THE RAILWAY COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 221, 17 September 1919, Page 5

THE RAILWAY COMMISSION.

(To tbe Editor.) Sir,—Allow mc to 6iipport your protest against tiie narrow limitation of the order of reference for the proposed Railway Commission to an inquiry, with regard to tlle coal shortage as the cause of the recent injurious curtailment of onr railway services. The inconvenience to the public that drastic curtailment has involved has been very great, but not nearly so serious as the injury inflicted upon the productive industry of the country. (However, the whole thing is only in the nature of a climax to a railway administrative policy which for some years past has been generally condemned as unsatisfactory by public opinion. For that reason it seems an absolute waste of public money to set up a Royal Commission merely to consider the more or less temporary, even if real, trouble of the present coal shortage. The whole system of the business management of our railways, from the working of existing lines to the construction of new ones, ought to be overhauled and reported upon by independent Hid competent investigators. Whether a Royal Commission is the best form of investigation under which to ascertain the facts and to formulate a -businesslike scheme of railway reform may be open to question; hut if we are to have the expense of a. Commission it moat certainly ought to have, as you contend, a wide order of reference, covering the whole field of our national railway policy. Upon our means of transport toy road and rail, more than upon anything else, depends our national power to increase production sufficiently to enable the country, without dangerous financial strain, to bear the 'burden of public indebtedness caused 'by the war. The construction branch and the administrative branch of a public ranway system are intimately connected, and of equal importance to the satisfactory development of our industrial resources.' With regard to the building and extension of our lines of railway, the time has gone by for spasmodic local agitation in favour of this or that particular bit of railway. What is wanted, as I have often urged as a member of tho Railways League is the setting up of a representative non-political Board of Advice to draw up a comprehensive scheme of railway and road construction for -both islands.based entirely on the need for the productive development of the country. Under such a scheme a comprehensive system of railways would be planned for the whole Dominion, and in gradual fulfilment of that plan, construction would go on strictly on business lines. This would mean that the different lines of railway and main arterial roads .would be classified by this Public Works 'Board of Advice in the order of their urgency, having regard to the immediate business advantage of their construction. This would enable whatever money was available, or could 'be raised each year for the building of main roads and "railways, to be concentrated upon the works of most immediate importance from the point of view of the development of our natural resources. The result would be that each line under construction would the sooner be brought to a -point of completion and prolitableness, thus saving the present enormous loss in interest upon the money spent on lines which remain unfinished and unproductive for many years. Political and local interests should be eliminated, except in so far as the latter coincided with the general business interests of the country. A scheme of this kind would have tlio immense practical advantage of working to a settled general plan of construction, which, 'besides being more economical in method, would be a great assistance to local bodies in planning their local expenditure to the best advantage. Might not the question of the desirability of setting up such a Board of Advice be included in the order of reference of the Railway Commission.—l am, etc., GERALD L. PEACOCKE.