THIRD EDITION. MAKING ENDS MEET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16534, 29 December 1927, Page 13

THIRD EDITION. MAKING ENDS MEET

BAVIN’S JJ Jl''FiOU LTIES INCREASED TRAIN AND TRAM FARES SYDNEY, Doc. 15. The public, which usually submits so meekly to all the burdens heaped upon it, has through the columns of the press, emitted a wait of protest from one end of the metropolis of Sudney to the other against the increased tram and tram fares. The new Brenner, Mr. Bavin, for having adopted this method of the Railway Commissioners of trying to make ends meet, has incurred quite a. lot of odium. The fact .that tie lias to solve the position created by the previous Government’s financial orgy does not, count. The public has a notoriously short memory.- ft is crying out, loudly and bitterly, that, with more rigid and justifiable economy in the public services, that with the abolition of a Jot of the perquisites of’ Parliamentarians, for example, and that witli far fewer concessions to railway employees who are enjoying award rates and privileges not accorded to private employees, the necessity for increased fares could have been avoided. War especially has been proclaimed, if one may judge from llie protests m the papers, on what are called the “dead heads” in governmental and political life. There is no night but hath its morn, however. The agitation on the part of the public may awaken the Government to the fact that the public can bo fooled some of the time, but not always, and that any policy on its part of laisse/, laire, as far as rigid economy is concerned, will count against it when it asks for another lease of life. Even the Nationalist Press, in its leader columns, . is telling the Government plainly that higher fares are, after all, only a tempora-iy expedient, and that the problem of finance must have as its driving force economy, consistent with efficiency. The Government, it is understood, proposes, during the coming recess, to try to reorganise the railways. NON-PAYING LINES The 11011-paying lines in New South Wales are a terrible incubus on the railway administration, which has had many of them forced upon it simply for political motives. The Government is in favor of making these non-paying railways it charge upon the consolidated revenue, but it has been pointed out to the Government that if this is brought forward as a new way of paying old tlebks, it will be best lo examine it. Queensland, for example, rightly or wrongly, is pointed to as a. Slate which pays it's railway losses out of land and income, tax. The fear is expressed that the general taxpayers may ho charged with the same burden in New South Wales, instead of the loss falling upon those who use railways. The railways are certainly lighting a losing battle with the motors. As is pointed out, were the railways privately owned, the public could watch tho struggle between the two forms of transit with a certain measure of unconcern, but with about £100,000,000 of public money locked up in the railways-, tho position is somewhat different. SAME PROBLEM IN VICTORIA New South Wales and Victoria appear to bo faced with precisely the same problem, and in exactly the same circumstances, with regard to the railways. Each, without increased fares and freights, is faced with the certainty of a staggering deficit. It was not until the new Government came into office in New South Wales that there leaked out tho memorandum which’ the Railway Commissioners put before its predecessors, just before the election, pointing out plainly that fares must go up. Much the same thing seems to have occurred in Victoria. As far as New South Wales is concerned the press and the pubile have made quite articulate their opinion that the problem of railway and tramway deficits must be tackled at the root, and must be met by the more simple expedient of taking more money out of the people's pockets.