The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1926. DELAYS ARE DANGEROUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17756, 28 January 1926, Page 6

The Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1926. DELAYS ARE DANGEROUS.

There is a touch of gentle sarcasm, if the Canterbury sheepowners only knew it, in the resolution that they have come to on the subject of “ fully exploring every avenue of inquiry ” before committing the community to the “ enormous expense ” of duplicating or electrifying the Lyttelton tunnel. As a matter of fact, the Government requires no urging in this direction. It seems to have been lost for years in a labyrinth of inquiries intended to postpone the day when Canterbury will have bare justice done to it in the matter of tunnel improvement. It is particularly galling, therefore, to find a body of men to whom the Government is likely to lend a favourable ear coming to a resolution that may be seized on as an excuse for further delay. The duplication and electrification of the tunnel, so far from entailing increased charges, are a vital necessity from a provincial and a national standpoint, and the producer would have the most gain from them. On this subject the evidence is overwhelming. Mr E. H. Hiley, the English expert who was engaged as general manager of the New Zealand railways from 1912 to 1919, put in the forefront of his 1913 railway programme the duplication of the Lyttelton tunnel, and Parliament gave authority for the work. In 1916, Mr Hiley said in reference to his 1913 programme:— "If further delay occurs in making a comprehensive start with the work there will be grave risk of the railway facilities proving unequal to the strain put upon them by the new business before the works are completed.” From that date the Government was urged every year by its experts to go on with the work, and although it has shelved the question of duplication, if is committed to the electrification of the tunnel. On this subject Mr Evan Parry, in 1923, expressed the opinion that most of the delays and congestions occasioned when handling goods in a single-track tunnel could be obviated by electrification. And, curiously enough, the sheepowners arc most vitally interested, as a class, in up-to-date port facilities, for the 1926 Year Book shows that the pastoral industry provides 94.2 per cent of New Zealand’s total exports, and the whole of Canterbury’s share of this amazing total passes through the Lyttelton tunnel. The necessity for electrification is so manifect that the attitude of the sheepowners is very hard to understand. They are certainly out of touch with the facts, and there is not a public or semi-public body in the length and breadth of the province that will be found to support them.

It might be some consolation to Canterbury if the Government policy of marking time in regard to existing port facilities had some relation to a tunnel road, but the Railway Department has such a valued monopoly in the Lyttelton tunnel that it could only regard a modern road to the port as a serious transport rival. Nevertheless, such a project must always be regarded as a possibility, and the establishment of bulk oil stores by the British Imperial Oil Company at the main ports turns attention once more to the rapid advance made by road transport, especially in the carriage of goods. The Prime Minister was not far from the mark on Monday when he said that this was the “ oil age,” and he gave a hint that even the Railway Department would have to get down to the method of transportation that would best serve the community. Probably he had in mind motor feeders to existing lines, but the time will come when many of the branch railways will have to be scrapped in favour of oil-driven road transport. The installation of bulk oil stores certainly brings that day nearer, and its immediate effect, in the reduction of petrol costs, will touch all classes of the community, direetly or indirectly. It is anticipated that bulk distribution will save New Zealand some £250,000 a year, and it is to be hoped that the British company whose enterprise in this direction is so greatly to be commended will lose no time in extending its storage facilities to the South Island.