FRONT BENCH ANGER

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 252, 19 September 1930, Page 6

FRONT BENCH ANGER

minister and opposition leader. CAUSES OF RAILWAY DEFICIT. (By Telegraph —Special to Standard). WELLINGTON. Sept. 18. A peal of shrill Reform laughter which greeted an expression of nope in the iuture of the railways of New Zealand resulted in Hon. W. A. Vetch, Minister of Railways, sternly rebuking Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Leader of too Opposition, in the House to-day, Mr Veitch observed that Mr Coates, bv his laughter at the statement made, proved that he had no hope in the lU “That,” added the Minister, “is no doubt due to the fact that while ho administered the Railway Mr Coates never attempted to deal with the problems and difficulties that were confronting him and went on to spend money in a very reckless and irresponsible way. That reckless irresponsibility has to a . large extent brought about the conditions that confront the department to-day. 1 hope the department will never have the load of his administration again. “If. ever I saw -an hon. gentleman look utterly miserable and hopeless it was the Minister of Railways said Mr Coates in the course of his remarks. He looked the saddest and weariest human boing I have over watched and he suggests that all hta troubles have been passed on to aim by the Reform Government. Mr Veitch: Pure personal vulgarity Mr Speaker : Order 1 lam atraid I must ask. the hon. gentleman to withdraw those words. Mr Veitch: Certainly 1 will withdrjir Coates said the Minister’s speech was one long string of platitudes. Ihe Minister was doing all he possib'y could to put the brakes on progress. Fast trains were being done away with and political stopping places were being established.. It was all a matter of political expediency and not a matter of getting trains to their destinations as quickly as possible. Continuing, Mr Coates said the country could not function without the existing railway communications. They were the commercial life-blood or the country. “No general manager and no system of management will be able to make a success of the operating railways so long as changes in Government necessitate strokes of the policy pen, said Mr Coates. ~ . Mr J. T. Hogan: They would have been finished altogether by now if tlie freights had not been changed. Mr Coates: I suppose the hon gentleman has less knowledge of railways than any other member of the House. There is only one way to bring the railways into the position of being able to operate as a commercial concern and that is to hand the whole or the railways over to a directorate. Mr Coates asked why the taxpayers should be asked to pay for the loss of £iau,uoo? The Minister of Railways was afraid to increase freights at certain points. Mr Veitch: Is he? . Mr Coates: Yes. Rising to a point of order Mr v eitch asked w'hether Mr Coates was entitled to charge a member of the House with being atraid. (Reform laughter). Mr Coates: 1 extend all sorts of apologies. ... Mr Speaker said that if it was meant that the Minister lacked courage, he did not think it was admissible. He asked Mr Coates to withdraw the statement and Mr Coates complied. The latter said he felt that the Minister would show a certain amount of diffidence before he increased freights, for all Ministers of Railways had found difficulty in meeting the tremendous pressure of interested parties in the matter of freights. The railways should be placed in the control of independent hands >«id the powers of control should be laid down definitely by Act of Parliament. Mr Hogan:. That is the old conservative policy. . Mr Coates: Well, I am proud if it is. It is the right one and the only one that has proved successful.