SUBURRAN TRAIN SERVICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 6

SUBURRAN TRAIN SERVICE.

POSITION OF THE DEPARTMENT.

CFbom Otjr Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, October 9.

Interesting remarks on suburban railway services were made by the Hon. J. A. Millar to-day in reply to a deputation of residents in the district between Wellington and Paekakariki, on the Manawatu line.

The Minister asked the deputation to look at the matter from the point of view of the Kailway Department. There was £31,000,000 of the country's money invested in the 6ystem, and he was receiving constant demands for reduced fares and freights on the one hand and increased travelling facilities on the other, while all the employees were constantly asking for higher pay. If the revenue was to be reduced and the expenditure increased he would like to know how the interest was to be paid. It would not be a gain to maks it up by taxation, because those who used the service ought to pay for it. The suburban area had originally been fixed at 20 miles, and he had never reduced it; but he was faced with the position that all the smaller centres throughout the Dominion were asking for the same facilities as were granted to the four chief centres. The people who went out of to\vn ts live did so for their own Convenience, and they could not reasonably expect a train service to suit their particular needs as soon a.s they had settled Hgwjo. M& wanted to maks money

for the railways, and was not in a position to throw it away. He was considering the whole question of suburban services with a view to ascertaining the exact cost-. In any case, nobody could say there was anything like congestion even in the four centres, and that was what the suburban service was designed to relieve. He thought that people who asked for an improved service should have enough confidence in its success to guarantee the department against loss.