The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10th, 1921

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10th, 1921

I{AILWA V ADMINLSTRATION. Tub proposed “out” in the railway time-table, and affecting particularly the South Island, is drawing special attention to the general administration of the railways. In some parts of the &- minion the curtailment ot trams is very drastic, and public interests being seriously affected is arousing much adverse comments on the general lines of the administration. The necessity for some reorganisation has been palpably apparent for a long time past, and she (,‘ovcrnment has been diffident in making up its mind on what steps to take. It has tried increasing the tariff for both passengers and gowks, and though the income has increased, the expenditure has gone on increasing in greater proportion. Now the step of reducing the means of income is resorted to. We are told this will mean less fuel consumption, less train mileage, less wear and tear, and less) overtime; hut there is no suggestion of permanent saving on actual expenditure. Fewer trains and less mileage suggest loss work to do, and if the burden is to be fairly shared, part of it should he borne hv the staff. The public should not he expected to find all the monay, and when

that proves inadequate, reduce tne privileges of the public, and keep on maintaining a largo and expensive stall. The Government lias failed already in another Department to square account, by a similar process. Postal and telegraph rates and charges have gone up, and the volume of business lias fallen, but the large staffs, with less work, are kept on. and the “saving” the public are penalised for, is very problematical. No doubt reductions and retrenchment - are an unpopular thing to do, but the need for them now is apparent. It was less apparent a few years ago when Lite Ward Government had the courage <>! its convictions, and rather than see the finances of t-lie country drift into a critical stringency, look the stop of reducing administrative expenditure substantially. The Ward Government sacrificed itself on the altar of plain duty and paid the penalty ; it was put out- of office. But the country’s financial civ was served, and the stringency never touched the difficult position the country is in now -an empty Treasury. ’I lie Dominion figures for the June quarter suggest that there is little hope of solving the present time difficulties except by a marked curtailment in administrn. live costs, and all the departments, including the railways, are due for a serious overhaul. The railway figures are unduly inflated at the moment, we know, by the purchase ot so much foreign coal. We agree that the Government is not to blame on that account. In self-defence, the Government had to place themselves in a position superior to the demands of the cmlminers. who, when it suited, could hold up the country. At all costs, the Government of the day must be superior to any faction if law and order is to he maintained. That brings us to the special ease of the Railway Department. When it suited the railway employees they were not above holding up the country (as they did on the occasion of the Prince of Wales’ visit to New Zealand) in their demand for extra

wages. Those extra wages were conceded, and it has been proved now that the railway business of the country cannot maintain the existing staff and continue to pay the higher rates. One of two tilings should happen, either the wages should be reduced pro rata, or the staffs should be decreased. An ordinary business in a position akin to the railway situation to-day, would not hesitate to adjust itself by a simple system of equitable adjustment. We have sixm where tariff rates have been increased, and now train sendees are. being decreased. The next step obviously is to pass some of fihe defile it on to fhe employees by one of the methods suggested. The financial outlook for the (x)untry immediately ahead is such as to warrant the closest revision of all public administration, and as the public fell the pinch in regard to the railways, so the staffs should also bear their share in one equitable scheme of necessary adjustment to make ends meet.