MANY QUESTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17189, 5 November 1923, Page 7

MANY QUESTIONS.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE RAILWAYS. MINISTER INTERVIEWED. Although specific questions wore asked. no specific answers were given nor promises made by tho Hon J. G. Coates (Minister of Railways) to a railways morning. The deputation! which was one of the largest, and most represen tative that have waited on a Minister ia Christchurch for many years, dealt with a comprehensive range of railway A REPRESENTATIVE DEPUTATION. Mr H. T. Armstrong. ALP., in introducing the deputation, said the matters to be brought forward by it were’ of vital importance to tho future welfare of the province. Mr Stronac.h Paterson, vice-president-of tho Chamber of Commerce., said the deputation was representative of tho c anterbury Chamber of Commerce, the Greymouth Chamber of Commerce, the Westland Chamber of Commerce, tho Westland Progress League, the Duller Progress League, the Canterbury Industrial Association, the Canterbury A. and P. Association, the Employers’ Association, the Warehousemen’s Association, the Citizens’ Association, the City Council and the Canterbury Progress League. He asked Mr P. R.. Olimi© to open the discussion. DEFINITE QUESTIONS. Definite questions, covering a comprehensive range of subjects, were put To the Minister by Mr P. R. Climie organiser for tho Canterbury Progress League. Under the heading of Midland Railway. the Minister was asked : ‘‘ (a) When will the tunnel section be banded over? “ (b) Has the Minister considered the question of encouraging back loading east to west by offering attractive freight rates in competition with sea carriage ? “(c) Has the Minister considered th* question of making Hokitika the terminus for the express service?” On the subject of the completion oi the Westland railway system the Minister was asked : M hen i.s a start likely to be made on the Westport-1 nangahua line?” Three important questions were submitted on the subject of the Lyttel-ton-Christchurch railway service. They were:— ’• (a) 'What improvement has the De partment under consideration at the present time in regard to the Lyttelton railway yards? “ (b) What- progress has been made, if any, with the now report on the layout at Christchurch? “ (c) Can the Minister give any indication of his views on the electrification ot the Lyttelton line., and on the question of tho duplication of the tunnel with a. view to development of ruture traffic?” One question requested the following information in respect to trucking “ What progress has been made in, the matter of providing a full and adequate supply of trucks to meat the pressure of the grain season, which is often also a heavy importing season?” Speeches in support of the requests were made by Messrs P. R. Climie and A. Stronach Paterson. THE MINISTER’S REPLY. Tho Minister expressed his appreciation of .the concise way in which tho deputation had placed the subject l eiore him. and for speaking out. He congratulated Mr Paterson on being president of the Chamber of Commerce. The business men of tho chambers made matters more simple for the heads i f departments, for they adopted methods just as they would do in their own aflairs. He urged co-ordination between the Departments of’ State and ChamDers of Commerce, for the chambers should know the Department’s side of the question. To use a haclcnevod phrase, all the)card’s had been placed on the table by the deputation. Referring to Mr Climie’s statements. Mr Coates said that he took exception to only one of them. The rest he entirtdv agreed with. He was not there to be threatened by anyone., and he womd not take the responsibility for thin«?<! done by those before him. A tour was Doing made to prepare a programme <f work—not for one locality, but for the whole of New Zealand. The work would tie considered in the order of urgency ' ho smaller localities would not be a’eonTm l ° t b ? smothereci by the larger THE HI LEY SCHEME. He (Mr Coates) know that there had neeu a delay in the Hiley scheme. S-nr-e ot the portions ot the Hilev schniie were out of date to-day, and won id nave to be reconsidered. ‘ After his extended tour ho intended to publish a programme of the most urgent wjrfc He proposed to go over the work, and no would recommend to the Minister of -finance what would should be done, NOT OUT TO PLEASE EVERYONE. If they thought, said the Minister, that he was going to say things that would please everyone they were making a big mistake. If they thougluno was going to make hard and List promises they were making another mistake. He believed in concentrating the material and men on the most urv.-siifc works and getting them through. They must not forget that the present pi.-si tion had been brought about to some extent by war and post-war conditi >ns Parts of New Zealand, it was true! were in a most difficult position, an 1 it would require great efforts before they would sec daylight ahead. The people, lie was sure, would back up any promisinesslikc. He quite °agreed° wYta what Mr Paterson had said about decentralisation. and he agreed that all that could be done in that direction m the railways should be done. That seemed to be the burden of the text that morning. If they could decentralise they would be doing what was in the best interests of the Department. Centralisation was ‘a mistake and only led to misunderstanding and endless delays. Iu these days wliat was required was finality. Whether or not it would b*‘ possible to bring the General Manager to Christchurch and establish the headquarters here he could not say. (Laughter.) But he noped that in the very near future the General Manager would be in the position to move about more and get into touch with the people. There had not been nearly enough of that in the past, and a good deal of the discoutent- had been due to misunderstanding RAILWAY'S DID NOT PAY. Last year the railways did not pay. For the first six months, approximately, of tliis year, they were £240.000 to the bad. That showed a distinct

