THE RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 498, 4 May 1909, Page 4

THE RAILWAYS.

The agitation 'over the stoppage of work on the Lawrence-Roxburgh railway has ■ brought. the railways vpry prominently under the public's notice, and many people thorefore no doubt.looked eagerlyto the; Prime Minibtee's .. speech for in- ; formation upon the results of the. past yearYworking of the system. They looked: in vain.. Tho Prime [Minister was', profuse with'-references'-to the splendid revenue; he. was full 6i 'information"about the' through journey from Invercargill to Auckland; he exuded .'statistics of-Various' imposing kinds from'every pore—but he was dumb as far as expenditure was concerned.;. The working of the system, he says, has been "very satisfactory, , / but ho lacked the ;courage to give his audience iany. means':of testing, the correctness of ■his; summing up. Wo get ,a hint, however,'of the true state of things from his proud 'declaration that "the/net return will-again exceed;the 3 per cent, which the Government decided in 1896 the railways of tho Dominion should be expected to pay." . Tho boldness of the Prime Minister in trifling with the patience of tho public in the matter of the railways has almost ceased to surprise anybody, but we should hardly havo imagined that; ,he:would. have had the .'hardihood to affront the public's intelligence by making play :witLthe 3 per cent. , policy after its denunciation and 1 repudiation by l the Minister .for-Railways. Effrontery could ! hardly go : furthor,than : this assertion that •anvinet return greater than 3 per cent.' i is satisfactory.; Mr. Millar has said ; quite plainly that the railways; ''must pay," that they must cease: to be a burden on the Consolidated Fund. \Docs Mil. Millar concur with his chief in regarding it as satisfactory when tho rail-, i ways fail : by. hundreds' of thousands of pounds to pay-their way?, The public is 1,-told- that the revenue has increased from £2,765,395 to■'£2,9lß,6o7—an , increase of j £153,112. It is entitled'to know at once what was the .increase in the expenditure, and the Prime Minister may make ,'up his inind that he will gain nothing by holding back,the full details. ' _ In tho financial year 1907-8 the increase in' the expenditure; was almost exactly equal to the increase in the revenue, with tho result that the "net profit on working" remained practically the same—it only increased from £812,118 to £812,179 —and therefore fell further short; than ever of meeting the greatly increased in-' terest on capital. In tho year just ended the expenditure—working expenses and interest—will have increased very largely, and tho gap to be filled up by the general taxpayer will bo larger than ever. If tho Government is in earnest in its profession of good'intentions for tho future, it should take the country into its confidence. : By withholding vital details the Prime Minister will only inspire the country with distrust, however ready it; may be-to give the Government credit for genuineness in its now-found zeal against unpayable railways. 'In any event, the public'is still waiting for the new principle that stopped ..fclw Lawrence-Rox-burgh works to be applied to the other unpayable lines in the Dominion, of which tho most remarkablo of all is the Midland Railway. Unless tho Government gives'further proof of its sincerity, thoughtful people will regard the Prime Minister's,promises of reform as only, further examples of the "curse," as Sir Joseph has called it, of "political promises mado by people for political purposes." Nothing could be moro pious and praiseworthy than his declaration that "it is not fair, in the interests of this country, that a system of making costly railway lines should bo allowed to be continued .where'it'can''be reasonably ascertained beforehand that there is no probability of their returning a comparatively small rate of interest," but ( the public is tired of abstract excellence, as tirod as it is of hearing our rulnoim rail-

ways administration called ( "very satisfactory'." Not much attention need be given to the promise that legislation will be introduced to enable rail-hungry districts to obtain their desire'by guaranteeing the Government against loss. No satisfactory scheme of tho kind is likely to be devieed; the Government could not secure a permanent guarantee of a satisfactory nature, and no district with any common sense would guarantee a Government with the present Government's railway record against loss in running anything. The Prime Ministee probably intended only to soften tho blow to his Ofcago friends, and to win back their affection. Even if his promised' legislation does mot appear next session, the railways administration will come under close review. There is a sufficient body of honest opinion in the new Parliament to make railways reform a clamorous issue, and we believe that the Minister for Railways himself, had he the courage of his convictions, would readily respond to this cry for reform. Unfortunately he is not strong enough to throw off the fetters placed on his actions by the policy laid down by his political chief.