The Sun FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1914. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RAILWAYS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 204, 2 October 1914, Page 6

The Sun FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1914. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RAILWAYS.

T/he mania for State monopolies has done more than anything else to retard and hamper the development of New Zealand, but some politicians are quite incapable of realising the fact, and any suggestion in the direction of selfreliance or individual effort has the .same effect on .them, as waving a red rag in front of a bull. They go for it baldheaded, without stopping to think that their attitude is unreasonable, unintelligent, and highly inimical to the public interest. Amongst other things,the State has monopolised railway construction in New Zealand. No one would argue for a. moment that the State should not undertake the provision of railway transport where it is required; The State is in a position to finance railway construction on a scale that no private corporation can attempt. Besides its assets in the shape of public property, it can pledge its revenues, and its resources are only limited by what the people can stand in the shape of taxation. But, in spite of its powers and opportunities, what is the position after forty years of State railway' construction and management in New Zealand? (1) The Dominion possesses an overcapitalised and inefficient railway system, which is run at a heavy annual loss, and has drifted into a condition requiring an expenditure of several millions to bring it up to date. (2) It has a .large number of unfinished branch , lines and extensions •, under construction, ; mul completely . lacks the capital necessary to complete them with reasonable expedition.. (8) It-,..i5, carrying out a. rapid land settlement . policy, and, is adi vancing very large sums of money to settlers, which must necessarily result in a largely increased production, and make even heavier demands on railway transport facilities that are 'already inadequate. Common sense would suggest, therefore, that the Government should look around for 'any practicable means by which it can get tions or locally constituted boards to ; assist it with a job that is J altogether too big for the State. Canterbury at the present moment furnishes a glaring example of. how a district can be held back "for years, and made to suffer through adherence to the dog-in-the-manger, policy which decree![that it must wait for a State railway or do without one at all. After years of agitation an public money was obtained, and a" start made with the Waiaii railway.'lt is'merely a start, and no more. In the present state of the London money market no one can foretell what will be the fate of this urg-ently-needed pujblie work. But the people of the district would have built the line ten or fifteen years' ago had they not been prevented by the Government from doing so. The Seddon Government held ; that pri-, v.at'e enterprise was a crime, and that the people must look to the State j for railways, and to no one else. The ! principle is absurd and utetrly vicious, j yet Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Isitt, and 'ethers made long speeches in the House I last night'"'in'support of it. As long as the railway facilities are provided, what does it matter whether they are built by a private company, or a board such'as'Mr Eraser's bill contemplates? There is no difficulty whatever in protecting persons dependent 011 private railways from exploitation. The Manawatu railway, to which reference was made, was an enterprise that did a great deal to promote the prosperity of the province it opened up. The bulk of its earnings were disbursed in wages. It 1 was a large payer of income tax, and when the State took it over taxpayers got excellent value for their money. Even if its franchise was too liberal in the first place, the country was still the gainer by the company's operations, and the State does not heed to repeat any such mistake. Efficient and adequate railway transport facilities are vital to a country like New Zealand, which is dependent for its growth and prosperity on settlement and an increased productivity. It is foolish and stupid to block any practicable method of promoting railway construction, and the farmers particularly should niake a note of the proceedings in Parliament last night.

prise—the defence of her own frontiers. No German invasion of Britain could be considered as feasible while the British Fleet remains intact. Germany's only hope of landing an invading force on the shores of Britain would be conditional on the destruction of Admiral Jellicoe's squadrons, and, as all the world is aware, there is little chance of such a disaster befalling our fleet. A raid on the lines suggested by General Baden-Powell might conceivably have been possible were Europe at peace, and the British lion-drowsed, but with Germany in a deathrgrappie the idea is absurd. It is not impossible for a fleet of Zeppelins to sail across the North Sea and frighten the inhabitants of the coastal towns and London with a bombardment such as Antwerp lias suffered, but Germany can put her dirigibles to a more profitable use nearer home. The time for a sudden invasion of England is past. From the time the British Fleet was mobilised —from that day any chance of a raid was gone. And it has to be remembered that even if a German force was landed on the southeast coast of Britain, it could not be strong enough to cope effectively with the army that would immediately be sent to meet it. While the fleets remain at their respective strengths, there is no hope for Germany in this, direction. Even if the fortunes of war had gone against the Allies on land, they still held the last trump card —the mastery of the sea. The French fleet easily controls the Mediterranean, thanks in part to Italy's neutrality. Admiral Jellieoe is blockading the German Dreadnoughts in harbours of their own seeking, and whence they/are afraid to issue, and give battle. Yon Tirpitz, with his warships, is '' bottled up,'' and before he could hope to laud a raiding party on English soil, he would have to demolish the greatest fighting ships the world has ever seen. General Baden-Powell should have more regard for his facts before hazarding such a prediction. Something has happened of late near the Franco-Belgian frontier to cause Lord Kitchener to change his mind concerning the probable duration of the war. Right from the outbreak of hostilities the Secretary for War formulated his plans on the assumption that the war would be unusually prolonged. The London "Times" became imbued with the same idea, and preparations at Home were made accordingly. While he still continues to make provision for a protracted campaigu, Lord Kitchener has apparently been satisfied that" the German attack has passed its climax. The indications so far as the censor has them to escape to these parts, support that conclusion. London reports an admission by the Germans themselves that they have been unable to arrest ths —lvance of the Allies' left, while AVilliam Maxwell, the veteran war correspondent of the '* Daily Telegraph, "is permitted to express the opinion that the enemy's great second attempt to force the Allies has failed, that he is beaten all along the line, and that there'must soon be another retreat to the east and the north. The official reports are not so encouraging, though they, too, sxiggest marked and success-ful-activity on. the part of the Allies. The ''Daily Mail's" correspondent states that the Germans, outpaced in the . rival flanking movement behind Peronne, have unavailingly attempted to break through the allied line at Albert. Lord Kitchener suggests that one of the weaknesses of the Germans is a shortage of food. The}' have suffered so more or less from the very beginning when the Belgians steadfastly refused to allow their country to be used by the invaders as an open toad into France. ■■ /Had that right-of-way been granted the Germans, they would have ' ' fed off Belgium,'' paying as they went. That Belgium became unexpectedly hostile was a contingency the German General Staff had not anticipated, with the result that, as an American commentator has observed,' •after the conquest of Liege the Gerinah. soldiery, Jong, baffled amb starved, and maddened with alcohol, fell upon Belgium. .." If the main German armies are suffering from lack of. food at this time, their plight will be embittered when the winter closes down oir Europe. Shortage of food makes exhausting demands on the temper, of even .a victorious army, but a soldiery with its back to the wall and made desperate by the pangs', of hunger is in a pitiable and hopeless position.

THE GOVERNMENT WHIP,