EXPENSIVE RAILWAYS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 February 1933, Page 8

EXPENSIVE RAILWAYS

NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM BURDEN OF LARGE DEBT REPAYMENT OF PRINCIPAL The opinion that Great Britain could not wash its hands of its responsibility to the colonics in transport, policy, and the question ol investors having to accept a composition Iron; the colonies in respect of loans invested in railways, are expressed by -Mr Rees Jellroys in a paper, "Transport Problems of tlie Empire, | rend at l,ho Royal Society of Arts. Mri Rees Jeffreys is chairman of tno Roads Improvement. Association and a member of the departmental committee or. the regulations and taxation of road vehicles, in addition to other executive positions in connection with transport. •'Transport conditions in New Zealand, which 1 "bad an opportunity of investigating dersoually two years ago, ’ Mr Jeffreys stated..'"differ from those of Canada, South Africa and Australia by reason of the fact that no part of the country is more than ICT miles Irnin the sea. Continental conditions do not obtain. There is no long railway haul like that from Quebec to Vancouver, or from Sydney to Perth, or from Johannesburg to Capetown. “New Zealand has no great mining area a long distance from the coast, like the gold mines of the Transvaal, or the copper mines of Rhodesia, or the coal mines of Pennsylvania. It iias spent £70.000.000 in buildiVig railways, many of which are now seen to have been unnecessary. New Zealand is rich in liarhours. A good system of roads and motor transport, coupled with coastal steamships and a minimum of railways, would have-solved the problems ol transport more wisely and, economically. It is saddled with an expensive railway system much greater than it needs, and which may prove a millstone about its neck. “Great Britain cannot wash its hands of its responsibility to the colonies and Dominions in transport policy. Nearly all are over-railed and under-roaded. Great Britain has gone out to sell railways and they have bought on our advice, and she has lent them money to build those railways. So long as Great Britain could book sufficiently large orders for rails and locomotives the country was prepared to give loans on tempting terms, and even the benefit of the Trades Facilities Act, without inquiring whether the, railway in question would pay. “The moneys the Dominions and colonies owe to this country for their railways are generally greatly in excess of the present capital value of the railways. The Governments of the Empire owning these railways are trying every means to earn a return on the railway expenditure. As one colonial stated. “Wo are engaged in killing the road goose, .which lays the taxation eggs to keep alive the barren railway hen.’ “I cannot see Australia and New Zealand, for example, continuing to pay interest on borrowed moneys which are not now represented by tangible assets, or to repay the principal when this country ceases from any cause to lend them money. The British investor is “carrying the railway baby,’ and one day may be left with it.”