OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16427, 26 February 1925, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS

RAILWAY EARNINGS. Among the several confidences the Hon. J. G. Coates, Minister for Railways, has imparted to the public during his tour of the Otago and Southland districts, none has aroused more curiosity than his statement that he hoped in a few months to have the New Zealand railways earning 4 per cent. He did not say whether this return was to be upon the book cost of the lines or upon the actual cost; but, as Ministers rarely speak of the actual cost of a line, which would include interest on the expenditure while in course of construction, it Is safe to assume that he had only the book cost in his mind. This may mean no more than 60 or 70 per cent, of the actual expenditure, in some cases even less, and probably it would be Well within the mark to say that the rail-

ways have cost fully 30 per cent, more

than the Departmental accounts reveal.—Wanganui Herald. THE WHEAT POSITION. When we consider that New Zealand has been a wheat exporting country —how, many years ago, the export of the basis of the staff of life was one of our principal sources of revenue—how, with what may be termed primitive agricultural methods, we were able not only to produce sufficient for our own requirements, but much to meet the needs of those in other lands, we might well ask ourselves whether we are really progressing. In the course of a comparatively short period there has been a complete change. Instead of being an exporting country, we have become an importing one of the prime necessity of life —wheat. And the strange thing about it all is that a considerable proportion of the land of New Zealand is ideally suited for wheat-growing. Few countries can show equally prolific yields; those of most' wheat-producing countries are substantially less. We are now drawing our supplies from a country where the yield per acre is infinitesimal compared with our own. We believe our failure to produce our own requirements in the matter of wheat is indicative of a serious national weakness, for which it is necessary that our legislative Solons should find a remedy.—Timaru Post.