INLAND TRANSPORT AND THE SEA-TOLL

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 69, 19 September 1917, Page 6

INLAND TRANSPORT AND THE SEA-TOLL

The caution shown by the Minister Of Railways in estimating the. revenue for the current financial year is easily understandable in the light of facts and figures contained in the report of the General Manager. A rising market in raw materials, it is pointed out, coincides with an economising policy within New Zealand, and 'with the absence from the Dominion of-a large part of the younger population—that part which is most addicted to railway travel. Oversea travellers are likewise scarce, and every IslfHV at SfHigjiing Utftt vadijqee M'.<f PVeegp* communications Uke» something from

the internal transport business of this island State. Not the. least impressive part of the story is the list of quotationincreases in typical lines used extensively in the locomotive branch. These increases range from 200 to 600 per cent., and* include not only metal commodities but canvas and even cotton-waste, which in price have more than doubled. While an economist might weep to see the world's division of labour upset—so upset that we now pay two to six times as much for imported utilities^ —only a short-sighted economist would refuse to pay this price for ultimate freedom, without which commercial considerations possess no weight. The railways alone are paying out hundreds of thousands per annum in excess of what they paid, for the same commodities, in the year preceding the war. A vast proportion of that increment is the cost of transport, forced upward by the submarine campaign. This sea-toll Germany escapes, but it is far better to have costly seatransport than none at all. Meanwhile, we practically increase our supplies by diminishing our requirements and husbanding our resources.