RAILWAY MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 59, 11 March 1909, Page 3

RAILWAY MATTERS.

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE. The Minister for Railways (Hon. J. A. Millar) has almost completed his inspection of the railway lines of the Dominion. After the business of Cabinet has been transacted in Wellington, he will go over the Canterbury, Nelson, and West Coast branch lines, and will then only have the Wellington-Napier section to look over. Asked by a Post representative as to whether any changes of policy were in contemplation, the Minister said that nothing in that direction would be done until he had had about a year's experience of the working of the railways. There were, he added, so many things to be considered. The acquisition by the State of the Manawatu railway meant that a great saving could be effected in. the cost- of hauling heavy traffic over the Rimutaka. The opening of the North Island Main Trunk Railway, too, Lad put a different aspect on railway matters, and both these would have_ to be very carefully watcbed and considered before any 4 pronouncement on the subject of the* railways was made. Economies were also being effected by the use of improved rolling stock. The new "A" engines, for instance, had a much greater traction power than the ordinary class, while showing a "decreased consumption of coal and water! of 10 per cent, in each case; the huge 90-ton "X" engines^ which are employed on some of the sections on the North Trunk line, will also do more work at a less cost. Tha Minister regards the prospects of the railways generally as decidedly hopeful. The"grain harvest in the South promises to be exceptionally heavy, and the figures of the revenue already published show that, notwithstanding certain reductions, such as the loss of the timber-carrying trade, the earning capacity of the Dominion railways continues to show a most satisfactory increase year after year.