RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19204, 21 June 1924, Page 11

RAILWAY REQUIREMENTS.

TO THE EDITOH. Sih, —At a meeting of tlio Otago Expansion League. Mr Jotm Watson (Mayor of Port Chalmers), while advocating the dupli-' cation of the Port line, stated that the Mosgiel duplication cost £2,000,000, and. that" ho believed this huge sum was justified, presumably on the results! If might be so, if the department had made . use cl the facilities which the duplication. , made possible. The department is as close, as an oyster over these details, but 1 have always understood the estimated cost of this duplication was £250,000, and that it cost something over £500,000'. If the duplication of the Port line brings it no more advantages than Mosgicl has derived it can bo expressed in throe letters—i.o., “Nil.” instead of running (lie Un-mi nal to Mosgicl. where all goods and passenger services begin and end, the department, m its won- ‘ ; derful wisdom, finished up at Mosgiel Junction, at the foot of Saddle Hill, where there is no population nor are there business requirements or anything to induce 1 traffic on this expensive duplication. "Sot the department has a line running right into the heart of Mosgicl town and a station there which it refuses to use. From, this unused station all the main arteries radiate; tliero all goods are required, and there 90 per cent, of the passengers desire to leave from and arrive at. Without estimating the new traffic that the use of this central station would develop, it is safe to say that existing users would, with tiie, added convenience, travel four times as often. With a siding into the Mosgiel Woollen Mill the department has lost the business to the motor delivery. Merchants and builders practically find the railway service useless, owing to the stupid terminal; the growth of the town is seriously re-. ! tarded, and the population of the district for ZD miles round is prevented from patronising the service. For the past 15 years a never-ceasing representation has boon made to the department, which has been met by the reply “ that the public must come to the spot we choose” or “our statistics do not warrant any alteration.” To point out that statistics ‘ from “a service that does not serve,” makes no impression on the “high official.” and, when 'S the Minister has boon reached on various occasions, his reply has been "that ho will get a report from his responsible officer.”

Sir, the management of the Now Zealand railways is post a joke; it is a scandal for waste and incompetence, and, without a “dean out” from the top, there is no hope of rom'edy. A year or two ago, when exasperated business men pressed reform on Mr Massey (thon Minister of Railways) he undertook to provide assistance to an

“overburdened” monager, and also to appoint two commercial agents to prime him with information ns to the business and public requirements. The wizard manage', menl so moulded the Ministerial mind that the commercial agents were apnointed from among the department’s own officials, whose control of the railway was the cause of the demand for reform. And unless a change is made at the head office the cost of the report by English experts, which is promised, may as well bo saved, since no action is likely to result. No better advice can be given than the Hiley report contained, but no attempt has ever been made to put it in operation.—l am, etc., June 19. Otakatj.