RAILWAYS IN NORTH & SOUTH

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 123, 21 November 1911, Page 2

RAILWAYS IN NORTH & SOUTH

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER

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CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. . . Speaking in regard to railway matters yesterday the Hon. J. A. Millar said, that exactly the same railway charges were made in the North Island as inthe South Island. The schedule rate was gazetted arid -there was no discrimination. The better position of the' northern railways at present was accounted for by the fact that in the North Island there was one trunk line from end to end of the island, with no branch lines. The experience in nearly all parts of the world was that branch lines were run at a loss, which broke down the earning power of the main lines. The North Island, a* was well known, was being developed rapidly, as lands that had been locked up for many years were made accessible to the. public. That would probably oontinue lor the next fifteen or twenty years. By that time the northern railways would have approached- the position in which the South Island was to-day. The railways in the North Island, in fact, might give no more profit than those in the Squth Island gave now. Railway construction was being pushed" ahead much move rapidly in the North Island than in the South Island'. There was justification for that in the much more rapid development in the North, as he had stated. , '