LETTERS TO EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 15, 12 October 1928, Page 3

LETTERS TO EDITOR

DIRECT TRADE WITH GLASGOW

Sir,—A report appears in your to-day’s issue of an address given by Mr. H. M. Ford, who is visiting New Zealand in the interests of the Glasgow Corporation and Chamber of Commerce, and the Clyde Navigation Trust. In this report Mr. Ford is credited with stating that "in the last season Glasgow had been denuded of New Zealand fruit except for the meagre supplies drawn from London.” I wish to point out that this is not a correct statement of the position, as, during the 1928 fruit export season, four direct ■ shipments of apples were sent from New Zealand ports to Glasgow, the total quantity contained in these shipments being 47,971 cases. The respective quantities shipped direct to the United Kingdom ports during 1928 are as follow: —London, 561,663, Southampton, 169,108, Hull 48.525, Glasgow, 47,971, Liverpool, 45,516, Manchester, 25,892, Avonmouth, 21,937. Furthermore, I would like to add that the proportions sent to outports have been gradually increased since 192t>— when the Fruit Control Board took over the distribution of New Zealand fruit to the United Kingdom markets. Naturally, the board wish to secure .the best results on behalf of the New Zealand shippers, and the percentage of fruit which will be shipped in the future t.O these ports will depend on the realisations secured as compared with London.-! am, etc., r r NAPIER. Secretary N.Z. Fruit Export Control Board. Wellington, October 11.

RAIL AND ROAD TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

Sir, —Another general election is approaching wth all its usual concomitants of party strife, partisan appeals, pledges, and promises. Daylight saving, prohibition, continuance, Bible in schools, and similar contentious matters will all be

discussed as if the .very existence of this country depended upon them, but will the public insist upon its representatives taking a real interest in matters essential to the national well-being ?_ There are two very important issues intimately associated with New Zealand’s progress and prosperity that have now become national problems of great magnitude demanding tjie thoughtful consideration of everyone in order to ensure the return of representatives to Parliament able and willing to give them intelligent attention. I venture, therefore, to request the favour of space in your columns to draw attention to these matters. For, at any rate, the next fifty years New Zealand’s principal dependence must be upon her exports of the primary producing industries, therefore, to increase the outputs and decrease the costs of these industries is a matter of paramount national importance. . Closer settlement, with its corollaries of intenser cultivation, more scientific methods, crop-rotations, herd-testing, stud-breeding, forest and rainfall conservation —is the factor governing increased output. . , . Rail and road transport is the important factor affecting costs. To deal with “Closer settlement” in its relation to increased output would require a very long article to itself. It involves many separate distinct issues, and demands a large knowledge of humanity, together with broad outlook and vision for the future. , . , The standard of living to which the European and Asiatic peasantry are accustomed is much lower than that of British workers, therefore a carefully thought out system of co-operative settlements must be evolved to reduce the cost and maintain the standard of living in order to encourage closer and increased settlement upon the land. The “Sydney Morning Herald published an outlined scheme of mine for village settlement in Australia in July. 1919. which was discussed freely, and has been partly adopted in Western Australia. , . , , , , To succeed, a sympathetic study of humanity is needed, allied to .scientific research and thorough organisation. Cheap and efficient transport is absolutely essential to progress. If our railways had been private property the public would be unconcerned about the competition between road and rail, trusting that in the lopg run it would be a case of the survival of the fittest. Unfortunately for the public the railways are national property, in which great capital sums are invested, and for which a heai y load of national indebtedness has been incurred, upon which interest must nc paid, in addition to providing for sinking fund payments, depreciation allowance repairs, maintenance, etc.; therefore, the public cannot very well acquiesce in the ruinous competition between privatc enterprise (road transport) and national 'enterprise (railroad transport). Gradually, but fairly, private competition with our national railway transpoit system must be discouraged, and replaced. To do this, the great need to-day is a form of carriage suitable for travel on road or rail, as required. Engineers are (very curiously) extremely conservative and disinclined to depart from standards and rules deeply ingrained by their education and life-long' environment; they more often than not resent any deviation from accustomed thought and practice. “It never has been, and therefore cannot

be,” is their “obiter dictum.” I assert most emphatically that it’ is possible to design and produce a successful independent self-propelled vehicle easily adaptable for both rail and road transit; able to travel upon ordinary road, and run on the rails to complete its journey, or to run on the rail lines, and leave the rails when necessary to run upon the roads to its final destination beyond the railway limits. Such cars would revolutionise urban and suburban passenger traffic. In remote' districts they could carry on a. service extending beyond existing branch 1 line terminals to open up new areas, or join up severed sections of existing railways. such as exist between Nelson and Havelock and the West Coast, or Napier. Gisborne, and Tauranga. In suburban areas they could carry on an intermediate frequent service (between rush hours), when ordinary trains would run at a loss. The cars could combine a partial street service with a service combining bus and train functions, enabling short distance passengers to join or leave the cars, more conveniently. Such a car, for instance, serving Wellington and Hutt could start at Clyde Quay, pick up passengers en route to say, perhaps. Kaiwarra, join the rails there, and run on to Petone, leaving the railway lines to travel along Cuba Street, etc., to Lower Hutt, dropping passengers en route. Such cars could serve as feeders for through express services, could take short-cut cross-country routes between given rail- , way angles, such as Levin to Marton, or Kaitoke to Carterton. They would give a more elastic service at more frequent intervals, decrease congestion in yards and station platforms, decrease costs of running in suburban slack hours, and generally tend to eliminate delays and competition. Surely here is opportunity for a strong man to get to work and allow his imagination a little play while grappling with these problems, then having decided his line of action to steadfastly follow it up. fearing neither criticism nor unpopularity. His name would in the distant future be emblazoned in letters of gold upon New Zealand’s scroll of fame. —I am, etc., p p CROWTHER. Wellington, October 8, 1925.