RAILWAYS IN POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1912, Page 6

RAILWAYS IN POLITICS

Many a time critics have said that the railways have been run rather for the politicians than for the public. That shaft of invective goes over th© mark, but the aim is in the right direction. It is notoriously a fact that the public interest has often been set behind political interest in the policy of railway construction and administration, .year after year, and the demand for reform has become co insistent that the new Government i 6 constrained to offer an ear for good counsel. Unhappily, however, the Mackenzie Ministry, like its predecessors, makes the mistake of trying to please everybody at onco with promises of changes in railway, management. It stands four-faced to . four groups, and smiles at each. "My Advisers," stated the Governor yesterday, "are-of opinion that the time has arrived when it- is desirable to modernise the management of this great enterprise. The successful management of an undertaking of such magnitude demands the employment of an expert," and it is proposed to look abroad for a man of might and main. It has long been obvious that the huge railway centipede does need an expert intelligent head. Th© Government io plainly acting wisely in wishing to attach a well-tried mind to the big body, but the Government 6eeni6 desirous of retaining power to control that mind, and put it "under the influenoe." It is open to grave doubt whether Parliament will be willing to pay a 6alary high enough to attract a firet-clasjs railway expert from abroad. Such men can command excellent money in larger countries. There is, moreover, a risk of getting a man with a long string of credentials and no remarkable ability to cope successfully with the peculiar railway problems of a comparatively young developing country like New Zealand. However, these are points to be considered rater when this Government or another Government is definitely in power. In the meantime the Ministry admits the need of change of management, but 6tick6, apparently, to "political control. "' So much for one of the Government's four faces. The second one is turned to the staff, the men of tho first and second divisions, and they are promised more good things on top of last year's dispensation. Both classes may deserve such treatment, but that is not a matter to affect The Post's present argument. The fact to be considered just now is that the Government proposes an increase of expenditure on salaries and wages. Now for the third face, which is focussed on the public. The Government says, through tne Governor, that it ie willing to reduce the revenue by carrying children free up to the age of five years, and atl quarter rates between the ages of five and fourteen years. The fourth face beams upon the farmers, who are assured that the railways will further assist the primary irv dustriofl. It seems, then, that as a matter of policy designed to ultimately benefit the country p& a whole, the Government is in a mood to make the railways lean more heavily on the Consolidated Fund than, in the past. Year after year the loss on the working railways has. had to be borna by the general taxpayers. A profit is claimed on last year's turnover, but convincing proof of thia has y«& to b* -©acred, It it pcn»lbl«' that

New Zealandors, taking a long view^ may not grumble at a present loss as on investment to earn a good profit in time, but they do want a fair and square statement of the railway finances. Before the Government uses the railways as a humanitarian agency, the Ministry's duty is to put a proper balance-sheet before the public The Post has shown again and again that the Railway Statements have rather concealed thaa revealed the real position of the railways. The figures have Bob been given in a form to enable the shareholders to read how the huge enterprise stands. We look to the new Minister (the Hon. A. M. Myers) to forsake the methods of his predecessors, and to apply to his task the strict business principles which have to be respected in the conscientloas preparation of the balance-sheet of an ordinary trading firm.