CHANGE URGED

Southland Times, Issue 21192, 19 September 1930, Page 8

CHANGE URGED

CONTROL OF RAILWAYS COMMERCIAL INSTEAD OF POLITICAL PLAIN SPEAKING IN HOUSE (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 18. “No general manager, no matter who he is, will ever make the railways pay as long as they arc subject to changes of Government and strokes of the political pen," the Leader of the Opposition (the non. J. G. Coates) said in the House of Representatives to-day while discussing the annual report of the Railway Department. Continuing, Mr Coates ' expressed the opinion that the railways should be removed from political control and placed on a more commercial basis. In commencing his remarks Mr Coates said that the minister ol Railways (tne Hon. W. A. Veitch) while discussing his report had looked the saddest and most miserable individual he had ever watched. Mr F. Lye (U., Waikato) : Vou have got a bilious attack. Mr Veitch: Personal vulgarity. Mr Coates was proceeding when the Speaker (Sir Charles Statham) interrupted him and asked Mr Veitch to withdraw his remark.”. The Minister had delivered a long string of platitudes, Mr Coates said, but what had the country got to-day? he asked. A Minister who was doing ail he could to run backwards. Political stops had been put in on express runs and business people had not been considered. New lines were being built regardless of expense and then the Minister was talking about what fertilizer would do for the tourist traffic. The Minister was the most hopeless the country had ever had. The honourable members had his statement before them, but it only amounted to two pages and then the rest was left to committees and commissions. The Minister had loaded the Department up with charges that had no right to be there, Mr Coates continued, and he had attempted to mislead the public regarding workshops. The figures given in his report were not correct. 'T don't know what position we are in regarding our railways,” he said. “What with changes of Ministers and commissions that have been set up, there is no knowing where we will end.” After referring to the General Manager’s statement in the report that rolling stock was getting old and that the cost of maintenance must increase, Mr Coates said that there was no reason to doubt that the Minister was in difficulties. The Minister admitted that there was a big loss on the running of the railways, but it was not possible for the country to function without them. No general manager would ever make railways pay as long as they were subject to changes of Government and strokes of the political pen, he continued. Changes had been promised and they had all been expecting great things, but nothing had happened. All the Minister had done was to bring more hardship to the Railway Department than any other Minister had ever succeeded in doing. The railways would never be a success under the present system and there was only one way to bring them to a basis where work could be conducted on a commercial footing and that was to hand over the whole concern to a director. Canada, Belgium and Germany had done that and had made a success of it. Germany’s railways had been run at a loss last year, but Germany had only recently changed over. Why should the taxpayer be asked to make up the loss? he asked. A loss could not be avoided under the present system. Even the Minister was afraid to increase freights. Mr Veitch: Oh, is he! A point of order, Mr Speaker. Has the honourable member a right to refer to my courage? Mr Coates withdrew the remark and said that the Minister could not increase freights and neither could the chairman of the Railway Committee tackle it. Mr ,J. T. Hogan (1., Rangjtikei) : Tackle what ? Mr Coates: What I said. The honourable member should listen. Honourable members should study the balance sheets of countries that had removed their railways from political control, Mr Coates continued, and they would see that New Zealand railways would be better in independent hands. Mr Hogan: That’s the old Conservative policy. Mr Coates: It may be, but it is the only possible one. At this stage Mr Coates’s time was up.