The Hawera Star MONDAY, MAY 7, 1928. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 May 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

MONDAY, MAY 7, 1928. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Delivered every eveniDgr by t> o'clock in Hawera. Manain. Normauby, Okaiawa, Eltham. MaDgutoki, Kaponga, Alton } Hurleyville Patea. Waverlev, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Prase* Road, and Ara.re.ta.

Probably no 'appointment of a State departmental head could arouse more public interest than that just announced by the Prime Minister, the appointment, of a new manager of railways, for if there is one thing more than another that the man on the street believes he could run better than those in authority it i& this Government transport system. The news that Air Coates 'has come to the decision to revert to the sole-control system of management, which he himself discarded in favour of control by a board (upon the advice of the FayRaven Commission), has doubtless caused some surprise, but the public generally will admire his honesty of purpose; a smaller man would have refused to admit that a reform instituted by himself was not giving all the results he had anticipated for it. It is not clear to the public in just what particulars the board system of management has failed to come up to expectations, or what good results Mr Coates anticipates from single control which lie did not got from the board. The public does know that- from the inception of the board system there was a decided change for the better in many, respects. The Book of Regulations immediately lost something of its sublime authority; the realisation gradually took shape and spread through the department that the ‘.Service” was indeed a service, and not an organisation designed for the express purpose of snubbing the intimidated public. The railways became glad to carry the 'humble taxpayer and his goods, instead of condescending to do so. It even percolated through the official mind that, since the department had lost the monopoly of the transport business, due to motor competition on the roads, the time had come for loss talk about “The Service’’ and for more about “The Business.’’ For all these changes the public which has dealings with the Railways Department is duly grateful, and if the change to solemanagement indicates that it is l the aim of the Department to divorce itself still further from hard-and-fa’st regulations in favour of business principles, the •public will be correspondingly appreciative. There has been no outcry against the Prime Minister's decision; neither has there been any great show of approval. There is do principle at stake, so far as the .public is 'concerned; all it is interested in is the result. If the new appointment inaugurates a new era of prosperity for the railways, there will be nothing but applause for those responsible for the change; if beneficial results diO not follow the public will be considerably depressed, for it would then appear that the problem of competing successfully with road competition, which has all the railway services in the world in a quandary, is incapable of solution—and that would be a very serious position for this country, which has some fifty-six millions of public ■money sunk in its State-owned railways. Recent, newspaper comment, on the situation shows that there is a concensus of lav opinion that the kernel of the.problem of “how to make the railways pay’’ lies in the-branch lines, and in the separation of all questions of railways policy from 1 political considerations. The “Dominion’’ infers from the announcement of Mr H. H. Sterling ’s appointment, that the railways are to bo regarded' as an “out and out commercial proposition’’; the “New Zealand Herald,” on the other hand, is of the opinion that the manager will not be allowed to make a final decision regarding the fate and future of branch lines. If the Wellington paper’s surmise is to prove correct, the Auckland paper’s assumption must necessarily be

’false, for at is (plain that no -policy can tbo regarded as “-out 'and out commercial” which permits interference with the management by political considerations. If Mr Coates is determined to “got results” irrespective of the political consequences, then the -new manager’s task, while still difficult enough to make even the most courageous businessman hesitate, will -not be burdened with one weignt that would make it •hopeless of accomplishment. Just how far Mr Coates is prepared to go in allowing the manager a free hand we do not yet know. He knows, of course, that in the abstract the public will declare itself wholly in favour of straightout business methods for the railways, but ho also knows how much such declarations arc worth. It his been the experience in the past (and so long as human .nature remains as it is- it will be ever the same) that, -the public which talks so glibly of “national interests” when the railways are under the fire of criticism, is quite capable of making the most unreasonable demands in the name of local progress-.