The Press Tuesday, January 4, 1927. Trade with Westland.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18890, 4 January 1927, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, January 4, 1927. Trade with Westland.

When the Otira tunnel, after years of needless delay, was opened for traffic, ■the norther- critics of Canterbury and Westland renewed their predictions that the Midland railway would never pay for the axle-grease. There were some signs, in the earlier years of the through service,, that the Department was not eager to confute these prophets of evil. Sometimes, indeed, Departmental dislike of the line expressed itself in manifestly unfair accounts of its linancial workingaccounts which ignored everything except the actual cost of working the tunnel section. We in Canterbury and Westland never hoped, and never claimed, that the line would justify itself in the Department's books, and we do not suppose that it has yet begun to be a profit-making line for the Department. But we always did, and still do, claim that from the viewpoint of the national economy it is a very good line indeed. One of the essential things in production and distribution is speedy and direct delivery, and this the Midland railway secures for'the coal and timber of Westland. Another desirable thing is the delivery of goods with the smallest amount of damage and deterioration. And this also is achieved by the railway, at any rate so far as the coal is concerned. Any heavy breakage of goods transported from any point to another —whether from England to New Zealand, or from Lyttelton to Ashburtoii —is a direct economic loss. Similarly any heavy reduction of the merchantable quality of coal i 3 an economic loss, and this loss, which was necessarily great through the repeated rough handlings in the days when coal for Canterbury and Otago was loaded on ships at Greymouth, has been almost entirely got rid of through the railway connexion that makes unnecessary any handling between the pit mouth and the Christchurch merchant's depot. This is all gain, and that the line is carrying an increasing volume of freight eastward is clear from the particulars we printed yesterday. The month-by-mouth returns since August, 1923, show some curious variationssome due to seasonal conditions and some to accidents of industry and weather—but the general movement is very definitely upwards. The eastbound freight, which for the first nine months of the service averaged about 20,000 tons a month, averaged 37,000 tons in the last nine months of 1926. The totals for 1924, 1925, and 1926 respectively were: 302,044 , tons, 354,867 tons, and 421,906 tons. Particulars of the westward traffic are not available, but this i 3 growing steadily, and it would grow still more if the Department "would fix low westward freight rates, as, if the business principles which are now being followed by the Department are maintained, the Department will ultimately concede. The line has been a source of profit to the Department, also, so far as passengers are concerned. The excursions to Otira, which have been well organised and well advertised by the Department, have been popular and, successful. Even if, on any strict basis of accounting, the Midland line is not a source of great profit to the Department, it is still a sound economic enterprise, and the experience of three and a half years is of encouraging import.