NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 257, 29 July 1942, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Returns of tramway and railway rails not in use should enable the Minister of Supply to locate fairly substantial reserves, provided information can be obtained of those simply left when a bush had been cut ou . What is the position at the large mill at Maroa owned by the Railways Department? It has been idle for a fairly long time and there prohablj are rails there which could be transferred elsewhere. Then the destruction of the State sawmill at Mamaku must have made the lengthy lines formerlj used for the haulage of timber there unnecessary, and probably about othei mills where the haulage is now done by tractor or the special machines made for handling logs, there are discarded rails that, would come in useful. With the Public Works programme curtailed and some of its bigger unccrtakings nearing completion that department should be able to release temporarily a supply of rails that would serve the purposes mentioned by the Minister of Supply.

With other means of transport becoming more and more restricted, traffic, both passenger and freight, was transferred to the railway services The annual returns show the position clearly. Last year the number of ordinary passengers increased by 1,700,000 when compared w>th tinprevious year, and a total of 11,105,627 passengers in the course _o■ - months must have established a record in the History of the Railv ajs Department. In the same period (he quantity of goods handled bv nearlv one million tons and live stock freight by over .0,000 toils was inevitable, when the pressure of defence and other factors made necessary for the railway services to be restricted, that there would be con siderable inconvenience caused. The gradual concentration of 1’«" e transport must have accentuated it, but it will be surprising if in the course of a few days, the public does not become quite accustomed if not reconciled, to the new order of things. They did so on previous occasion, when temporary limitations were imposed covering the holiday season the restrictions will be accepted as among the changes directly atfr butable to the war. There can be few genuine complaints when, in matters of public service, a priority of urgency is established-