The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1910. RAILWAYS MANAGEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 831, 1 June 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1910. RAILWAYS MANAGEMENT.

Bγ an interesting coincidence, while Mr. Millab was defending, in a speech to his constituents on Monday night, the system of Ministerial control of the railways, Me. Martyn, a prominent. Sydney . commercial man, was giving one of our representatives an account of the thoroughness with which that system is abhorred in New South Wales. Mr. Millar's speech and Mk. Martyh's statements appeared in our issue of yesterday. The Minister, although he had behind him the best results, on paper, that our railways system has yet achieved, was not auite so enthusiastic as his friends may have expected. The only thing that ho tackled with any confidence was a comparison of the results of the working of the New Zealand railways in 1894 (under the Commissioners; and in 1909-10. In 1894, ho said, the revenue from passengers was £378,000. "In 1905, under the Government regime, it had increased to £680,905, and last year it totalled £1,070,000." The total revenue in 1894 was £1,172,000, and in 1909-10 it was £3,249,790; and so on. The words, "under the Government regime," are the essence of this section of bis speech. Unless those words mean nothing (in which case the figures prove nothing) they are meant to suggest that it is to tho fact that the system of Ministerial control was established that we owe tho growth of business. This, of course, is ludicrous on the face of it. Since Mr. Millar, however, has gone into cpmparisons, we feel that we may bo excused for recalling a little study in comparison which we printed a year or two ago, and which we have referred to_ on a few occasions since then. It is twentytwo years since the system of Ministerial control in New South Wales was replaced by Commissioner control. The net revenue in 1887-8 was £761,573. This iucreased tinder Commissioner control to £2,075,626 in 1907-8. In 1888 there were 2114' miles open for traffic; in 20 years of Commissioner management the increase was 1509 miles. Tho goods carried! increased from 3,331,671 tons to 8,552,273 tons; the passengers from 15,174,115 to 52,051,566. If Mr. Millar's figures are an argument in favour of Ministerial control, those we have quoted are a. stronger argument against it. It is all very well for the Minister to say that if he could charge the same rates and pay the same wages as in New South Wales he could make the railways pay per cent. He could not. He has only secured a ret-urn of 3J per cent, in a fine season by desperate economies that may not turn out to bo real economies at all. His political chief is authority for saying that if fares aad freights were much raised business would fall away. Against Mr. Millar's doubtful arguments and _ unsupported suggestions the plain statemonts of Mr. Mastyn, a perfectly unbiased and competent informant, must have great weight. The Commissioners in New South Wales v he says, "are a decided success as compared with Government control. . . . Nobody would for a moment suggest going back to Government control." The few complaints that are heard in Now South Wales are complaints, not against the Commissioner system, but against the insufficiency of funds placed'at the Commissioners' disposal. We believe that it will not be long before even tho Government realises the hopelessness of making out any case for the maintenance of the present system.