SET AN EXAMPLE IN CURTAILMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19118, 10 July 1930, Page 16

SET AN EXAMPLE IN CURTAILMENT.

GOVERNMENT PRAISED FOR REDUCING COSTS. “To-day we have to make up our minds to cut down expenditure. This is the first time that I have known a Government to come forward in the way they have, and yet we ask them why they are cutting down costs,” declared Mr W. K. M’Alpine at the meeting of the executive of the Canterbury Progress League last night, when the curtailment of railway services was under discussion. The executive referred the matter to its Railways and Transport Committee. The subject was brought up by a letter from the Cust Progress Association asking for the league’s support in having the services of a stationmaster retained at Cust, which, it was said, was the biggest wheatgrowing centre in New Zealand. The Kaiapoi-Bennetts line was about to be closed, and that would throw further traffic on the Bennetts-Rangiora line. By closing the station office a whole district would be thrown out of communication with the Railway Department, which would be a serious matter in the wool and grain seasons. Mr C. 11. Clibborn said that the order of reference for the Commission did not include the opening or closing of lines. It was not intended that the lines should be permanently closed. Mr J. O. Coop said that the league should wait until the Commission had made its recommendations. It was decided to refer the Cust Progress Association to the Department concerned, and to leave with the Railways and Transport Committee the matter of general railway policy.