not due to any great extent to increased business. Only about £50.000 of the improvement was clue to that cause. The chief cause was the economics that hail been effected. But (hough to-day they were £248,000 to the bad. they knew that the balance of the year was likely to be better. Iho railways had to fx* made to pav 3] per cent. If they did not pay it. a.nd the Department did not so arrange its business as to see that, the railways paid it. the general taxpayers would have to find it. REDUCTIONS NOT SIMPLE. Reductions in tho rates and so forth were not so simple as they looked. As to the competitive rate, what about Napier. _ New Plymouth, Oamaru and Timaru ? They were just as much entitled to competitive rates in his opinion hs t,)n- Vost Coast. Where were they Koing to draw the line if they starteef tlmt sort of thing? That appeared to him to bo the difficulty. It was being done in a very sniali -tray at. tho present time. and. how far could they extend it? They would have to adopt it as a general principle, because the West Coast and Christchurch were not more entitled to it than other {Jaces where the same circumstances existed. The whole question of freights and tariffs was under review, and wdien tho list was ready they could go into the question, of what was the best way to meet the requirements and get business for the railways. HANDING OVER THE TUNNEL. He was going to tho West Coast and had made arrangements to discuss the position with gentlemen there. He hoped that at an early date it would he possible to hand the tunnel section of tin* lino over to the Railway Department. He would make no promise but would endeavour, as far as possible, to decide upon a date in consultation with the departmental heads. No one would be better pleased than he would bo when they could say to the contractor, Your job is finished ; get out of the way.” But it was not intended t > permit- the contractor to get out of his liability. As Minister of Railways it was no satisfaction to him to know' that the public were not getting what they wanted. I NANGAHUA LINE. Regarding the YYestprt-Inangahua line, be asaed what was the matter with tho \\ est Coast since Canterbury seemed to have taken up their case. A voice; There arc plenty of them uere. The Minister said he would have liked from the deputation a lew clear., nard facts why that railway should be constructed, and what trade conditions might bo expected to prevail. He assured the deputation that jho matter was under careful consideration. LYTTELTON TUNNEL. With regard to the Lyttelton tunnel, no was advised by the engineers that it was quite out of tho question to consider electrification for the tunnel as it was. Duplication was a. necessary preliminary. After that, or with it. they had to consider the lay-out of the railway yard. As a matter of fact, the two were one and the same job. ADDED ROLLING STOCK. Speaking of rolling stock, the. Minister said that since 1921 there had been 11C0 w aggons added to the rolling stock fn tho South Island. The capacity of tho rolling stock in the South Island was live million tons per annum. All that was carried at present was 2,872.000 tons. The Minister gave details of the uolling stock in the South Island, the number of waggons being 10.760, plus 1088 in Westland, making a- total of 11.800 odd. The total rolling stock ordered was 42 locomotives, 130 carriages and 830 waggons. The rolling stock seemed to be sufficient. He wanted to lie in the position, so far as work was concerned, of saying this will oe done at such ami such a time and that hv such and such a time. • That would bo more satisfactory than vague promises. G ENERAL AIAXAGER S SPEECH. Air Al’Villy said he wished to speak on one or two matters of administration. Improved services could not be given without expenditure. Ho wondered if they had given any consideration to the position of the South Island lines last year, when the loss on the main lines was £350,000. Westland was short by £67.936. It was a veVy nard job at the' present time to make ooth ends meet. As far as cheap rates for back loading were concerned, as soon as a. principle of that kind was introduced they would be up against difficulties right throughout the country The adoption of such a principle would amount practically to a general reduction in rates all round, and that would have a very serious effect on earnings. Increased train mileage on the VFesfcland section was out of the question at the present time. * LYTTELTON STATISTICS. The chief accountant had prepared a statement of traffic on the Christ-chureh-Lyttelton lino from 1907 to 1923 In 1907, Air M’Villy said, 1,478,4.43 passengers had been carried, making a dnilv average of 4050 passengers. Thirty-six trains had been used to carry the passengers, who averaged 113 per train. In 3923, the year’s number was 1,839,570 — a daily average of 5040. Fifty-one trains had carried an average of 98. In other words the trains had increased by 41.7 per cent, and the passengers carried per train had decreased bv 12.4. f l lie goods tonnage carried in 1907 was 530.254, or 1800 tons a day. The tonnage in 1923 was 580,975, a daily average of 1937. In sixteen years the increase- per day had been only 137 tons. ROLLING STOCK IN THE SOUTH ISLAND. As to rolling stock, Air M’Villy said, the waggons used had a minimum capacity of 8 tons and st maximum capacity of 12 tons. The figures wore calculated on a basis of 7 tons, with a turning over once a week and on that basis the waggons had a capacity of 3.760.400 tons. The gross tonnage for tho South Island was 2,877,485. On the basis of turn-over and capacity, there was a surplus of 2700 tons a day over that offering present leaving out altogether rolling stock under construction it the workshops that there is a shortage,” said Air Al’Villy. *• 1 hope that your anticipations may be realised- 1 will be exof 6 shortage of rolling stock, when instead of dealing with 3,000.000 tons, we will be dealing with 5.000.000.”