MANY RAILWAY POLICIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 101, 29 April 1912, Page 6

MANY RAILWAY POLICIES.

Evidently the Premier is looking to the public for a policy ot, railway construction, but we do not quite «cc how he can get definite guidance in this matter without a general olection, and even then the mixture of issues mightleave any victorious parLy , a trifle dubious about the mind of ,the general public on railways. Regarded in sections, the people give the politicians no uncertainty. Each district that has no : railway agitates for one, and the railed locality demands an improved service ; but this sectional cry for expenditure with which the whole country is debited is not a trustworthy index of the policy best for the country as a whole. Parish pressure has promoted the costly policy of "piecemeal construction" which even some friends of the late Government condemned. When a deputation of Waiuku residents waylaid, the Hon. T. Mackenzie last week with a request for a branch railway, he said : — "There are many parts of New Zealand which are far worse off for railway construction than Waiuku, and unless the country comee to a decision regarding the desirability for, the construction of these branch railways, I do not think they will go on. At any rate, the question will be made a matter of policy for Cabinet to consider. " A little later in h.is reply the Premier gave an opinion, which in general terms is admirable, that the opening up of fertile lands would be a wise policy. "Why," he asked, "should productive districts be held' up for twenty or thirty years', when the whole of their produce could be got on to wheels and slipped along to market ?" Why 1 Ask of the political winds that blew in years long gone — and years not so long gone. Iv his Budget last year Sir Joseph Ward stated that "the completion of the main arterial ' lines k a principal objective," but he admitted that the Government would be obliged to get some fresh authorisations for branch railways. In the same document Sir Joseph remarked that "it would be a good plan to have the question of what are necessary railways in each island once and for all determined by a commission of members and experts." Wo have not yet ueen any sign of the in stitution of such a system, any, tnore than we have eeon any evidence of the "betterment system for railways," which Sir Joseph projected in his Budget of 1909. This was to be a policy by which the general public interest was to be thoroughly safeguarded, and legislation was piomised for the session of 1909, but nothing has been done. Since that time, indeed, there has been pressure exerted to induce the dominunt party to modify the national railway policy and allow private enterprise to develop large tracts of country with private }i ne s, to link up with the State system. The Taupo-Totara petition was a case in point last year, and the plea was buppurted by the Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald (now Minister of Public Works, including railway construction). Wo are glad that Sir Joseph himself was against this move." Ho acted up to words which he had uttered previouUy in the South :— "New Zealand's enterprise in connection with private lines aud their subsequent taking over by the State has proved unsatisfactory." What will the present Government or a new Government do when the Taupo-Totara requeet is renewed? This Ministry's predecessors were much divided in'mWd on railway policy, and no line was absolutely fixed. On paper the Government* policy wan one thing, and in actual fact it was another. Parliament iteelf haß been rarely tv a mood to get into thorough grips with the whole subject. Rather the memboib of various districts got into grips with one another on claims for grants from the public till, ever replenished with borrowed money, und the members themselves have aidod and abetted a wabteful method of railway confltruutiou during a long term of yeai'B. By the building of*some political lines (during Conservative's well as Liberal regimes), by an extravagant system of constructing necessary lines, and by charging to oapital certain renewals and replacement* which should have been wholly or partially debited to revenue, the whole enterprise has beuu over-capi-tahsed. At 31st March last year th* value of opened and unopened lines was set down at £31,509,960. Here truly is an immense field for the Hon. A. M. Myere to survey. He will not lack scope for financial and administrative ability. By running the railways along the line of least ro&istance the Governments of the past have not made profits, but they have certainly made work for their successors.

The following New Zealand students hove won local exhibitions awarded at the pianoforte examinations held by Trinity College of Music in Now Zett* land during 1911 :— Senior practical, value £9 9e each : Alison M. Tucker, Doris A. Bayley, Dunedin. Intermediate practical, value £6 6» : Uasil Kmgan, Christchurch ; Vcra Itnnkin, Oamaru. Junior practical, valno £6 6s: Howard Moody, Chritslchurch, and A. S. Ocddee, Du'uedin. Theory, exhibition, udvanecd intoi'meditiU', valuo £6 Gej^ Maiy- 0.. leaser, Duucdu>