DOMINION RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1926, Page 9

DOMINION RAILWAYS.

THE REPORT DISCUSSED. UPKEEP SECOND TO NONE. THE NEED FOR SAFETY. By Telegraph.—Press Association Wellington, Last Night. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coateq moved in the House to-night that the Railway Report (presented some days ago) be referred to the Government for consideration. Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of the Opposition), and Mr. Forbes (Hurunui), considered that the railways should not be run with such a rigid regard for profit-making, but that the service ought to be made to serve the whole of the people as far as possible by reducing fares and freights. Mr. Lysnar (Gisborne) complained that the original East Coast route was being departed from at one point by making the deviation to Waikokopu. He regarded this as unwarranted as it missed a stretch of useful country. The original route would have served. Sir Joseph Ward, after declaring that the upkeep of the New Zealand railway, tracks was second to none in the world, said that under the new system of keeping the railway accounts it was impossible to criticise the results until a year or two had passed to give comparative figures to work upon. He urged that the Government should decide upon requiring 3| per cent, as earnings from 1 the railways, giving the people the benefit of cheaper freights instead of increasing the rates to make a higher percentage of earnings ae was being done at present. Sir Joseph said the nett earnings last year were £43O,(XX). After the department had been relieved of A portion of the burden of interest there must be increased liabilities (one Minister that day had added a quarter of a million). As the years went on the prospects were not toe bright, .nd It behoved the Minister of Finance to look ahead and examine the financial position thoroughly. Although the railway accounts were kept separately a summary of their results should be shown in the Budget. He deprecated the policy of taking off trains from the main through lines in the south, and not pushing on with the completion of the South Island trunk railway, which would open up a large area of settlement country. Ho appealed for a night express dai'y from Invercargill to Christchurch. Mr. Veitch (Wanganui) urged that every effort should be made to obviate accidents to men In the railway service. Shunting furnished the majority of these. He believed the reason for this was too much moving of the men in an effort to qualify for promotion, resulting in the men having to take a turn at shunting when they had reached an age when they were not so active. Mr. Veitch believed the Railway Department would be wise to enter the motor business, where it could bo made a valuable adjunct to the railways. If the railways did not do this they would find that the motor would cut seriously into its transport business. Mr. Savage (Auckland West) criticised the bonus system as suggested t« be applied in railway workshops, declaring that the nett result thereof would be a reduction in the average man’s wages. Mr. Reid (Waikato) contended that motor traffic could not compete successfully against the railways in long-dis-tance transport. Even whefe the motors at present were picking the eyes out of transport work it was at the cost of the ratepayers who had to make up in road repairs many times the amount they might be saved in freight charges, Mr, E. J. Howard (Christchurch South), referring to experiments which the department was making with battery electric cars and adapted motor-driven vehicles, declared his belief that no finality would be reached until the Diesel engine was used for motive power. Rail traffic must be the cheapest for transport over long distances if scientifically applied. After the Prime Minister had replied the motion was agreed to.