TRANSPORT PROBLEM

Southland Times, Issue 20662, 18 April 1929, Page 10

TRANSPORT PROBLEM

COMPETITION WITH RAILWAYS. ! CO-OPERATIVE'SERVICE THE SOLU- i TION. (Special to the Tinies. Wellington, April 16. The question of competition with the railways was dealt with by Mr H. H. Sterling, General Manager, at a local motorists’ function. While out of the Civic Service, he had travelled by motor as much as anyone, as his business called for a great deal of get- I ting about, so that he claimed to have a j knowledge of transport as a whole that | should ensure its economic development. ' His own faith lay in economics as regards the future of the railway service, and infant motor service. He trusted the infant would be healthy and satisfactory to those who had to nourish it in its vgry early days. He acknowledged freely that the motor industry was useful and was here to stay, but he felt that economics would bring it to a stage it had not yet reached. He said he had endeavoured to analyse the comment, favourable to motorists and not so to the railways, and he found that the proportion of problems raised by serious thought represented only 5 per cent, of the obstacles, while 95 per cent, was due to ignorance or special propaganda. That, it was true, was more the case in the early days than to-day. Road, rail and sea must each give its best service for success. The Railway Department would not be found wanting. They would all agree that while the buses and the motor might form two sides of a triangle, the railways provided the base. During the last periods in which the figures were available they had a record carriage of passengers and freight. Nobody could know the troubles they had had with rolling stock during the transitional stage of the workshops, but they had had a record month without a serious accident. He was interested in the figures of the transport of primary products because he knew the difference it made in a huge business. Rail had its difficulty, but motorists had certain phases with which they could not economically cope. He believed that both would arrive at co-operative service in the best interests of New Zealand.