STATE-OWNED RAILWAYS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 6 May 1914, Page 6

STATE-OWNED RAILWAYS

NEW ZEALAND LINES

"Soot," who writes from New Zealand,; expresses himself as follows in a letter which appears in the Spectator (London) of March 14: "Having lived in three countries where the railways are owned by the State, I have iio hesitation whatever in saying that a Government cannot run a railway as well as a company can; and let anyone who doubts this come tc- New Zealand and try for himself. The three countries I refer to are—Ceylon, which has •a very comfortable service, but one which is excusably slow, seeing that, •save for the engine-drivers and some of the guards, the labor available is native and Eurasian; New South Wales, where the service is comfortable, but, for no reason known to me, 6low; and New Zealand, where the service is/ both uncomfortable and slow. To verify my statement I take the following figures from the railway time-table,, and I enclose a copy of the time-table in order that you may revise them if you care to". The two examples taken are the most important trains, one in the North, the other in the South Island. The WellingtonAuckland express averages 20.46 miles an hour, and the Dunedin-Christchurch express 20.14 miles. Talk of the 'Government strike,' why even the engines seem to have it. The reason for such slow travelling cannot be hills, because the highest point on the line between .Dunedin and Christchurch is only 373 feet above 6ea level, and the Welling-ton-Auckland train, which rises to 2660 feet. roes faster. There is only one other train, the Auckland-Rotorua express, which has a higher average speed, but even it is under twenty-one miles. Narrow gauge certainly prevents trains travelling at sixty miles an hour, but it does not limit them to -twenty. This is the result of twenty years of Ministerial management under the Seddon-Ward rule; but one of the ■first actions of the present Government was to import a highly paid general manager from Home, and the long-suffering public of New . Zealand liope soon to sco their railways run on Ibuskiess lines."