RAILWAY POLICY

Southland Times, Issue 19512, 11 May 1922, Page 5

RAILWAY POLICY

THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS EXPERT BOARD AND BUSINESS AGENTS FREIGHT TARIFF UNDER REVIEW. (Special to the Times). FEILDING, May 10. Some of the details of the new railway policy of the Government were given by the Prime Minister in his speech at Feilding to-night. “Nothing is more important to a new country than that it should have satisfactory means of communication,” said Mr Massey. “It should have good road and railway facilities within its own territories, j and it should also have good sea communications with the other countries of the world. As to our railways, I am aware that there has been a certain amount of dissatisfaction with their methods of working, and an endeavour is now being made by the acting-Minister of Railways and the General Manager to bring about a more satisfactory state of affairs. A certain amount of progress has been made, but there still remains a good deal to be done. “It is intended to alter the present management procedure by the setting up of a board of expert railway men to consist of representatives of the traffic department, the maintenance department, and th€ locomotive department, to assist the General Manager in the ardous tasks which he has on hand. It is also intended to appoint a business agent for the North Island and for the South Island, one for each Island, to confer with the users of the railways who may have grievances to ventilate or improvemente to suggest. Where it is possible and desirable to give effect to these ideas it will be the policy of the Department to see that they are carried out. The railway tariff is also being revised, but financial considerations make it impossible for us to do as much as we would like to do in this respect. However, anomalies will be removed, and in a number of instances a reduction in freight will be made. “Motor traffic is now competing very seriously with the railways in those districts of the Dominion where the roads are good, and there is no doubt that motor traffic has come to stay. An effort will be made to utilise this traffic to provide feeders to the railways rather than to allow it to go on coming into competition with them. In some cases arrangements may be made for the Railway Department to run its own motors for the purpose of collecting and delivering goods. “Though these necessary reforms will take some little time to come into full effect the Government is determined that no effort shall be wanting to make the railways more useful to the people who use them. ‘There is no branch of the public service that has felt the depression more than the railway service, not only mi account of the reduced volume of business offering, but also on account of the fact that everything required by the Railway Department rose enormously in cost. Coal, oil, canvas, workshop material, and wages all cost us a great deal more now than they did before the war. The consequence is that the Department is barely paying ite way and is certainly not paying anything like the rate of interest which in normal times is expected. New Zealand, however, is not the only country in which losses have been made on the railways. I have here some figures which show the losses that have been made by the Commonwealth and State railways of Australia during the year 1920-21 : Victoria £736,556, New South Wales £577,032, Queensland £1,739,475, South Australia £561,304, West Australia £418,370, Tasmania £81,907, Commonwealth £455, 199, a total for the whole of Australia of £4,569,843. “It will be noticed that there has been during the past year veiy heavy expenditure for coal for railways. I may remind you that on one occasion passenger services had to be practically cut out because there was not sufficient coal to keep the trains running. After that we were in a number of instances within a few days of the last shovelful. This sort of thing was causing serious anxiety, not only to the Government but also to such users of coal of freeating works, and enterprises for the supplying of such services as gas and electricity in the bigger centres. At the beginning of last year the Government determined to improve matters in this respect, and the General Manager was instructed to lay in a supply of coal which would keep the railways running for several months in the event of other supplies being interrupted. This was done. Most of the coal was obtained from Wales, and the price paid for It was £4 5/- per ton. In considering the price the calorific value has to be taken into consideration, and it has been found that Welsh coal at this price is very little dearer than New South Wales or even New Zealand coal at the ordinary prices. The conract for the supply of Welsh coal has come to an end, but we have a very large supply of the coal in hand. I shall be very glad, however, if sufficient supplies for our own purposes are available from within the country. I do not want to go outside of the country for another ton of coal.”