ROAD V. RAIL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4747, 17 September 1935, Page 3

ROAD V. RAIL

OPERATION OF RAETIHI BRANCH LINE During the hearing of applications for transport licenses before the No. 5 Licensing Authority at W'ahganui recently, the traffic manager of railways, Mr Miller, gave some interesting figures relating to the working of the Raetihi branch line. The statements were made when an application of Smith Bros, for renewal of their license between Wanganui and Raetihi was under consideration. Mr Miller said the department admitted that a limited service of one train a day was being run and that applicants had conducted a regular and efficient service as far as Parapara Road was concerned. The department did not wish to restrict applicants from operating between Wanganui and Raetihi, but it had to watch the operations of the Raetihi branch railway, which had cost the taxpayers £89,000. The operation of the line last year showed a loss of £1738 compared with a loss of £1516 for the previous year.- Last year the line had transported 71,246 head of'sheep to various parts of the North Island and recently the manager of the Raetihi Dairy Company had stated that the carrying of butter to Wanganui by rail had been satisfactory and the arrangements had been excellent. The company had, received better graa-

ing than during the previous year when the butter was transported by road.

Mr Miller said that interest on the line this year was £3846 and last year £3867 at 4 \ per cent. The total loss this year was £3OOO and last year £2649. One item that had to be considered was that the railways used 422,344 tons of New Zealand coal and had not imported any coal for three years. .

With regard to transport concerns competing against the railways, money certainly was going out of the country. The statement that the Railways Department was endeavouring to divert wool from Wanganui to Wellington was incorrect. .Last year. 2386 bales of wool had been taken from Raetihi and of this amount 2000 bales had : been taken to Wellington.

Counsel for the applicants said that the general question of the Parapara Road had been investigated last year when the Wanganui Harbour Board, Wanganui Chamber of Commerce and other interests had given evidence before the authority. The Parapara Road had already cost £98,000 and it was proposed to spend an additional £SOOO on it. The question of stake was whether the Raetihi branch line had outlived its usefulness and whether it should be closed, as had been the case with certain branch lines in the South Island which had outlived their usefulness. There was a time when the Raetihi branch line was one of the most paying lines in the Dominion and carried large quantities of timber.- Apparently the line had now outlived its usefulness.

The authority reserved its decision.