of suburban lands by running a frequent, fast, and punctual service of trains at cheap fares in and out of the larger towns. This must astonish the ordinary visitor, the absolute lack of all suburban traffic. The cost of construction is something diabolical. Just fancy a lino running from a seaport into the interior, only twelve miles long, taking eight years to construct and costing £10,000 per mile, with practically no embankments, cuttings, or tunnels, and only one small suspension bridge of about forty feet, this over dead-level ground. And as for our being a Protectionist people, of all the absurdities this is the most absurd. An agricultural people in a country suited only for agriculture, whose market is the world, actually artificially Increasing the cost of every single thing they buy, from labour -upwards ! Increasing their coat of production in every direction, and not being able in any way to increase their selling price, is as akin to madness as anything I ever heard, saw, or read of. There is only one thing wrong with New Zealand, and that is the Government. It will take generations to recover from Seddon. Ward is a sitter on the fence, and will go down soon, and the -sooner the better."
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