THE RAILWAYS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 14, 14 May 1912, Page 4

THE RAILWAYS.

]n some further comjncnt on our railways, Wellington “Post” remarks that between the times when “antimilitarists” cease from troubling him the Hon. A. M. .Myers lias to try to I evolve a comprehensive railway policy, 1 if the multitudinous deputationista in the two islands will permit him. Of course the expression of the “wants” helps the Minister to gauge the immensity of the task, but if lie has to divert all Ids energy into endless currents of local troubles it will be very difficult for him to work out a national policy foP the benefit of the country as a whole, but presumes that, when he lias done so, that the Government will wait to plainly perceive the “mind of the country” before launching out on any large policy. Proceeding, the “Post” says; A sign of the new times comes from the current Gazette. A commission, with a competent public works expert, Mr 11. IV. Holmes, as chairman, has been appointed to i n{l pi re into the best means of railing or loading the country (which includes half of the Premier’s electorate) vast of tin' line of railway from Hawera to New Plymouth, and the routes suggested for the proposed branch line from the Wangaiiiii-Now Plymouth Pailway to Opunake. This dee..an of the Government is in line, to some extent, with a paragraph in list year’s budget, in which Sir loseph Ward recommended the appointment oi com- : ’.lesions of “members (of the Hor.se ■' IT presentatives) and expert;;” to determine the routes for new railways. Wo are not sorry, however, that politicians are not included in the personnel of the Taranaki commission. A

member may see his constituency in two parts, one for him ami the other against him, and it may happen that a locality map will show the opposing element mainly in one section of the electorate. A politician is mare or less humanly pulled towards the people who support him. The “needs oi a part of a district” may be made to appear more important to him tnan “the needs of the distinct” as a whole. The day of the political railways, o! which New Zealand lias some costly examples—for which hot!) conservative and Liberal Administrations are responsible—must pass away. In the late Government there was some conflict of opinion and authority in general railway policy. As Minister of Public Works the Hon. R. M’Konr.ic had a powerful voice in the sphere ov railway construction, and it is possible that his ideas were in conflict with those of the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister of Working Railways; and over both of them, and able to override both—as he once notably did in the case of Air Millar—was the Prime Minister. There was no clear definite line of policy. Mr Myers lias a legacy of confusion, and he is bestirring himself to straighten out the tangle.”