The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1928. THE RAILWAYS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 19 May 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1928. THE RAILWAYS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'olock In Hawera. Manaia,. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltbarn, Mangatoki. Kaponga. Alton, Hurleyvillo Patea. Waverlev. Mokoia. Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

It may be taken for ganted that no one is going to enthuse very much oveT the Railway Department’s returns for the end of what the Prime Minister describes "as a difficult year,” for the public likes "results,” and it is results of the financial kind which are proving so elusive to the Department. The year ended with an increase' in. the deficit—the total deficit of £783,000 is £239000 larger than last year’s—and the Prime Minister, who is also Minisrer of Railways, attributes this increase on the wrong side of the ledger largely to the "dong shot” which the Department felt compelled to take in order to win back trade. Even the man, in the street, usually so full of criticism and suggestions as to what he would do were he running the service, would hesitate if he were, faced with the task that faces the Minister of Railways and the newly appointed General Manager. No one knows the future of railways; the experts themselves are not unanimous. There are some who believe that the Diesel engine will play a part in reducing haulage costs and thus help the service to carry more, goods profitably than at present. There are others who pin their faith to the development of hydro-electricity and contend that only an unlimited supply of electric power made available to the railways will serve to overcome the competition offered by road transport. Then, again, there is the school which believes implicitly ia the motor vehicle, both on rails and road, as the ultimate solution of the difficulty facing large transport concerns all over the world. It is jipparent that there will have to be other "long shots” taken in the campaign on behalf of the -railways. The experience of older and more densely populated countries will serve as a guide only a short distance along the road, for.

the problems which face the Department are not on all fours with those now exercising the minds' of experts abroad. There they have a larger public to servo and a public whose growth and future demands can be anticipated with somo degree of accuracy; here the Department has to endeavour to introduce gradually the results of the lessons learned in the Old World so far as service and -economy are concerned, without, however, the same resources to work upon. This country is in a raw state compared with England, and it is very often forgotten by visitors from overseas, as well as by some of our locally produced critics, that our railways are running through farm lands and towns which, half a century or so ago were forest and swamps. It has been an uphill tight all the way and it will be for many years to come; in the earlier years of railway history the difficulty was to find the'money to pay for the running of trains through sparsely populated areas. To-day that difficulty still survives in many parts, but it -is made more complex by reason of the fact that we. now have roads and motor cars -to give us that additional convenience previously -refused by the Railway Department on the ground it was economically impossible to grant. The New Zealand public soon proved it was not different from the public in any other country by refusing ,to place its own convenience second to the interests of the State, and the Department found it had to launch out in -directions which could only be justified on the grounds that they were protective measures against the encroaching road transport. Whether the additional -expenditure will eventually justify itself by increased revenue is a question which no one can answer, but in the meantime the only hope for the future lies in a progressive policy kept within reasonable limits —• and there will be no standards by which to judge the reasonableness or otherwise of those limits until we have had several more years of transport experience.