The Press Tuesday, September 2, 1930. The Port Railway.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20022, 2 September 1930, Page 10

The Press Tuesday, September 2, 1930. The Port Railway.

It i 3 not surprising that members of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, discussing the Report of the Access to the Sea Commission yesterday, had nothing to cay in favour of its single positive recommendation, which was that the Board should acquire and control the railway" to the Port. The Board will be right, of course, to ask for all the facts and figures covering the value and operation of the Christ-church-Lyttelton railway system, for it would be only the least and the most abstract part of the usefulness of the information that it would enable the Board to estimate the cost and the result of carrying out the recommendation. Such an estimate would be worth making, because it could not be made without setting in clear view a great deal of important evidence, of more than one kind; but the transfer of the railway would remain what it is, a quite impossible proposal. The Dominion is so deeply committed to national ownership of railways that no Government is likely to wish to sell a highly important section, or to take the risk of selling, even if it wished, and even if it could get such a price as the Harbour Board would be triply foolish to pay. This obstacle would prevent the change of control, whatever might be the advantages to the Board; but it is difficult to believe in them. The Commission supported its recommendation by comparing Lyttelton with other ports, where the railways are under the control of the port authorities. These comparisons are interesting, but inexact. First, the Christchurch-Lyttelton railway is not strictly a port railway, but the terminal section of an inland line; second, to connect a port railway system with a company railway in England is a different thing from connecting a port railway section with the Statecontrolled national system in New Zealand. It could be desired to give the Board control for one reason only —to free the working of the line from Departmental impediment; but the impediment, though it might be reduced, would only be shifted from one point to another, not lifted. What the Board would be doing, then, if it bought the line, would be this: it would be paying a huge price and assuming great obligations in order to make improvements, which, if they are economical, it has a right to expect the Department to make, or which, if they are not, would be improvements only in name. Whatever scope there is for raising the efficiency of the Christchurch-Lyttelton railway as a port service, and it is probably not small, it is the Railway Department's business to pursue the improvement, and the Board's business to drive the Department.