THE RAILWAY SERVICE

Southland Times, Issue 17971, 12 March 1917, Page 5

THE RAILWAY SERVICE

THE SCHEME OF CURTAILMENT. FAIRLY DRASTIC PROPOSALS. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 10. Interviewed to-day, Mr Hiley said that he could not yet fully explain the scheme for the curtailment of railway services which he had recently drawn up, because it was still before the Minister and had to be dealt with by Cabinet, but he could say that some fairly drastic proposals were made, which were calculated to have a distinct effect upon passenger traffic. If the scheme was adopted he could not say how many men it would release for military service. If curtailment was decided on it was no good doing things by halves. As the goods' service must be kept up the pruning must necessarily be at the expense of passenger traffic. Quite possibly the curtailment of' passenger trains would have to be followed by a rise in fares. He did not think the few race trains now run could be held accountable for keeping an unnecessarily large staff, for in practically all casjes these trains were worked as “extraa' by a staff which was only large enough to cope with the ordinary work.

Mr Hiley added that he thought the criticisms of the Department for appealing for its employees at the Military' Appeal Board were a little unfair, and probably arose through a want of knowledge of the facts.