The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1930. POLITICAL CONTROL.

Southland Times, Issue 21192, 19 September 1930, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1930. POLITICAL CONTROL.

There is no form of conservatism worse'th mt that which is governed by terms, and when members sought to throw Mr Coates out of his stride by references to the Railway Commissioners of the old days, they vote raising the futile bogey of old names. Mr Coates was an admitted success as a Minister of Railways, whatever may be the opinions of him as a leader of a government, and when he declares that the country cannot hope to put the railways on a sound commercial footing until the system is divorced of political control lie should be listened to with respect. Of one thing the Reformers can be proud. They introduced the system whereby the country was able to discover what its great trading departments were costing, and they sought to reduce the amount of political influence in the Public Works Department to a. minimum. The present Government has already destroyed the safeguards in connection with the allocation of Public Works grants, and it seems bent on doing

away with the individuality of the railway accounts so that the losses may be covered up without being eliminated, but it is now being recognised generally that political control cannot be maintained without politics interfering with administrative operations, and that means the restoration of what the Americans have expressively termed the “pork barrel” into which politicians delight to dip to entrench themselves in the favour Of their electorates by securing contributions from public funds for local purposes. As Mr Coates told the House, Germany, Belgium and Canada have discovered that non-political control is essential for the efficient management of Stateowned railways. The experience of Canada should be enough to satisfy any country that non-political management can be made effective, even in the face of strenuous competition. Canada's national railways were languishing and showing losses, when the control was taken out of the, hands of the politicians, who could lind dozens of excuses for failures and faults. To-day this same railway system is a vigorous, profitable organization, capable of standing comparison with the best of the privately-operated systems. Germany has taken the same course, and Belgium has found it advantageous. A non-party survey of the history of railways in New Zealand will reveal a sorry narrative of political interference, resulting in losses that are to-day burdening the country, and now we find the Government ready to shift to the shoulders of Parliament the task of determining which of a series of railways that promises deficits are to be proceeded with. Political expediency saddled New Zealand with the so-called South Island Main 'Trunk completion, although the Government’s own figures show that it cannot be operated without adding to the Department’s losses. This talk of Parliamentary control has an excellent sound, but when the thing is put to the testijt reveals weaknesses which no people can afford to ignore. Surely the dangers of the democratic system of government have been revealed. In saying that no plea for an auto-

eracy is made, but there is patent the need for safeguards which will put an end to the handicaps put on the administrative departments by the spectre of the voter entering the electoral booth. Mr Lysnar’s piethod is to accuse Mi - Coates of indulging in party politics because he criticises the Government’s railway policy, and the member for Gisborne seeks to excuse the present Government by quoting what he considers to have been the mistakes of its predecessors. When will the politicians learn that one mistake does not excuse a later one, and even if the Auckland deviation were a colossal blunder — we do not think it is—that cannot reconcile the country to a policy which proposes to involve it in further losses. The elimination of political control in the trading departments is a reform worth lighting for and it does not matter which party takes it up. The principle ,is sound, and it promises a continuity of policy which caiyiot be secured where ministerial changes and government changes are frequent. Air Coates has contributed a constructional idea to this debate, an idea which is in line with the policy he enunciated years ago, and if he failed to carry it through completely, the soundness of the principle is not impaired. People talk about proceeding on broad lines and securing wide vision: are these things possible of attainment when the system of pandering to voters is permitted to hamper the introduction of reforms that are vitally necessary?