THE RAILWAY CUT

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 164, 11 July 1919, Page 6

THE RAILWAY CUT

ONEHHNGA-WELLINGTON RUN. PATEEXA TO TAKE IT UP. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLI N< JTOX. Thursday. The Pateena} at present undergoing engine repair*, is to lie plnced in the direct running between Wellington and Onehunga, in order to relieve the pressure on the railways. It is hoped the vessel will be in readiness to leave for Onehunga on Monday morning. COAL CARGO ARRIVE?. (Tiy Telegraph.— Press Association.) PUXEDIX, Thursday. The steamer Kaituna arrived at the quarantine anchorage at S o'clock to-day with a full cargo of coal from Newcastle. H is stated that there is no sickness on board the vessel, which is expected to berth at Dunedin to-morrow. POPULAR INDIGNATION. (From Our Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON", July 0. Xow that the effect of the railway "cut" is being fully realised, popular indignation is finding more emphatic and indignant expression. People who a week ago were prepared to make the best of a bad job arc now roundly denouncing the Minister, the late General Managerthe present General Manager, and everyone else closely or remotely connected with the administration of the Department. Business is being disorganised in every direction, they say, industries are being crippled, hundreds of men and women thrown out of employment, and many children prevented from attending school. But the most serious indictment of all is that the "cut" would have been wholly unnecessary had the authorities exercised even ordinary foresight and the prudence known as common sense. 1£ is not merely the noisy, irresponsible faultfinders that are talking in this fashion. They, of course, are making themselves heard. But sober, observant business men are joining' in the chorus of denunciation, and demanding the speedy termination of a system of management which inflicts such calamities upon the country. COAL SUPPLY. A few days ago the "New Zealand Times'' mentioned as a "significant fact" that while the railway services were being cut down to starvation point on account of the .scarcity of coal, the coastal steamers, the tramways, the gasworks, and the various factories in the city had all the coal they required, either on hand or in sight. The accuracy of this statement was questioned at the time, but an inquiry has shown it to be substantially correct and has brought into 'prominence the further fact that under the War Regulations the Government has powler to commandeer for the use of the railways any of the stocks of coal held by these municipal or private concerns. On the top of this conies a resolution from a public meeting held at Petone, where the coal question ie as well understood as it is in any other part of the Dominion, urging the Government to suppiy the needs of the railways from the 1u,600 tons a week that are being produced on the West Coast of the South Island. RUBBING IT IX. If it really is necessary to curtail train services no one can reasonably complain of race specials being cut out, but the authorities certainly do not appear to have dealt very tactfully, or even fairly*, with the public in connection with the Wellington Racing Club's meeting at Trentham yesterday. It was stated a week or so ago in a semi-official way that arrangements were being made by "which the public would be able to travel to the course by rail. But scarcely twentyfour hours before the racing was to begin it was announced that there would be'no special trains, and tliat the ordinary trains would not stop at Trentham or at any station within ten miles of the course, out or cumin"- in. The effect of this was that the attendance on the course was less than half what it would have been with a train service of any kind—to the very material , loss of the racing club—and. what is much more important, workers who habitually use the trains for getting to and from their employment could "not make the journey one \v» y or the other. PUBLIC: OPINION , . One effect of all this is a feelin" of intense iritation throughout the u°hole community. One of the hard things being said oi the Minister of Railways and the Genera! Manager is that by occasioning the public all the inconvenience they can they are trying for some political purpose to stir up a feeling of resentment against the workers in genera] and the leaders of the Labour party in narti.-ul-, r This on the face of it is The workers are not being blamed by the public for what is liappenin" It i- the Minister and the .Manager that are bearing all the odium., and business men ue no more anxious to make excuses for them than are the workers