RAILWAYS COMPARED

Grey River Argus, 28 April 1910, Page 2

RAILWAYS COMPARED

AUSTRALIA AND NEW MR MILLAR'S, OPINION'S-

(Per Press Association)

. WELLINGTON, i rr.' 27. The Hon J. A. Millar Mnisbst'ufRailways), returned this aoriing by the s.s. Moanai from Australia.. He wais ; accompanied by Mr • McYHW. .Chief Clerk; of the New Zealand 'Railways > During his absence Mr Millar travelled 6,300 miles, or. an average, of 200 per day . excluding Sundays. . t . •

.To, a Post reporter, he said . ' hftt opt» of the .principle objects of his trip v-as to -ascertain , how., the Commistiorver system of control worketl in Australia: He found that a Minister had.; I'tile actual work to do in. details of ailirm istration. . ..■-..-

Mr Millar dkcussed the methbdg of working, .also traffic and tho way of dealing with capital accounts ...with .the Commissioners in several States.'\He found that constant complaints B>inilar to those made in New Zealand .in.re-^ gard to the afhortage pS, trucks, fn :ghis> and timetabler.'. ' They were o uallx strong in Australia. A}most .".r^ day articles appeared in the . press there criticising the management. , It was freely admitted in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia that the harvests, w.ere so great .that, the Tolling stock was . quite insufficient to cope with requirements in <a speedy manner. . .:

Mr enquired close-ly into . the question of fares and wages. „ The wag es paid on the whole were not so high aa thosje paid in- New Zealand nor were the conditions of employment so good: The information, on which this conclusion was based, was obtained from the Commissioner of Railways'.

Railway experts whom he met, hadi expressed surprise at the high specd 1 maintained on the narrow gauge rail-? wayg in this country. A careful com- 1 parison of the .tiriies taken by tfte A- el;! bourne-Adelaide express and Welling-.; tori-AUcklari'd express showed that riot- s'withstanding" a gauge of three ' fee;b ; si« irichea as against five f eefc three) inches in the other case, the trains maintained an almost equal speed. The;' suburban service out of Melbourne^ arid • Sydney were handled most) expeds^ tiously. The Tramway services wereia lassistance in dealing witli the' traffic. Sydney had 1040 cars on the? road. Last year! Sydney trams 'return, ci ,6J per cent on the capital outlay. ; - Mr Millar got independent opinion., from Mr Fehon (late Railway Commis- 1 sioner in 'New South Wales) who visits j New Zealand frequently. Mr Millar j discussed the principle on which the raihvayc . were worked here and asked ' Mr Fehori if he could suggest any improvements. His reply was that from his experience the New Zealand rail- ■ ways were very satisfactorily run.- Mr Pohon spent nea-rly all hiir. life aa a railway man. ,

After his investigations in Australia Mr Millar said the cry for a second express on the Auckland- Wellington lino, appeared more unreasonable -'than ever. One express per day was sufficient between Sydney and. Melbourne the two towns liaying a population of. over a million. ■ „