Western Star And WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1922. OUR RAILWAYS.

Western Star, 7 February 1922, Page 2

Western Star And WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday and Friday. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1922. OUR RAILWAYS.

The financial position of the New Zealand railways is a very serior.G one. The expenditure exceeds the revenue, and this means that any leficit becomes a charge on the taxpayers. There are those who imagine diat reduction of wages is 'the only vay to, meet the difficulty. It it? a simple way, but there are other ways without inflicting hardship on a ;orviee that received no special in:rease to meet the cost' of living •intil the end of the war period. And one of these ways would be to attract freight, not drive it away oy .prohibitive rateis. For instance, at the meeting held at- Invercargill recently to prote&t against the discontinuance of the through express, Mr Mackrell, who represented the Chamber of Commerce, quoted a case where a consignor had been charged t'll 5/- to bring a motor lorry from Dunedin to Invercargill. Another man having studied the railway charges decidted to bring a lorry by road and his total cost was under £6, while he carried a load of petrol ivhich brought him in a Tevenue r.f about £lO. That was an illustration, 'io said, of what was going on with regard, to the railways to-day, and ,petrol was being carried all over Southland by lorry. The railways wero losing business because freights were too high. And proof of Mjr Mackrell's statement is to be found in a question put to the Minister of Railways by Mr E. Newman, M.P., who asked whether it wan the intention of the Government to revise the railway tariff in order to divert to the railways traffic now being- carried by motor wagons and cans. The reason, he put the question was because benzine was being carried from Wellington by motor-lorries to the Manawatu district at 2/- per case, while the Tailway freight was 3/8. Woo] wats being carried from Manawatu to Wellington at the same rate ns by train, but it ,paid because the growers saved the cartage in Wellington. It was found cheaper and bandiier to send wool by motor. He also mentioned that quotation*; for the carriage of butter and cheese were being received by dairy factories in. Manawatu that compared favourably with railway freights to Wellington. Further, a very large amount of passenger traffic and goods traffic were being carried, between Marton and Marton Junction and Wanganui at lower rates than those of the railway. To him, so far as his district was concerned, it looked as if very soon the bulk of the traffic would be on the Toad's, and the trains would be carrying nothing like the amount of goods and passengers that thoy could carry. But there ie another as,pect of the question that requires consideration —the wear and tear of the roads caused by heavy lorrie traffic. Thk-i is causing serious lo.ts snd embarrassment in part of the North Island to local bodies and ratepayers. The damage done to formation and the straining; of small bridges by heavy loflds have been so extensive, according to. Mr Field, M.P., that it has been found impos- ; sible to keep certain highways in repair. In replying Lo Mr Newman, the jMinifteT ofj.Jfyilp'ajft sail it wa& \ a-lftfci tWt uaotor-ldrriecj wWe coiar

peting with the railways .in 'many' districts of New Zealand to a very largo extent, especially in such matters as the transport of benzine and wool. The lorries took large loads of wool down from country, districts to the ports, and they were cutting the railway rates to a small! extent. The system adopted by the: motor carriers enabled them to carry, wool down, and take back benzine. In the South Island, too, he wasj aware that motor traffic wm compet- j ing to a large extent with the rail- ] ways, and there were those who did \ not hesitate to say that it was going to compete to a larger extent in the future. The Minister, however,] offered no solution. He contented himself with admitting the facts and stating that it was the duty of the Department to give the matter urgent attention, and avoid as far as possible any undue competition. The question, therefore, must bo under consideration. The aim of the Department should be to eliminate ; competition by making it unnecessary. The tendency is for this competition to increase, not diminish. Even the Minister of Public Works, in hi<s recent statement, said one of the leesons of the war was that lorries could do much of the work now done in the Dominion by branch railways, and the Department miust prevent lorries diverting traffic from* these branches which, it appears, are the ones that do not pay except in one or two instances. It is better to carry some goodjs at low freights than carry no goocVs at all. In any case, every encouragemont must be liven t 0 induce people to stick to the railway which, after all, is the safest and best means of transit. The oeople as well as the management have to help in the work of placing our railways on a good financial footing, and the better that becomes the more facilities and concessions san be granted.