RAILWAY POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1288, 17 November 1911, Page 4

RAILWAY POLICY.

According to the Press Association report Mr. Miliar, in his speech at Dunedin on Wednesday, made this reference to the railways: "The railways did not pay their way. The deficiency had to be made up out of the Consolidated Fund. He believed that the railways should be made to pay their own way, and that those who did not use them should not be asked to pay for them." We must wait for a full report of the speech before we can feel sure that i Mr. Millar confessed that the railways do not pay their way—if he did say this he was only stating a fact; but in the meantime we arc heartily pleased that Mr. Millar has once more laid down the principle that is essential to honest and wholesome government. All the dishonest rubbish about "the 3 per cent policy" and the policy of "not running the railways for profit, but for development," and all the rest of it—against all this Mr. Millar's common sense rebels. It is not the first time, by any means, that Mr. Millar has delivered a well-deserved back-hander | to his chief in this connection; and we think we may now take it for granted that the public, when next they hear anybody repeating the Prime Minister's threadbare nonsense about the absence of any necessity to make the railways pay, will recognise him as one who is ignorant of or indifferent to the country's real interest. There is really some warrant for indignation with the uncandid politicians and newspapers who have for years been thus throwing dust in the public's eyes by backing up the noxious theory that the Prime Minister invented when he was no longer .able to stand against the facts that we were driving home in 1907 and 1908.

That they who use the railways should pay for them is a principle to depart from which is to land in a morass of financial trouble, jobbery and injustice. It is the principle underlying our constant advocacy of a readjustment of the railways policy in respect of the North Island and the South Island. We have shown, month by month, how the public of this under-railed island are being exploited for the benefit of the South Island with its far larger system. The Government has reluctantly had to admit the force of our criticisms, but it has gone only a very little way towards really redressing the balance. And the injustice of its unwise policy continues. Last night's Gazette, happens to contain particulars of the working of the railways up to October 14 last, and very interesting figures they arc. | For the four weeks ended on that date the net revenue from the two islands was as shown in the following table, which gives also the figures for the corresponding month in 1910: 1910. 1911. Inc. or dec .£ £ ,C North 38,286 40,329 2,0i3 inc. South 38,233 32,012 0,221 dec. There are 1173 miles of line in the North Island and 1625 in the South Island, which gives us the following figures for the net revenue per mile of line for the four weeks ended October l<l last: North, £'ii 7s' 7d • South, £19 13s. lid. For the 28 weeks of the financial year elapsed on October 14 the net revenue amounted altogether to £012,903, and this was contributed by the two svs-

cms in the proportion shown in fcbis able, which also gives the earnings )er mile of line:

Net liovoiiuo rcvcime. JHlcs per mile. £ of line. .ij Xorlli aoS.SIW U7:l 255 South .'iOi.olo l.Ki IS7 And tiiu first half of this financial

year is always the better for the ■South and tho worse for the Xorth. As in past years the current railways year will end with a large profit from the North Island and a large loss in the South; which plainly means that those in the North Island must make good the Southern deficit. Me. Millar's own doctrine shows that this result is grossly unfair; and all the figures sliow thai; the policy thai leads to it is nationally unwise.