RAILWAY WAY PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18945, 17 February 1925, Page 10

RAILWAY WAY PROBLEMS.

SECURING EXPERT ADVICE. NOT ENOUGH INDUCEMENT. ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES. RE GRADING ON MAIN TRUNK. " There is very little inducement for highly-trained professional men to como to Hew Zealand," was the opinion expressed yesterday by Mr. Charles Travis, who recently toured Now Zealand and parts of Australia as secretary to the Royal Commission on Railways. Mr. Travis, who is editor of the British Railway Engineer and associate editor of the British Railway Gazette, returned to Australia for the purpose of examining more closely the railway systems of the various States. Ho is a passenger by the Makura, en route to England via Canada and the United States. "In this country and in Australia, too," said Mr. Travis, you pay yonr unskilled labourers almost as wgll as your professional men, who are shockingly underpaid in comparison with other and older countries, Obviously if a man has to pay a huge amount for his training and to devote years of his life to equipping himself he should bo able to command Something better than the salaries offering in these countries." Mr. Travis said that in his opinion the New Zealand railways were a highlycreditable concern considering the difficulties and conditions presented by the naturo of the country, the engineering problems being the most difficult he had ever experienced. Now Zealand had about 20 times more bridges and tunnels than Australia. Ho felt the Dominion's railways were going to do wonderful work in the future, but the various isolated sections would have to bo linked up if the best result was to be obtained over the system. New Zealand did the right thing in adopting the narrow gauge line. Most other countries with similar engineering problems had laid down lines with a width of 3ft. Sin. He felt that in time New Zealand would bo ablo to develop heavier rolling stock with a consequent speeding up of time-tables. A certain amount of regrading and realignment would be necessary, particularly on the Main Trunk line through the North Island, as the present curves and heavy gradients were against speed. While in Australia Mr. Travis travelled over most States, making the journey by the Trans-Continental lino" from .Perth to Melbourne. The trains running on this line were the best, he had seen on any of the colonial railways and were well up to modern standards. In one place the line ran for hundreds of miles in a perfecty straight line over level country, and between Adelaide and Perth there was only ono tunnel, and that close to the city of Perth. With a little more attention to the ballasting of the line great speeds would be attained by the expresses.