ROADS AND RAILWAYS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17409, 6 November 1930, Page 12

ROADS AND RAILWAYS

(To the Editor of th« Herald.) ; Sir,—There lies been printed in your paper a speech made bv Sir Francis Bell, a member of the Legislative Council, advocating the scrapping of various railway lines under construction; also in the local press a Mr. Bavliss lias written a letter eulogising this same Sir Francis Bell. Do the gentlemen referred to suggest scrapping till Hie existing railways? If not, why should they infer that i! would be suicidal to construct other lint's that will show a better return than many of the sevices already in operation? A concrete example of this is tilt' Uisborne-Xapier line tinder const ruction. At present, even with Gisborne’s limited facilities for communication afforded by the main highways, the amount of stock leaving this district annually is very considerable, but with a railway service the district of Poverty Bay because of its great fertility would rapidly become the stud farm of New Zealand. For the small holder, too. a quick and cheap railway service In the large towns of the conntrv would mean placing almost unlimited markets at his disposal.

Manv people are under the impression that motor transport could provide a service equally as cflicient and as cheap as u railway. Actual facts disprove this immediately, and it is extremely interesting to make a comparison between the costs of transport bv the rival methods of rail and roadThe figures for just a few things that are important; to the people of Gisborne are as follows:

(harge per ton mile by rail: Road metal 1 l-sd, manure 1 7-lfld, N.Z. fruit 1 7-10(1’.

Charge per ton mile by road: Road metal 9d to Is, manure 9d to Is, N.Z. fruit much more than above because of bulk.

A more striking comparison and one that directly affects the local sheepfarmers is the cost of transporting sheep by the two services. By rail from Gisborne to Nanicr, a distance of 132 miles, the cost would be Is 4d per sheep. By road, a distance of 140 miles, the.cost is 10s per sheep. Yet in face of this there are still some people, amongst whom there are even some hard-headed sheepfarmers, who implicitly support a party that advocates closing down a railway that will give such facilities. For the man in the. street the most easily-seen comparison is that between ordinary travelling fares from Gisborne to Napier. By ear the fare is from 2os to 30s, but by rail the fare would be lbs fid (second class).

if tin' whole question is reviewed dispassionately, it will be realised that the ease for motor transport is woefully weak. In view of the fact that most of the cars and tyres are American, that practically every penny spent on benzine, oil, accessories, and even the money that buys the bitumen on the ijoads, goes out of this country and is irrevocably lost, it is hard to see how load transport can be supported on economic grounds. On the other hand, with a railway service, we have locally-made rolling stock, New Zealand coal mined by our own countrymen, and, in addition, have kept practically the whole of the

money for constructional works in the country. In tite event of motor transport temporarily winning the day, ever increasing taxation and tariffs, especially on cars and fuel, will eventually increase the costs of road t ransport to such an extent that the public will be forced to revert to and to .recognise, a sound system of communication, i.e., railways. Bv making use of a proper railway system the existing roads will be preserved for a considerably longer period than thev can po.ssiblv last under the present heavy’t rathe conditions. Cast anil heavily laden motor lorries are rapidly shaking our main highways into disrepair, and are building-up a heave bill for the general public to meet’ in the shape of high maintenance

costs. ' . Til m t hut horit ios t h rough out. tno world have faith iii rail transport is amp!v demonstrated by the reports of railroad building that appear from time in time. Even in Bouth America a huge undertaking to build a railway Hi rough the heart of the continent has Deeu shouldered by , American inter (-.sis, and surely if motor transport m so good a proposition, whofe.benzine is 2id*per gallon it would have been considered there. By all means let the motor deal wit n passenger truffle, and act as feeders to (lie railways, but it is nuperatn e thr the lieavv goods be carried by ,-aik The pan'ot cry that “Railways , m]S t Bay” should surely lie applied ’Wo to tin? roads, if they are to be th" s,de means of heavy traffic communication, as both are constructed out ot tli" same pocket. But it is plain that if the roads had to face the same interest charges that the railways hate to, the cost of transport by road wound immediately become prohibitive. The main point at issue is that we have in existence an extensive railway system, which, through lack of support from the people' who complain loudest and longest, is running with empty and half-empty trucks. To run the same trains full would cost not a pennv more,.-and if the people who patronise road transport would transfer their support to the railways, the railway services would soon be on their way to becoming paying proposi- \ strong Government would (leal with the problem in a business-like manner by immediately taking drastic steps and prohibiting heavy motor traffic on all highways that _ parallel railways, and not .let vested interests interfere with the . welfare of the countrv. —Yours, etc., * antmiumbug.