ROAD AND RAIL

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 80, 15 October 1928, Page 10

ROAD AND RAIL

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS . ; THE RAILWAY VIEW A CRITICAL STAGE "I cannot think of any more fruitful direction in which commercial men. can beud their mental energies to-day , ; . than the consideration and the solution. of the problem of transport in New Zealand," said . Mr. H. H. • Sterling... (General Manager of Railways) this morning in the course of an interesting talk to the delegates attending the a-nual conference of the New Zea- . lad Associated Chambers of Commerce. He found, stated Mr. Sterling, that a good deal of dissatisfaction was being voiced in regard to the railways. That was no doubt inevitable in view of-the period of difficulty and disturbance .. that; the transport system of tho Do- .. minion,was now passing through; but thorough investigation would, in his opinion, show that a great deal of that dissatisfaction was not woll-founded; - Unquestionably much of the matter spoken and published from day to day would be found, if sifted to tho bottom, to be very largely propaganda, inspired by the "Get-Rich-Quick WallirigfordV who were skimming off the. cream of tho high-class transport in ' New Zealand( leaving too often littlebut the skim miJk to the'railways. The railway men, he assured the conference-, wore as anxious as any other section of the community to do tho right thing, though it would appear that in the past they had not always done so. But it • should be remembered by their critics •..-■ that Government control of an industryprevented its being adjusted to meet new conditions as rapidly as in the case* of privately-controlled industries.'.He had experienced both systems of control and had been forced to that'eonelu- '■' sion. If a private industry found it-" self' up against uneconomic competition, it could, if "necessary ? temporarily; adopt similar uneconomic measures ■to meet and break it, cutting one'line even below cost in order to retain a connection, bringing in an income through another line. But mifortuately, that " could not be done even temporarily by a State-controlled industry such as.the railways; because- the cry was immedi- * ' ately raised by the vested interests '.' that monopoly tactics wore being:"; adopted in order that the railways or,/.. tho Government might be used: to throttle industry. His opinion : was that if a business was uneconomic^ tho ' sooner it was throttled the better. Un-: '", economic business was not in the best" ' ; interests of the community; and until ■''. ' it was eliminated, trade and industry;, could not get down to absolute stabii-;." itv- . V ■■ ....... ' .'-'■"■■ ;-'•-■• ;";;; MOTOR COMB TO STAY . There was no doubt that' the - motor had come into the transport industry ''' as a permanent factor, and the Solu-- : ■' tion of the problem lay in getting th 9 " " motor into its proper place in that in- • ■ dustry. In view of the fact that £50,- ''" 000,000. had already been expended on. the roads of' the Dominion, and' that that huge sum was being added to hand over fist, while over £50,000,000 had been .spent on the railways and.that expenditure was still growing, he. suggested that the time had come for a .•-••■' national stock-taking in regard to the '»~.~. transport system. Many facts and.;,, .-.ii figures in that direction had already; . ... been collated, and it had been found,. .... that in the past few years the total v_ ■-„ transport, costs of the country had. gone - •-' up considerably, and that at a ..tinie .•-..-.' when tho prices of produce were fall-. ... ing. The percentage of production,,,, values that transport represented; ha.d-.T ,1 got to sucli, a stage, and transport was-;--.- : taking so much out of production, that-.f- .• the question must be 'faced; and that:>i. : , sooner, not later. The motor could uu-. t ,. doubtedly render great service, to a.,, . v ,. country as a feeder, to the railway; _•_ but, as. a substitute for the railway, he *-■■'■•■■■■> contended, it was absolutely impossible, -» •. as had been shown by the illuminating.-, .. figures in the Public Works Statement. . j If the railways were/ closed down arid;-.:. r---the people trusted entirely to motor' ■ traffic, the country would be up against • - not only an economic but a. physical im?',-^ possibility.. The chief item of freight ;"; from the seaboard to the country-dis-v.-^ ■ tricts was fertilisers, requiring mass - ■'■. transport to get the very low rate es--,- ■- sential; and the same applied to "the, , chief items of freight from, the .rural.: „j districts to the seaports—wool, meat, : „-■ and so on. . . . . ■ "■.•,- ---"PREYING ON THE COMMUNITY.'* It was' quite impossible for uiotora , „ to provide the mass transport: requir-. : cd, said Mr. Sterling. Economically, and to a large extent physically, it was,. - quite impossible for the motor to Vun- , : dertake tho great bulk of tho transport .. , : of .the Dominion. If the motors were... allowed to go on getting away"with tlie ereani, the liigh-class transport, of the country, leaving the railways the . skim milk, the low-class transport, the' ' taxpayers would have to make up any- ' • deposit that resulted; so. that, under-.-•> present conditions the motor vehicles ■ wore simply preying upon the community. But, in his. opinion, if. the":: ' motors were made to pay ■ thciv fair ' share towards the repair and upkeep of the roads, which they were not doing . *. at present, they would arrive at a solu-: ■ tion of the transport problem .of New ■ Zealand. , The railways had:both the • will and the capacity to serve the com-' • munity; and'it would 'be part of his policy to get the opinions of the peo^, ,: pie concerned as to the services they; ' needed and to equate the supply to the - ' demand. He wanted to.come into con- ■ ■■■ tact with representative bodies such as. ' chambers of commerce so that the Dc»',••' partment could properly measure the " demand; and they could 'be assured. '•' that, once that had been done, the sup-- • ply would not bo wanting. He asked • - the •Chambers of Commerce to co-oper-ate ) with tho Department as sharehold--ers ■ co-operated with their directorate. That was necessary to secure the best! results from the- community 's huge investment of £80,000,000 in the railways, equal to some £40: for every; man,, woman, and child in tho Dominion. Let them, therefore, corno to the. " Department with their constructive suggestions for tho improvement of business. • Those suggestions, ho assured".. them, would be gladly received, and would as far as possible be acted, upon. He greatly appreciated tho Invercar-' gill remit: "That this conference oppresses appreciation of the effort.inadcv, by the Railway Department to ■ improve".' the South Island Main. Trunk Railway.' service by putting oh night trains, and1: ■ that they be urged to continue to ex--tend their efforts along these lines' which are proving beneficial to ,tne public." . ■ On the motion of Mr. Norton Francis (Christenureh), it was resolved: —•_'. "That, in' thanking Mr..-Sterling for his address, this conference desires ■•to." express its appreciation of the efforts"" being made by the railway executive- [ officers to meet the requirements of tho community, and to solve the difficulties of the existing transport problem."