The Dominion. THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1910. RAILWAYS POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 850, 23 June 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1910. RAILWAYS POLICY.

The need for a revised railway policy that will ensure proper treatment for the North Island is to be discussed in Palmerston North'at a conference of delegates from various districts. It is unlikely that the conference will have much that is new to say in support of the case against the unwise and inequitable policy that has for years been carried out in defiance of the now notorious facts relative to the trade, the population, the progress and the transport facilities of the two islands. Until The Dominion began to concentrate the attention of the country upon the injustice which has been inflicted on the people of this island and the injury which the Government's policy has inflicted upon the nation as a whole, the matter had received little attention from the press or from Parliament. To-day, however, the North Island public has awakened to the position, and our contemporaries in this island have one by one ranged themselves with us in demanding that, in the interests of national progress no less than in the interest of justice, the gross inequality between the, treatment accorded to the two islands in the matter of railway construction must come to an end. The bulk of the population resido in this island, the bulk of exports and imports are provided by it, and its population and trade continue to grow much more rapidly than the population and trade of the South Island. Yet there are only 1135 miles of railway on this side: of Cook Strait against 1574 miles in the South, and the greater portion of the public money spent on new construction is still boing spent in the South. Such a railway policy as this is manifestly the exact opposite of the policy that would produce the best national development. Ifa business man operated two branches, one in tho midst of a largo and rapidly-growing and highly-productive population, and the other in a community much smaller and also less progressive; if, further, the first branch wore inadequate to the needs of its clients, and the second branch large and costly beyond reason; and if ho found, moreover, that a pound spent in the former place brought him in a profit while a pound spent on the second branch resulted in an actual loss, how would he spend such money as ho had available for extending his operations? Would he put most of his money into the unwieldy and unprofitable branch? Of course not. Yet that is wdiat the Government has clone and, is doing in respect of the Northern and Southern branches of the railways system. , , In order. that this may be clearly realised we shall summarise some of tho figures which we have for two years been using in the work of educating the public. Tho advance sheets of the Official Year Book for 1910 do not give the population of tho two islands on January 1 last. The latest available figures are those for January 1, 1909, given on page 133 of the Year Book for 1909. The population of. this island was then and of the South Island 442,567. The trend of population appears in this table, which is official : Population. . Proportions per cent. Tear. North I. South I. North. South. 1891 281,720 341,932 44.90 55.04 1890 340,865 302,495 48.40 51.54 1901 390,778 381,941 50.57 49.43 190G 476,929 411,019 53.67 46.33 1909 517,870 442,567 53.92 46.08 The North Island, that is to say, contains three-fifths of the total population. The export and import statistics for 1909 are as follow: Value in Proportions pounds sterling, per cent. North South I. ports. I. ports. N'th. S'th. Exports 11,943,070 7,718,111 60.74 39.26 Imports 9,612,553 6,058,34S 61.3.1 38.66 The "net profits" on the two railway systems during recent years are as lollow, the figures being based on the official returns in the Railways : Net profits in Return on capipounds sterling, tal per cent. Year. North. South. North. South. 1901-2 218,092 403,057 3.04 3.09 1902-3 217,898 352.724 3.20 3.39 1903-1 305,900 430,017 3.72 3.50 1904-5 322,301 ' 394,030 3.70 3.03 1905-0 328,866 399,599 3.00 2.9!) 1906-7 352.374 429,717 4.11 3.02 1907-8 416,000 . 396,179 4.28 2.71 190S-9 420,031 394,079 3.7S 2.64 1909-10 546,567 533,748 4.19 3.37 The lines in this island now return a real profit every year after interest on capital is paid, and the Southern lines show a loss. It is therefore clear that the people of this island are not only denied adequate transport facilities, but are compelled to pay a share of the losses for the benefit of the overrailed South. And last year of the £736,000 voted for railways construction £449,500 was provided for the South Island and only £287,500 for this island. It is of less importance that these figures convict the Government of injustice to the North Island than that they disclose a p6licy which is against the interests of the nation as a whole, and, therefore, against the true interests even of tie people in tho South. The analogy of the business man and his two branches applies exactly to the Government as the administrator of a huge trading concern, and is perfect as a demonstration of the absence of business principles from the Government's railway policy. But tho interests of North and South are not, from a national point of view, antagonistic. Tho South must benefit from a policy that gives free play to the development of this part of the Dominion. The wealth and prosperity that under good government would follow a policy of vigorous cultivation of this rich and bountiful island, which thrives so amazingly even when handicapped by inadequate transport facilities, would diffuse themselves throughout the whole country. If the North Island members of the House of Representatives were to set their minds upon bringing about a new order of things, they would be blessed in future years even by our Southern friends. It is lamentable, of course, that there should be any necessity for such action as' may bring the two islands into opposition on what is really a national question, but tho system of' Ministerial control is alone to blame for this, unpleasant necessity. It. is t.bc fault of that system and of those who support it

that such a necessity exists. It should be the aim of the North Island representatives, while seeking to bring about a more equitable and, from a national point of view, a wiser disposition of the railway construction vote, to bring about also the destruction of the system of political control. Only thus can the nation obtain a guarantee that injustice will not be done for political reasons and that the sound development of the country will not be subordinated to the needs of whatever party may be in power.