NOT A SIMPLE PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 145, 16 December 1926, Page 8

NOT A SIMPLE PROBLEM

Should ft public body, supported by State funds, buy in tho clioupost market, or should It uso tho funds which it roccivos in truut to support; other State onterprisos? This wUs tho problem sot for solution by tho Wellington Education Board yeiitorday. Timber for certain school construction liad lioeu convoyed to Wellington by motor-lorry, and. tho Railway Department had proI tested. Tho Board did not malco any formal decision, upon tho protciit, and the opinions expressed wore too vnguo to serve as a guide for tho future. Several speakers suggested that tho Railway Department should bo supported wherover possible; but no indication was given as to whether this sentiment would balanno a 10s por cent, higher freight chargo or one of 50 per cent. Wo cannot blamo tho Board for failing to state a definite policy. The problem itself is far from simple. The funds which the Board uses are supplied by the Government, and it is tho Government, and therefore tho people, who pay tho freights if they are high. At the same time, it is tho Government and the people who must pay tho pipor if tho Eaibvay Department, through less of freights and fares, fails to earn tho return required of it. Which is tho lesser evil: that the Education Department should waste money (by paying high freights) or that the Railway Department should lose moneyf We are aeisuming that the saving effected by motor transportation was more than.nominal. So far as the two Departments of State are concerned their course may, be generally stated as follows: The freight buyers should not take a short view and skip from the railway to the road1 for a small difference in charge, especially as education receives benefits from the railways and should help to keep them in operation. On the other hand, the Railway Department should not trade upon this general preference. The root of the problem is in the settlement of transport charges. Certain classes of freight and some fares are bound to go to the motors. What is to be guarded against is an uneconomic transfer of business. The chief danger of such transfer will arise if motors are allowed to escape their fair share of the road-making and maintenance costs. It is possible that some classes of freight will not pay at their full cost on the railways. The question then arises; Is it best to lose that freight because it will not pay running expenses and full interest or. to retain it at a price which will return working expenses, and one. or two per cent, interest! It must be remembered that "the interest must be met whether the trains run or not. Even this does not cover the whole problem. If wo take timber, for example, and maintain payable railway freights, what do we profit if we have to raise the. tariff barrier so as to enable the heavy-freighted local product to sell in competition with foreign lumber! This latter issue is one which will possibly be raised before the Tariff: Commission. The general transport question, we believe, should be studied by a Transport Board.