The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1936. WHITE ELEPHANTS.

Evening Star, Issue 22451, 23 September 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1936. WHITE ELEPHANTS.

Oxe of the major mistakes of the Government is the determination to proceed with the construction of certain unfinished railway lines. Much public money is to be expended on these projects, with the prospect of a very indifferent return. Ministers reply to this contention with the argument that the reward will come as the result of an expansion in agricultural development. Some benefits in this way will undoubtedly accrue, but they will be nothing like sufficient to compensate for the capital that is to be sunk in the lines. What seemed desirable—and perhaps necessary—when work on these railways began is now seen in another light with the coming of the motor-driven vehicle. Every highway and almost every byway is served by motor services which become more efficient year by year and are helped materially by progressive road improvements. In his Public Works Statement last week the Hon. R. Semple declared that road transport facilities are vital to our national welfare, and communication by land depends at all times on the main traffic arteries being kept up to a high standard of efficiency. While such a policy is to be commended, for the Dominion must keep pace with modern developments, it is obvious that the better the roads the greater will be the amount of motor traffic on them. As a consequence the railways must suffer, no matter how rigid regulation by the Government may be. In the course of a discussion in the House of Representatives yesterday Mr W. J. Broadfoot declared that both Marlborough and the east coast of the North Island would be better served by up-to-date highways than by the railway lines which were now being completed. Mr R. A. Wright, the Independent member for Wellington Suburbs, described the Napier-Gis-borne, the South Island Main Trunk, and the Inangahua-Westport lines as white elephants of varying sizes. He said that when they are in operation the farmers would not support them. What he means probably is that the rural producers will have no sentiment in the matter. They will use what service suits them best, and so a large proportion of the traffic that in other days would have gone to the railways will be diverted to the roads. Mr S. G. Holland, speaking from the Opposition benches, made the suggestion that the Government was, suppressing a report, compiled by the Railway Department, which was unfavourable to the completion of the South Island Main Trunk line. If this is correct the complaint of member for Christchurch North is justified, for the House is entitled to expect that it shall be supplied with the fullest departmental information on the project. Mr Semple’s sidetracking of the matter, by declaring that any report of such a nature would go to the Minister of Railways, was more discreet than satisfactory. In defending the Government’s policy Mr Semple said that six millions of borrowed money had been invested in lines that had been started and stopped, inferring that that was an argument for their completion. It is no reason at all. Surely it would be better to cut the losses than to pursue a policy that according to the reports of experts will only increase them. In an earlier statement the Minister was not optimistic about the financial returns from the lines referred to when completed. The interest bill, he remarked, was a dead charge on the community, and the Government had to decide whether it could turn the loss into some form of service. In the case of one line he spoke of a “ good deal of room for development,” and in regard to another stated that he “ understood that there were rich lands along the route of the line.” Something more definite than that is wanted, and it is to be found in the careful and detailed reports of the experts. Mr Semple’s reasoning is unsound. The Government is prosecuting schemes that will cost the taxpayers a Jot of money, the expenditure of which is not justified by the limited benefits that will follow in opening up new country and assisting farmers already established. There is certainly justification for Mr Wright’s reference to white elephants.