THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1976. Lessons from the Rangatira

Press, 15 September 1976, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1976. Lessons from the Rangatira

The passenger service between Lyttelton and Wellington has ended. Seventy years ago the Union Steam Ship Company began a daily run for passengers between the two ports. After a reprieve that lasted more than two years the Rangatira made its last voyage on the run last night; and the chances that the passenger sen-ice will ever be revived look very remote.

For about the cost of what has recently been the annual loss on the Rangatira, the Government has bought a ship to maintain the freight senice between the ports. To justify the change, the new ship, the Coastal Ranger, will have to pay its way. Had the passenger fares for the Rangatira been doubled, the loss on the senice might have been expunged. But it is unlikely that, given such increased fares, the passenger business of the Rangatira would have been sustained.

After a long debate, after a long search for substitutes for the Rangatira, and when no-one could persuade the Government that the ship had a brighter future or that a big annual subsidy could be justified, the game Is up.

Although it is saddening to see a good ship end a service to which many people are attached, two lessons may be learned. One is that a service of this kind must pay its way or come

reasonably close to it; and that the notion of endless subsidies is a misleading habit of mind. The other lesson concerns the alternative means of travel between the islands and the reliance on a road and railway into which too little money has been put in recent years.

The Railways Department has been trying.to put the line between Christchurch and Picton into a more reliable condition. That effort has certainly not been made before time. On the main road the condition of bridges has become critical.

Many explanations can be put forward for the failure of the Lyttelton-Wellington ship service; but it is not easy to explain away the crisis on the road except by admitting yet again that, as a nation, we have not been prepared to pay our way, that we have neglected to maintain and improve sufficiently the capital resources of the transport system.

Much of the transport system is in good shape; much is under-used. The Rangatira, for example, has been insufficiently used. But clearly much more weight must now be given to putting other parts of the system into better order. Instead of subsidising consumption, the Government must now ensure that money is spent on the capital of the roading system and the railways.