Taranaki herald. TUESDAY. AUGUST 10, 1909. UNPROFITABLE RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13979, 10 August 1909, Page 2

Taranaki herald. TUESDAY. AUGUST 10, 1909. UNPROFITABLE RAILWAYS.

The present Minister of ttailw.iys has laid it down that a net return of three and a half per <ent. will l>e looked for in future it oiu the railways of the dominion instead ot the three per cent, return which Sir Joseph Ward thought sufficient when he hold the portfolio. Kven the higher rate is not a penny too imich to expect, lor the average rate of interest paid on the public debt is about '\% per cent., and there is therefore a deficiency to be made up out of the Consolidated Revenue, which is unfair to those who, like the settlers between hero and Opunake, derive no benefit at all from the railways. However, Mr. Millar will do good ser\i(e if he can make the railways pay a net profit of -'H per cent. But he will not do so if he permits the North Island Main Trunk Kailway to be managed on present lines. A southern paper remarked the other day that "the North Island Main Trunk Railway does not pay to run ; but running trains will not be discontinued till business improves. ... It must run, at whatever cost, because its political significance is great, though its returns may be ruinous." So does history repeat itself. Nearly twenty-five years ago political influence brought about the adoption of a route for the line which had not one single feature otherwise to recommend it It was a scandal, indeed, that it was adopted. The line was constructed at extravagant cost where it should never h»\e gone, through country which w ill never pay for greasing the train wheels. Having been constructed, traffic must be made for it, and in order to do this absurdly low rates are charged. Passengers are carried 426 miles between Auckland and Wellington for 21s 2d. a rate at which no railway in the world can carry and make a profit. It is true that similar fares rule for other long distance journeys, hecaxise the Department could not keep the old rates up on other lines when fixing so low a scale for the Main Trunk. From Auckland to New Plymouth the fare is 225, of which 5s lOd is for the 1% miles from Marton to this station, while the passenger from Wanganui to New Plymouth, 107 miles, has to pay 7s Bd. Cheap travelling is a benefit to the people, but the policy of the department is to give that benefit to tourists and people with means to travel from one end of New Zealand to the other, at the expense of the country, while the poor man and the country settler, who travel only short distances, have to pay much higher fares. Thus from Auckland to Wellington the second class fare is barely three-fifths of a penny per mile, while from New Plymouth to Tnglewood, or Stratford, or Ilawera, it is slightly over a penny per mile. But in the etf'ort to secure goods and mineral traffic for the Main Trunkline the cut-throat policy is most apparent. An instance is afforded by Taupiri coal. This is ear[lictl lioni Taupiri to New Plymouth, a distance of '17« r ) miles, lor 12s 10d per ton. The rate from T.iupiri to Wanganui, a distance of 274 miles, is, it was stated in an exchange a few days ago, 12s per ton, so that the department is carrying coal a distance of over 1W) miles (from Arauioho to New Plymouth) for tenpence, which cannot puy wear and tear on the trucks, let alone the cost of haulage over the heavy grades between Aramoho and Ilawera. Traffic must, however, be found for the Main Trunk Line, and if a payable rate were charged on coal to New Plymouth this p.utiruhir tiatfie would be killed, for Taupiri coal could not then compete with sea-borne coal here. At any cost sea-borne traffic must apparently be diverted to the railway. The effect upon railway finance is likely to be disastrous. The line from here to Wellington used to be pionably the best paying long section in the dominion, and this end oi it the most profitable portion, but the lucrative through passenger traffic has been diverted to a route which will bo worked at a heavy loss, and if the carrying of coal at a tenth' of a penny per mile is a fair specimen of the rates obtained tor the goods and mineral traffic, then that side of the business will show a loss. So in order to create a losing business on the Main Trunk Line the department is apparently converting a paying business on this line into a losing one also. Where is the Minister's three and a half per cent, to be earned? The colony will find presently that the Main Trunk Ilailway is the most costly white elephant it has yet invested in, for it will not only fail by a long way to earn its own working expenses, but in its interests, to create a traffic which it could not otherwise attract, a very low scale of charges has been adopted both for it and for other lines, which are thus los-ing revenue through it.