NEW RAILWAY POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18087, 11 May 1922, Page 6

NEW RAILWAY POLICY.

BOARD OF FOUR OFFICIALS.

TWO BUSINESS AGENTS.

MOTORS TO BE "FEEDERS." SOME REDUCTIONS IN FREIGHT. [BY TELJ.GRU'H.- OWN COTiaESPONJJENT.] FEILDING. Wednesday, Some of the details of the new railway policy of the Government were given by the Prime Minister in hi* speech at Fcilding to-night.

" Nothing i:-. more important to a new country than that it should have satisfactory means of communication," said Mr. Maseoy. "It should have good road and railway facilities within its own territories, and it should also have good sea, communications with the other countries of the world. As to our railways, I am awa.ro fchat there has been a certain amount of dissatisfaction with their methods of working, and an endeavour is now- being made by the ActingMinister for Railways and the General Manager to bring about a more satisfactory state of affairs. A certain amount of progress has boon made, but there still remains a good deal to be done. *' It is intended ho alt«r the present management procedure by the setting up of a board of expert railway men, to consist of representatives of the traffic department, the maintenance department, and tho locomotive department, to assist the General Manager in tho arduous tasks which he has on hand. It is also intended to appoint a business agent tor tho North Island and for the South Island, one for each island, to confer with the users of the railways, who may have grievances to ventilate or improvements to suggest. Where it is possible and desirable to give effect to these ideas it will be tho policy of tho depajtmenh to see that they are carried out.

Revision of the Tariff. " The railway tariff is also being revised, bat financial considerations make it impossible for us to do as much as we should like to do in this respect. However, anomalies will ba removed, and, in a number of instances, reductions in freight will be made. "Motor traflic is now competing very seriously with the railways in those districts of the Dominion where roads are good, and there is no doubt that motor traffic has come to stay. An effort will ba made to utilise this traffic to provide feeders to the railways, rather than to allow it to go on coming intfi competition with them. In some cases arrangements may be made for the Railway Department'to run ite own motors for the purpose of collecting and delivering goods. " Though these necessary reforms will take some little time to come into full effect, the Government is determined that no effort shall be wanting to make the railways more useful to the people who own them

Increased Cost of Material. "There is no branch of the Public Service that has felt the depression more than the railway service, not only on account of the reduced volume of business offering but also on account of the fact that everything required by the Railway Department has risen enormously in. cost. Coal, oil, canvas, workshop material, and wages all cost us a great deal more now than they did before the war. The consequence. *is that the department is barely payintr its way and is certainly not paving anything like the rate of interest which in normal times is expected. ''New Zealand, however, is not the only country in which losses have been made on railways. I have here some figures which show the losses that have been made by the Commonwealth and State railways of Australia during the year 1920-21*. The losses are : —Victoria £736.556, New South Wales £577,032, Queensland £1.739.475, South Australia Western Australia £418 370. Tasmania £81,907. Commonwealth £455.199. a total for the whole of Australia of £4.569,843.

The Coal Position. "It will be noticed that there has been during the past year a very heavy ex penditure on coal for the railways. I may remind you that on one occasion passenger services had to be practically cut out because there was not sufficient coal to keep the trains running. After that we were in a number of instances within a few days of the last shovelful. This sort of thing was causing serious anxiety not only to the Government but also to such users of coal as freezing works and enterprises for the supplying of such services .is gas and electricity in the larger centres. At the beginning of last year the Government determined to improve matters in this respect, and the General Manager was instructed to lay in a supply of coal which would keep the railways running for several months iin the event of other sn~-lies being interrupted. This was done. Most of the coal was obtained, from Wales, and the price paid for it was £4 5s per ton. In considering the price calorific value has to be taken into consideration, and it has been found that Welsh coal at this price is Yery little dearer than New South Wales or even New ZeaJand coal at ordinary prices. The contract for the supply of Welsh coal has come to an end. but we have a very large supply of the coal in hand. I shall be very glad, however, if sufficient supplies for our own railways and our own purposes are available from within the country. I do not want to go outside the country for another ton of coal."