RAILWAY POLICY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 119, 16 November 1914, Page 6

RAILWAY POLICY

It is a compliment to the Government that the Leader of the Opposition has announced a railway policy of which one of the principal parts is practically an adoption of the General Manager's recommendations, embodied in an Act of last session. When this measure was introduced, providing for an expenditure of £3,200,000 on various improvements, over a period of five years, some members of the Opposition were exceedingly obstructive. Even the formal first reading was " held vp >! for a day and a night, but when the time came for test divisions it was plain that the Opposition, as a party, was not foolish enough to vote solidly against the principle of the Bill. Such conduct would have amounted to a confession of ignorance of the first principles of sound railway business. The improvements are of a kind to increase the earning power of the great enterprise. The whole country is losing money by the delay, and the shareholders have to suffer much inconvenience, but unfortunately the loan market may not be favourable for some time. By the way, some critics, who are either unfair or peculiarly blind to facts which have been published in all the newspapers, persist attempts to convey an impression that the Government's purpose is to borrow the whole of the £3,200 N ;000 within the next few months for a rapid spending. This sort of suggestion is on a par with the extraordinary tactics of certain Opposition journals which have jumbled all the loans together, including the ones for redemption purposes. They conveniently ignore the truth that much the heavier part of the borrowing next year will be sums in excess of £7,500,000 to redeem short-dated debentures, a very embarrassing legacy from the Ward and Mackenzie Administrations. • Another matter which tho Hon. W. H. Herries explained at Te Aroha was in regard to etation buildings. Candk. date* of the Wara Party are careful to say in the cities that reasonable expenditure is needed for stations, but the same party's speakers in country districts are trying to excite resentment among the rural folK by assertions that Wellington and Auckland are to have palatial stations, running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The truth is that the main buildings (passenger stations and offices) will have only a fraction of the total amount to be invested in station improvements, which include extensions of shunting yards, goodesheds, and other necessary accommodation and equipment for an ever-increas-ing traffic. The sum allotted for a station building at Auckland is £45,000, and the similar project in Wellington is not to exceed that amount. The Minister has repeated his assurance that the Government will give attention to feeder lines as well as to main routes, and, of course, that policy absolutely requires corresponding facilities at the terminal points for the handling of the growing volume of traffic. One well-known need of reform was overlooked by the Minister. The Post is not aware that he has indicated, in or out of Parliament, that the old unsatisfactory, puzzling scheme of book-keeping is to be put on a proper business basis. The annual Railways Statement is no moro than the word statement implies iii a- narrow sense, it is rather a statement of accounts than a clear balance-sheet, intelligible to the shareholders, the general taxpayers, and users of the railways. The defects and anomalies of the confusing accounts eystem were frequently criticised during the term of the Ward Government, and it is very disappointing to have the same methods in vogue after nearly three years of ths new regime.