THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 28, 1927 OUR RAILWAYS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 28 September 1927, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 28, 1927 OUR RAILWAYS

WITH something approaching ’’ 60 million of money invested in our State railway system, to he increased to 75 million during the. next few years, there is every good reason for the general public taking some intelligent interest in its working. It is on this account that we have to-day afforded space to place before our readers at pretty full length the Statement which the Prime Minister, in his capacity as Minister of Railways, submitted yesterday to the House of Representatives. It is only fair* to him that all, and especially those who are ever ready with adverse criticism, should read carefully and, if possible, sympathetically what he has to say with regard to what has been done and what is in contemplation for the improvement of this great service. It is characteristic of the man that, though now burdened with the heavy responsibilities of the Prime Ministership—quite sufficient for any one pair of shoulders to carry—he has retained the portfolio of railways, determined to make himself solely answerable for carrying out the policy he initiated under the leadership of the late Mr. Massey.

There are very few, we imagine, of those who come in direct contact with the service but will readily acknowledge the great improvement in it that has been worked during the four or five years Mr. Coates has been in control. But there are doubtless a good many who do not in any way fully appreciate the difficulties with .which he has been and still is faced. In the first place, he inherited a legacy of notoriously non-payable branch and detached lines which it was quite impracticable, under any circumstances, to

>ii ver;, mto revenue producers. These, located mostly in the South Island, were the outcome of the political influences that guided the expenditure of so much public uoney in the old days when South Island politicians were in the ascendant, For the purposes of accountancy most of these lines have been separated from the general system and placed in a group by themselves. Probably had our railways been in anything but State ownership they would have been “scrapped” altogether, thus limiting the losses incurred to the capital spent upon their construction. What sort of a dead-weight they are to carry may be seen from the fact that last financial year an .appropriation not very far short of half a million had to be made from the Consolidated Fund to offset the interest on their capital cost and the loss on their operation. It is highly significant too that, according to an analysis appended to the Minister’s Statement, nearly four-fifths ot the total amount was attributable to South Island lines. Of much more serious import, however, is l-he competition of

motor-vehicles with which the railways have now to contend. This is a difficulty that is of almost worldwide incidence, and one for which an effective remedy has so far not been devised anywhere. Moreover, it is a problem that is growing more acute as the years pass and motor transport gains in popularity. Even in America and in the Old Country, where the railroads are owned by companies relatively free to expand their activities and to adopt appropriate competitive measures, lines that formerly proved highly profitable now make but a scant return, if any, upon the capital involved. In Great Britain this has induced, indeed compelled, amalgamations designed to reduce overhead expenses that have to some extent proved an alleviation, but without by any means restoring the position. So well has the difficulty there come to be understood that for the time being there is seen to be no prospect of carrying on even to small profit unless through a reduction in the wages of employees. As recent cable messages have indicated, even the railwaymen themselves, with a capable and responsible leader like Mr. J. H. Thomas at their head, are beginning to realise that some such drastic step may have to be agreed to ,if only by way of temporary relief until fresh plans can be discovered and laid for coping permanently with a most perplexing question.

It may thus be fairly conceded that our Minister, hampered as he is by the many considerations and restrictions he has to take into account, and that would not apply to a similar privately owned undertaking, has a hard row to hoe in order to place the system as a whole upon a self-supporting basis and at the same time fulfil all the functions that have come to be expected of the public railways. How he hopes that this end may eventually be attained he has set out in the Statement of which the main substance appears in our columns to-day. In a paragraph inadvertently omitted he says: “The circumstances set out point definitely to the need for such action as will at least equalize opportunity for the railways in their business-getting efforts with that of their competitors, such equalisation taking account of (a) adequate payment for the use of roads, to put them on a parity d’h the railways’ self-provider and maintained permanent way; (b) assessment of the value of development services now rendered by the railways, and adjustment ■>' national finance in relatin' thereto; (c) such regulations regarding fares, time-tables, and routes as will prove most economically efficient.” These purposes he believes will best be achieved by inaugurating a system of general transport control through a properly constituted Ministry of Transport, no doubt upon somewhat the same lines as have been adopted at Home.