NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 146, 16 March 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

A few months ngo tramway finance was a matter of concern, and we were told that if fares were raised the traffic would fall away, and the citv’s last state would b» worse than its fii-st. Despite the pessimists the fares were raised, and the returns for the 48 weeks of the financial year ending on March 2 show that 152.000 more passengers were carried than in the same period of the previous year, and the deficit which stood at .£9688 in September last has fallen to <£1743. Thia is some distance from the credit balance of £16,459 in hand at this tiniff las l- year, but it is, nevertheless. a very satisfactory movement in the right direction. . The revenue per car mile is whereas for the 24 weeks up to September 15 it was only 24.22 d., while the working expenses per car mile are 22.19 d., as against 21.70 d. The result is that whereas for the first 24 weeks of the year we had working expenses equal to 89 per cent, of the revenue, the percentage for the 48 weeks has fallen to 84. Of course, one period ihcludes tho winter and the other the summer and holiday traffic, but analysis of the figures shows that we carried over half a million more passengers this summer than last. The extra .pence per trip have not killed the tram habit, though no doubt the tramways department is indebted to the exceptional ■weather thw summer tempting the public out of doors, regardless of expense.

Ngaio and Khandallah have asked the Railway Department to do away with the level crossings at their stations, and the official contention, in reply is that the local body must share the cost with the Government. Mr. M’Villy says this has been the principle in the past. It is not a sound principle, and it behoves the local bodies to see that a better one is adopted in the future. To put part of the cost of improving crossings on to local bodies no doubt makes railway finance look better, and it may be argued that it is the people who pay whoever does the work. This, however, is not quite to the point. The railways are for the benefit of the people of New Zealand as a whole, and if they create a danger it is for those who create the danger to remove or mitigate it. As the General Manager of Railways states, a big principle is involved, and we fail to see that it is equitable to call on the local residents to bear the expense of improving ttfailway crossings. If the railways were owned by a company it would probably have been compelled by law’ to improve the crossings at its own expense long ago. As it is, the safeguard on which most reliance is placed by the Department seems to be the clause in the Railways Act making it an offence with a penalty of £5O to cross a railway line when a train is within half a mile. The Railway Department has been permitted to side-step its obligations in respect of public safety altogether - too long.

As a specimen of humour the lettei from Mr. Roberts, secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, which we publish this morning, is pretty poor stuff. Mr. Roberts can find time to cut these elephantine capers, but apparently has none for communicating the terms of the waterside agreement to the public. If the waterside™ are sensitive to criticism, and desire to castigate those who have commented unfavourably on their proceedings, their secretary’s letter makes a feeble showing in this respect. Mr. Roberts thanks the Press for the impartial manner in which they stated the cause for both parties to the recent dispute. This compliment cannot be reciprocated. There is nothing to thank the Waterside Worker’s’ Federa tion for except the importation of an unnecessary and unhealthy secrecy in the transaction of public business.

In his Budget last year Mr. Austen Chamberlain endeavoured to foreshadow the expenditure of a "normal” post-war year- Normal times are still far distant. but British naval and military expenditure is coming down with a run. Mr. Chamberlain put the normal ■ Naval Estimates at 60 millions and the Army Estimates at 75 millions. Before the war the Navy cost 48 millions a year, but in 1919-20 the bill came to 157 millions, which was heavily cut in last year’s Estimates to 284,000,000. This year’s net estimate is 282,000,000, which is claimed as a reduction of 8} millions on .last year’s total expenditure. The personnel is reduced by 6000 officers and men to 121,700 as against 151,000 in 191415, and 407,317 at the armistice. Those who feared the beginning of a new race for armaments will find small indication of it in the 2J millions for now construction. Such a sum does not represent a great deal in these days when a new capital ship costs over six millions. The Army expenditure has not shrunk down so rapidly towards Mr. Chamberlain’s ideal of 75 millions, but if it is just over the hundred-million mark it. is severely below the 164 millions of the previous year, and it Is expected that during the year over another hundred thousand men will be released, bringing the. strength down to 235,000. These are sweeping reductions, and prove conclusively that whoever aspires to rattle a big sword John Bull does not.

Eight years ago a Parliamentary Committee after hearing a deal of evidence recommended that the State should not purchase the | Taupo-Totara Timber Company’s railway line from Putaruru to Mokai. The same finding has now been brought tn by a Royal Commission. The line would cost 2600.000 to alter to Government, standard, and the expenditure is not recommended. At the same time the Commission finds, as the committee did, that there are great possibilities of development in the one and a half to two million acres of pumice land in this part of the Dominion. It doos not appear that in the intervening eight years a groat deal has been done to develop that land. Enough, however, has been done to enable the Commission to say that it is forced to the conclusion that the suitability of the pumice lands for tariffing purposes is beyond question, with suitable manure and proper tillage. The area represents the largest block of undeveloped land in the Dominion, and, whatever may be the attitude of the Government with regard to the Taupo-

Totara Company's venture, it is time that some effective steps were being taken to develop this portion of the national estate for what it is worth.

Alleged irregularities in the petition presented on behalf of small shopkeepers who are labouring under disabilities as a result of the Early Closing Act of last session ought not to he used by any section in Parliament as a pretext for denying these people ordinary justice. The cage for reviewing this legislation is sufficiently established in the Minister of Labour’s statement that last session no person gave evidence on behalf of the small shopkeepers, and that numbers of these persons had since placed cases of hardship before the Government. The actual position seems to bo that Parliament inadvertently inflicted a serious hardship on a deserving class of people, and it is only right that the hardship should be removed, at all events until the whole position can be reconsidered nt leisure. No question of employment is involved, and why the Labour Partner any of its members should be anxious to deny small shopkeepers the right of keeping open during their most profitable trading hours is something of a mystery.