THE SOUTH ISLAND LINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20977, 14 September 1931, Page 11

THE SOUTH ISLAND LINE.

OPINIONS IN CHRISTCHURCH.

BOARD'S VIEW ACCEPTED.

"WISE THING HAS BEEN DONE."

The recommendations of the Railways Board in regard to the stoppages of railway works under construction, including the South Island Main Trunk line, are reviewed by the Christchurch newspapers.

The Press says:—"The board lias given plain recommendations and plain reasons for (hem, and very few people will doubt that they are right. When railways do not pay and fail to pay by a rapidly increasing margin, a construction policy is pure madness. Only those are bold enough to deny this who are foolish enough (o think, with the present Minister of Railways and his predecessor, that it is somehow profitable to run railways at a loss. But where efforts have been made to establish an exceptional case for construction, as for the South Island Main Trunk, and where the arguments in favour of it have been accepted, the board's decision will be disappointing. This is unfortunate. It is much more unfortunate, however, that hundreds of thousands of pounds have already been sunk; and it would have been in the highest decree unfortunate if unsound advocacy had succeeded in getting hundreds of thousands more, spent. " The Progress League's report was based on evidence as complete, no doubt, as could be found, but necessarily incomplete, so that an optimistic conclusion— I lie one desired —was therefore more easily and honestly reached; and tho line has had no other recent support but what has been political or semi-political. Since tho first quite impartial, quite unpolitical and thorough investigation sweeps away all claims for the lino as unfounded, level-headed men will recognise that a wise thing has been done and a wasteful one stopped." The Christchurch Times remarks:— "The analysis of the position with regard to the South Island Main Trunk line has been very thorough, and it must be taken that tho board's decision is quite impartial. The prospect of development by the adoption of a new route by way of Clifford Bay, has been ruled out by the fact that the cost of harbour works necessary would involve the expenditure of one million pounds, and that would not be justified at the present time. That limited the issue to a comparison of a rail and boat service via Picton, with direct sea connection between Lyttelton and Wellington, and tho board has concluded that the sea connection is adequate for present purposes, but the provision of the alternative route will have to be faced sooner or later." The Christchurch Sun says:—"lt is unfortunate for the South Island that the Main Trunk has to be abandoned in the meantime, but this, is just one of the sacrifices to be paid for follies of the past. The board, after its investigations, estimated that the loss on the line between Picton and Christchurch would be approximately £193,000 a year, but this, of course, is based upon the present method of running the railways. There may bo lessons in methods of railway transport to be learned from other countries which would reduce the cost of running considerably In tho meantime, however, and under present circumstances, the decision of the board is the only one it could have come to." RAILWAY LOSS BURDEN. LOCAL RATING PROPOSITION. CONCERN FOR TAXPAYERS. "The construction of most of the railways that have been considered by the board would, no doubt, result in some advantage to local interests." says the report by the Government Railways Board. "Unless a sufficient proportion of the benefit can be secured to tho State then the construction of the railways wilJ simply be for the advantage of the relatively few at the expense of the many." This proposition was submitted to the advocates of the various lines with the suggestion that the owners of the land should submit to a rate to cover any financial deficiency. "The answer in practically every case was such as to lead the board to the conclusion that such a proposal would not be favourably received by the landowners affected. The argument generally advanced was that unprofitable railways had been constructed in other parts of the Dominion, and that it was not just to ask the landowners of the particular district to make up a deficiency on the proposed railway, when others whose land had been benefited by a railway had not been placed in that, position. "This places the burden of any fitable line that may be constructed on the taxpayer, and the board certainly does not think'that the taxpayer should have his burden of taxation further increased simply because of the policy of the past. It could scarcely be denied that, the position of New Zealand in regard to its railway finance is a serious one. How then could an increase in the burden be justified ? That burden is now making itself palpably felt, and the board feels strongly that' it would not be justified in making any recommendation that would still further increase it." j