COSTLY RAILWAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 115, 18 May 1933, Page 8

COSTLY RAILWAY

CANADIAN NATIONAL REMODELLING SCHEME NOT AMALGAMATION. VANCOUVER March 30. The Parliament of Canada has given its approval to legislation aiming at drastic remodelling of Canada's rail way systems, based on the findings of the Royal Commission, of which Lord Ashrield was a member. This is but a stage towards final action that will be taken someday, when the principle becomes more generally accepted that it is impracticable to have two transcontinental systems, one under Government, the other under private control — one spending the taxpayers’ money, the other competing with it, yet contributing towards its upkeep, through taxation paid by individual shareholders as citizens of the Dominion. One or two facts will illustrate the problem, as it is to-day, with the Canadian National Railway losing a million dollars a week, and the Canadian Pacific Railway unable to pay a dividend. During the Mackenzie King Liberal regime, a chain of princely hotels was built across Canada by the late Sir Henry Thornton. Palatial ships were built to compete in the Atlantic and on the Pacific Coast with the C.P.R. vessels. One of these hotels, which dominates the skyline of Vancouver, was contracted to be built for £1,000,000; the final cost to date is £3,000,000, with little prospect of the hotel being opened for use. Most of the palatial liners are laid up, sold, or scrapped. Iu one year the Mackenzie King Government voted £40,000,000 for the Canadian National Railway. New Legislation. The principle of the new legislation is that the Canadian National will be placed under three trustees instead of 17 directors, as at present; methods are laid down for co-operation between the two systems, which will avoid immense duplication and waste; an arbitrary tribunal will be established for the settlement of disputes between the two. The Commission urged, and the Government endorses its suggestion, that there shall be no amalgamation of the two railways. As the Minister of Railways (Dr. Manion) points out, amalgamation would set up a railway octopus that could influence Governments and Parliaments alike. The prevention of duplication, in railways, telegraphs, steamships, hotels, and express services, was the dominant recommendation of the Royal Commission In any city in Canada will be found, in the same block, two telegraph offices, occupying expensive premises. Between Montreal and Ottawa, on parallel lines. are nine trains a day, operated in each direction by the two systems. The same duplication occurs between many cities across the [Dominion. Through the Fraser Canyon, on the western slopes of the Rockies, each system occupies a bank of the river, constructed and operated at a cost that is scarcely without equal in the world. Only one route is necessary, ’in the opinion of the Commission. The immensity of the burden may be gauged from the fact th ax the interest bill for the Canadian National last year was £14,500,000. In addition, another interest bill of £9,000,000 is piling up each year for the same railway, owing to the Government by the Canadian National on past loans. No one believes that this will ever be paid. By comparison, the fixed charges for the Canadian Pacific last year was £5,500,000, financed on its own bonus. Revenue Halved. The revenue of the Canadian National last year was a shade over half what it was in 1928, the peak year of prosperity. Retrenchment ordered by the Bennett Government last year in the National system effected a saving of £11,000,000. In addition to this, the whole of the Canadian National transcontinental radio stations have been taken over by the Canadian Radio Commission, which will greatly lessen the burden on the people. The debate in the House of Commons wa. conducted on party lines, which lef* little hope of an agreement being reached as to the efficacy of the recommendations of the Royal Commission. It demonstrated the futility of the party system in dealing with such an immense national problem. The Liberals condemned the Government as destroying the last vestige of democratic control, but they did not condemn in the same terms the impartial com mission, drawn from the Motherland, the United Sta s, and Canada. The new tribunal was assailed a? a Tory triumvirate. The Liberals undertook to fight the next General Election on the issue of the present railway legislation. If they are elected, by a turn of fortune’s wheel, the value of the Commission’s report and recommendations will be short-lived But the people of Can ada. who have been forced to give anxious consideration to their railway proQdem as the greatest problem before them in this generation, may think and decide otherwise.