OUR RAILWAYS AND THE ZONE SYSTEM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2992, 6 June 1893, Page 2

OUR RAILWAYS AND THE ZONE SYSTEM.

Following suit with the Railway Cou>niissioners, it has been the fashion among n>ost of our contemporaries to throw ridicule upon the suggestions of Mr Vaile in faror of effecting an entire revolution in the system of charges upon the railways of the colony. As is well known, the Auckland would-be railway reformer has for years persistently advocated the adoption of the stage or zone system, that is to say that passenger and freight rates should be adjusted, not by mileage, but on a fcale of progression corresponding to certain fixed stages o f distance within which—i.e., between stage and stage — the charges to be uniform, and at the same time greatly below those at present obtaining. His contention is that this simplification and liberalisation of the tariff would so largely develop the traffic as to yield highly satisfactory financial results. That I contention has been disputed and pooh-poohed, and Mr Vaile himself has | been laughed at as a hare-brained enthusiast. But it is proverbial that they laugh best who laugh last, and events are fast showing that it is Mr Vaile who will yec have the laugh on his side. For a scheme in the main corresponding to that which he advocates for New Zealand has now been in operation on the Hungarian lines for nearly four years, and, having been a success from its inception, continues to show wonderfully favourable results. During the five years preceding the introduction of the zone tariff (August 1, 1889) the returns showed » number of passengers varying between 6.1 and 7.6 millions. During the first year of the aone tariff (from August 1, 1889, to July 31, 1890) this number rose to 16.2 millions j during the second year (1890-91 to 19 millions, and during the third year (1891-92) to 28.3 millions. The receipts have during the same time been very nearly doubled. "Now as there has been no such increase in the population of Hungary as would appreciably affect the railway revenue the enormous development of traffic above recorded can be set down to no other cause than the adoption of the zone system, and, other things being equal, the like results might safely be anticipated to follow from the adoption of that system in New Zealand. In Hungary, it will be seen, the number of passengers has in three years from the adoption of the system been multiplied by four, and such a result in New Zealand would make the railways pay handsomely. Of course we are aware that it is denied that the cases are parallel —that is to say, that it is urged that Hungary is a comparatively thickly populated country, while New Zealand is relatively thinly populated, and further that in the former, which has no seaboard, all traffic is by land, whereas io New Zealand a great deal of it goes by that finest of all natural highways, the sea. But while conceding all this, and all that may be legitimately deduced from these premises, we still say that the experience of Hungary goes a long way towards proving that the zone system is a better paying system than the mileage system, and that a much lower passenger tariff than now obtains with us would yield better financial results by more than correspondingly increasing the number of travellers by rail. Indeed we are persuaded that the present high rates discourage traffic, and that an opposite policy would produce results which would speedily justify its adoption. We trust that Mr Vaile and those who sympathise with him will push on in their agitation, and that Parliament will yet be induced to give the new system a fair trial.