THE RAILWAY SYSTEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14924, 29 August 1910, Page 4

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM.

If" t ' le course of the discussion on Friday night last, in the Lower House on the Imprest Supply Bill the Minister of Railways made several important- statements which call for more than passing notice. They are statements which demonstrate, in the first place, on Ministerial authority, the complete unreasonableness of the argument that led the Government to discontinue the construction of the Lawrence Roxburgh railway. And in the second place they demonstrate the unfairness of the allegations which have been made bj some of

the Ministers and by a number of the members of Parliament and practically the whole of the pres6 of the Dominion concerning the result? of the operation of the Otago Central railway. Mr Millar advanced it as a proposition which is generally accepted by the managers of railway systems that branch lines are worked at a lose. It is not expected Unit branch lines shall be directly profitable. It is, as a matter of fact, not. with the object that- they shall be in themselves profit-earning lines that they are constructed. Mr Millar affirmed, as we have frequently affirmed in these columns, that the true function of a branch line is to open up the country for settlement and development, and thus to serve as « feeder for the Main Trunk system. And though experience goes io show that 1 the construction and operation of branch lines have the effect of reducing the earnings of the system as a whole, any criticism of the results of the working of the branch lines on the ground that it is unprofitable is illegilmate, because these , lines aro really serving the purpose for which th;y are established by promoting the development of the resources of the country, and by thus producing traffc that provides the main lines with revenue they would otherwise not secure. Wc gather from what Mr Millar said that there is not a branch line of railways in the Dominion that i 6 actually profitable. .The North Island has yet to get its branch lines. When it has got them the. results of its railway system will bo much less favourable than they are at the present time when practically all its lines are main trunk railways. In the South Island the branch lines, Mr Millar informed the House, are not earning more than, provides for the payment of their working expenses. Some of them, indeed, are not earning 19s per cent, of their capital cost. This being so, it is manifest that the stoppage of the construction of the Teviofc railway, fiecause, in the judgment, of some of the Ministers, it would n,ot develop sufficient traffic to meet the interest charge on the capital that would be expended in building, was entirely unreasonable. Further than this, Mr Millar stated that last year the revenue obtained from the Otago Central line showed a greater proportionate increase than was shown by any other railway in Now Zealand. When it is remembered that this railway has, more than any other line in the country, been loaded by the adoption of extravagant methods of construction and that it-' does not tap the most productive country that will be developed when it reaches its objective, the fact that it earned 20s per cent, on its cost must be regarded as reasonably encouraging. It is probable that Mr William Fraser was quite within the mark when lie said tint the amount that- has been expended on the construction of the line to Clyde should, if full value had been received for it, have sufficed to carry the rails to Hawea. If the lino had actually been built to its'l objective for the money that has been j expended upon it, and tho existence of railway facilities had offered inducements for the full development' of the ample resources of the agricultural country in the Upper Chitha Valley, the results derived from the operation of the line would, we believe, havo surprised those wild have taken pleasure in decrying the Otago Central. As it is, the line, handicapped though it is by the conditions under which it'has been built and under which it is being oparated, is even now producing results that give promise that in the time to come, especially if the interior of the provincial district is to be irrigated on ecientifio. principles, Mr Eraser's anticipation that the ugly duckling will become the beautiful swan of the railway system will be not imperfectly realised.