IRISH FREE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18928, 24 April 1933, Page 12

IRISH FREE STATE.

GOVERNMENT AND RAILWAYB. DRASTIC FINANCIAL PROPOSALS. (From a Correspondent.) DUBLIN, March 5. Heat soon developed when the Dail reassembled last Wednesday. Labour is restive at the niggardly rates paid for relief work, and there were bitter passages between Deputy Davin and the redoubtable Hugo Flynn, the sostyled Minister for Unemployment. Labour alleges that local Fianna Fail clubs dictate the class of work and the recipients, and that the rates are even lower than agricultural wages. Now that the eleotion is over and largesse has served its purpose •a tightening of the purse strings may he expeoted. Labour will naturally kick, but it will think twice before taking extreme measures. It demonstrates to appease the rank and file. In the meantime Labour ought not to be ungrateful. Its hidden power pervades the whole of the Railway Bill. After long and anxious waiting the shareholders will gain little consolation from this measure. Its most usual feature is the arbitrary writing down of capital values by over onehalf Debenture-holders who possess the only security of any present value are to have their stock forcibly reduoed from 100 to 85. Two classes of preference shareholders have to accept capital reductions of 50 per cent, and 65 per; cent, respectively, and the £IOO ordinary shares are to be written down to £lO.

Unusual Finance. The effect of this is to give the railways a potential saving of over £300,000 in debenture and preference stocks, but as the debenture interest alone Is being earned and can alono fie enforced, the actual saving amoun : s to only £52,000. If ever the railways should recover the holders of ordinary stock will reap the benefit at the expense of the holders of prior 116ns. It is curious and unusual finance. The Bill contains other features of no very great importance. The directors are to be, reduced in number from twelve to seven, and they are to be elected by postal instead of proxy voting. This is intended, no doubi,, as a sop to the politically minded. Certain debts due to the State aie -■ fie remitted, and in consequence of the reduction in capital the Railwa o Tribunal can amend the basis o standard revenue on which the rates al Lines d can be closed by Ministerial consent, provided alternative and adequate road transport facilities exist. Redundant employees may bdismissed,, but must bo compensated under the award of an arbitrator, and the company must within six months prepare for approval by th? Railway Tribunal a superannuation scheme on a contributory basis. It would be ungenerous lo say the measure is worthless to the company, but it will do little to relieve its present necessities.

Road Transport. As complementary to this Railway Bill a Road Transport Bill has also been introduced. It proposes to bring the existing services under closer State control. Only licensed persons and vehicles can engage in the merchandise road transport business, and in the granting of such licenses the Minister must have regard to tin,’ public interest and existing facilities in the area to be served. Licensees become common carriers; they must keep and furnish to the Minister accounts in prescribed form; vehicles must be open to inspection and loadworthy. .. In the matter of charges the railway system Is now for the first time adopted, and within six months a scheme of classification and rates has to be submitted to the Railway Tribunal. In like manner the. public can go before tho Railway Tribunal for the redress of offences under the Act. Tho most important feature of the measure is the power If gives tho Minister forcibly to transfer, subject to compensation, licenses from one merchandise-carrying company to another. No doubt, in due course, railway companies will acquire many of Mi esc licenses, and by this means fie able to control and co-ordinate road and rail services. As in tlie Railway Bill, redundant employees are to fie compensated. The measure offers some ultimalo advantages lo Ibe railway companies. 11, however, restricts competition and gives very wide powers to Hie Minister, and in these respects is open to objection and abuse. The struggle

for first licenses, which will possess high potential value, will now begin It would seem desirable that the work of adjudication should be entrusted to some body acting In a quasi-judicial capacity, and not 10 a politician who will be sorely pressed and tempted.

The Railway Strike. The country has of late made two reoords. The Cosgrave Government became the oldest Government in Europe, and now we have the distinction of the longest railway strike on record. There is no reason why it should not continue for many weeks more. It is not likely to be shortened by discreditable aots of sabotage. Even if the award was in force the company—mainly owing to the severance of its system by the economic war —would still he at a loss on normal working. Its only hope is to be in a position to make drastic economies, and this may be inevitable after a prolonged stoppage. The whole affair shows how id these days of petrol railways are no longer essential in a small wellroaded country. The fear is now that on April 30, when the Government subsidy to the Southern Railway expires, the stoppage will extend to the whole country. Mr Lemass has warned the parties to get together and settle their differences, in good time, but if justice is to prevail the Southern directors cannot desert their Northern colleagues. There never was a strike where the employers were so manifestly In the right. General O’DufTy. The reply of the Government to inquiries in the Dail about General O’Duffy is most unsatisfactory. Ho was removed from office for no definite reason. There must, of course, be some reason, even if there may be no speciflo offenoe, and it would be only fair to the public and better for the morals of the force if the Government would be frank about the whole affair. Many people see in this a continuance of the spoils system in publio life which was begun when the new Government appointed its nomlneo as Speaker of the Dail. There will be many more opportunities for the Opposition to raise the matter, and the Government would be wise to allay public anxiety as soon as possible.