The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1929. SOUTH ISLAND MAIN LINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1929. SOUTH ISLAND MAIN LINE.

■ i ■ For the eeute that lack* assistance, For the wrong that needs resistant*, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do,

When on Friday last that admirably organised deputation to the Prime Minister occupied two hours of his time in hammering a nail that had already been driven home, most of its attention was really fixed on Press and public. Nelson was so sure that the Government would build the line that it refused to send representatives to swell the theme. But while we welcome any. fresh evidence in this controversy, and we are grateful to the chief spokesman for his acknowledgment of the sincerity of most of the opposition, we cannot say we are impressed by the case he presented. There are interesting points in it —such as the emphasis laid on the effect of railway construction on settlement, land vaiues and taxation—but on the whole it is disappointingly thin and unconvincing. Even the arguments about land development need expert analysis by means of an official inquiry. Nor is this statement issued by the Canterbury Progress League any more convincing when it deals with the Fay-Casey report or Mr. F. J. Jones' criticism. A time-table is drawn up for day services between Picton and Christchurch, but the nature of the ferry service across the Strait is not made clear, and co-ordination between these trains and the North Island expresses is not provided. Mr. Jones is answered by the simple statement that the whole South Island Main Trunk Railway, when completed, will have cost much less per mile than his figure, the figure being presumably £20,000. The report overlooks the fact that Mr. Jones' couples this limit with the most intensive traffic. Would the traffic over the new line be most intensive 9 The estimates prepared in this report are based on two passenger and one goods train daily! Indeed, it is on this estimate that the report falls down most heavily. These bare estimates are like the bland assumptions in some company prospectuses. There will be so much traffic, so much revenue, so much expenditure, and so much profit. Unfortunately for- the compilers there is a touchstone at hand. It is. estimated here that the balance of increased income over increased expenditure will be sufficient to return 5 per cent on capital expenditure. Now, for the year 1927-28, over the whole of the railways in New Zealand, the percentage of net earnings to capital invested was only 3.64. The. South Island main lines and branches earned 18/3 in interest. Even if Ave eliminate the branches, did the main line earn anything like 5 per cent? These figures have little if any value, and that they should be put forward seriously strengthens the case for an impartial inquiry.