A CASE FOR CO-OPERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16946, 4 September 1918, Page 4

A CASE FOR CO-OPERATION.

Various excuses have been found by the Minister for Public Works for delay in the construction of urgent railways; he displays an equal ingenuity in postponing the opening of railways which are ready for traffic. A recent communication to the Auckland Railways League gives officially an explanation, which would seem grotesque if it came from a less authoritative source, for the refusal of the Public Works Department to close the " gap" of 2i miles between Portland and Oakleigh, on the Whangarei southwards railway. Sir William Eraser's reason is simply that there is a lack of co-operation between the Public Works and the Railways Departments. A few months ago he expressed a desire to join the two sections of the line, so that it might be opened for traffic. Now ho has decided that if the railway were placed under the administration of Mr. Hemes, the carriage of labour and materials for the new construction would be restricted, and the Public Works Department would have to pay, instead of the actual cost of transport, fares and freights j on the profit-producing scale. It would be interesting to know how many other completed sections throughout the Dominion arc closed against public traffic because of this antagonism between Departments. That there is such a lack of co-ordi-nation is evident from the special report made by Mr. Hiley in 1914, in which he protested against the policy of the Public Works Department- of building new lines without consulting the working Railways Department, and without obtaining a reliable estimate of their earning capacity. There are many railways in the Dominion which were obviously built without any such consultation, though the precaution is so practical that it is difficult to understand why it has not been taken. But the Minister for Public Works must either have a very poor opinion of public intelligence or have formed an even lower estimate of the railways administration if he expects to avoid criticism by declaring that a working arrangement cannot be made between two important State Departments, so that Public Works engineers and railway officials may conduct public business in the same neighbourhood.