The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1932. TRANSPORT ECONOMIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 6

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

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1932. TRANSPORT ECONOMIES.

For , the cause that lacks assistance, For the tprong that needs resistanoe, For the future in the distant, And the good that we can do.

/ • Canada's decision to put an end to railway competition by planning a co-operative system for the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific lines opens up a new phase in the transport policy of that Dominion, and is of real interest to other countries. For years the Canadian National Railways have been struggling , against losses, , the present annual bill .for the taxpayer being £15,000,000. Ten years ago, when Sir HenryThornton took over the presidency of the State lines, a scheme of reorganisation was begun to put the derelicts of the old system on a better basis. He did much to bring the system up-to-date, and to reduce the deficit, but apparently he was unable to overcome all obstacles. He controlled a Government system of enormous size. It has two transcontinental lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and covers over half the single-track mileage of Canada. Side by side with the State lines are those owned by the famous Canadian Pacific Company, which for many years has been a regular dividend payer. Until recently competition between the lines was fierce, but some months ago an agreement was come to for co-operation in certain respects. Now, following on a report by a Commission, the Federal Government has decided to place the National Railways beyond the reach of Apolitical interference and community pressure," and to secure "real and effective co-operation between these and private lines."

The working of the agreement will be watched closely by other countries. It follows a general trend. The movement to take State trading .utilities out of political control, while retaining community ownership, is growing, and has made somo headway even among It is being realised, too, that there must be more co-operation between transport concerns. Only the other clay two of the great railway companies in Britain adopted a pooling scheme designed, so they said frankly, to save the industry. Here in New Zealand our problem is to save the railways without placing crippling restrictions upon other forms of transport, and although our problem is simpler than Canada's, and in important respects different, wo may be able to learn something from her experience.