RAIL V. WATER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1938, Page 15

RAIL V. WATER

MR. WRIGHT CRITICAL

• A criticism, of ihe South Island Main Trunk railway was made by Mr. B. A. Wright, when proposing ' the toast of "The Mercantile Marine" at the combined shipping companies' "smoke" concert on Saturday evening. The mercantile marine in New Zealand had done a great deal to make the Dominion what it was today, said Mr. Wright. Whatever might be said about, legislators and the laws that had been passed, and public men, the fact remained that the mercantile marine had assisted very largely to give the country the prosperity it enjoyed. , Mr. Wright referred to the competition between the railways and shipping, and ' said that a railway line was being completed (the South Island Main Trunk) that would never even pay for axle grease. The railway would open up no country, and would be useful only for the carriage of produce and passengers between Marlborough and Christchurch. Those who had advocated the railway said that it ? would obviate the long steamer trip up the coast, but he ventured the opinion that no sane man who had travelled front Invercargill to Christchurch would ever dream of going on to Blenheim by rail when he could get a splendid berth from Lyttelton to Wellington. The railway would be an absolute failure, and a "white elephant" on which the taxpayers would have to pay interest. In some cases a railway could compete with water carriage where harbours were not good, but where harbours were good the mercantile marine could hold its own against railway competition. Mr. Wright characterised subsidised foreign shipping as grossly unfair. Notwithstanding that class of shipping, however, the mercantile marine still held its own. Subsidised shipping was also touched on by Captain G. Knowles, responding to the toast. "British shipping was always in a critical plight—so they say," he said. It seemed that the mercantile marine was much more flourishing than ever. The ships were faster and more efficient, and the companies were not going out of business.