MONDAY, AUGUST 15. 1921. THE RAILWAY "CUT."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 August 1921, Page 4

MONDAY, AUGUST 15. 1921. THE RAILWAY "CUT."

This week sees the cutting down of the railway services in some parts of New Zealand in an endeavour to save some of the heavy expense upon lines which are not paying. The "cu,t" affects the South Island more than the North. During the last few years expenditure in the running of the railway services has been increasing rapidly owing to the rising cost or imported coal, higher wages/ and dearer materials, and the margin between expenditure and revenue has been steadily becoming narrower. The position now is that the returns are not nearly sufficient to show a reasonable profit on the huge amount of capital invested in the lines, some forty-one million pounds. The Government has therefore decided to cut.down the number of unprofitable trains, and hopes to save £100,000 between now and November. The newspapers generally have received the Government's decision philosophically, and the South Island city papers have made only one commgn complaint—the '*cut' J should have been decided upon sooner. The saving of £100,000 will be all very well, but we are inclined to think that the curtailment of the services affected will not provide permanent relief. The railways need a complete change or system and organisation, and should be placed, as the Hon. C. J. Parr said s. few days ago in answer to a Helensvine deputation, "on a proper business basis." The railways should be made

to pay, and the best possible services should be provided for the people, and we believe that the railways could, were they under "private -control or under independent experts, become selfsupporting and be more attractive than they are. At the present time motor transport is cutting into the railway passenger traffic because of the speedier means of transit, and it would be interesting to know to what extent motors

are competitors with the railways. Perhaps the Government will go deeper into the question of placing the railways on a proper business footing than it has so far done. Higher fares and freights- are out of the question; lower wages could only help to a limited degree to improve the position; the future cost of coal and materials is uncertain. The problem to solve is not

so much the annual expenditure upon the railways as the question of whether or not the lines are being made to earn a maximum revenue for the amount spent. As far as the present system will permit, we think that the Department and its officers are doing their I t»est to make the lines pay, but if, as is

so generally thought, the system ig at fault, then the remedy will hot be found

in a cutting down of certain services

for a few months. Perhaps a complete change of control by placing the railways under a board of commissioners,

who would handle the railways in a

thoroughly' businesslike way, would succeed. The whole question is one that should receive the very best thought and attention from members of Parliament and business men

throughout the country, for the rail-

ways are one of the Dominion's most important services, and should be

placed on a thoroughly sound footing, so that they could be of maximum

convenience to the people and aid the country's development, and at the same time return a reasonable profit on the capital invested in them.