The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, May 30, 1891. A STARTLING PROPOSAL.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 614, 30 May 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, May 30, 1891. A STARTLING PROPOSAL.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

While the local Liberal Association is interesting itself in a discussion on Socialism, the advanced views propounded and ably supported by a Mr R. A. Cooper, of the English Railway Reform League, may be well deserving of attention. He goes so far as to make himself the laughing-stock of the unthinking, but those who pause to note the skilful way in which he marshals his facts will view him with an admiring eye if they cannot bring themselves into agreement with him. He proposes that travelling on the railways should be absolutely free. The proposition startles one at first, but bearing in mind, as pointed out by an English contemporary, that it is only thirty years ago that those who fought to free the bridges across the Thames were treated with scorn by thousands, we must not be too hasty; curling the lip of scorn is not acceptable to those who wish to listen to anything that is set forth in the interests of the people. Note what he has to say himself concerning the English railways 1 — Let the State acquire the different railway systems, the total ticket receipts of which in I'BBB were /c 6,473,933 the total capital of the companies being £876,595,166, and the total mileage open 19,812, and it will save as great a proportion of the expense of maintenance and repair as London did when it bought up the bridges. It will borrow its capital at2?< percent instead of having to pay sn average dividend of i'i I per cent as the Railway Companies do now ; it will do away with the different classes, thus avoiding the necessity of carrying half empty trains as many of the companies do at present 1 it will sweep away the 300 separate Boards of Directors with their fees to be paid and their private interests to be saved ; it will abolish the Clearing House and avoid the expense of issuing, printing, and checking tickets. It will, in short, save the enormous waste at present incurred, and adding to that the difference in the cost of interest on the State borrowed capital, and the present dividends, will render the maintenance of a railway system free to everyone who desires to use it, by the imposition of an annual tax less than the least sum the poorest railway traveller at present pays yearly in fares. In support of his contentions he mentions the case of the bridges, but assuming that the analogy between free bridges and free railways is not a good one, he instances the case of the recently constructed Woolwich ferry. There everything is supplied free to the general public. By that /11,500 a year is saved to those who use the ferry; penny fares would amount to /25,867 per annum, but the cost of maintenance of the ferry is only /14,350. The impetus given to trade in the locality is said to be as much as 50 per cent. He estimates that a two shilling rate on property would fully provide for the free use of railways by travellers. The advantages that would accrue are very great. Artizans need no longer herd in the filthy slums when they could travel to and fro for nothing. All the schools and hospitals might be gradually transferred to the open country, and many town industries with them. Land would rise in value all over the king, dom, instead of being at present worthless in some districts and enormously high in others, to the unfair and accidental benefit of those lucky enough to own the congested districts, As to ways and means, Mr Cooper points out that in 1889 the British travelling public paid the railwavcompanies /27,873,67 s in fares. The total ratable property in the United Kingdom is about /200,000,000, and a national railway rate of two shillings in the pound would raise per annum, and this would pay for the maintenance of the railways and the interest on the capital. If that proved feasible, the agricultural laborer would pay a yearly rate of ten shillings, the small twenty or thirty pound a year householder /2 and /3 a year respectively, everybody so on higher in proportion to his rental, in each case Contributing almost certainly far less than than the ratepayer spends at present per annum in railway fares. Many objections could easily be urged against the scheme, but its novelty does not disentitle it to a careful consideration, and it may soon become a practical question.