The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JANUARY 14, 1903. RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 718, 14 January 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JANUARY 14, 1903. RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.

An admirable defence of flic Government railway administration was recently made by the Minister for Railways, in reply to crititisms in the Turns and other journals. There can be no denying that in his defence Sir Joseph Ward has scored at every point, and his speech contains much interesting information. Sir Joseph Ward said that ho might tell them that his desire, on behalf of the Government, was to see that every facility was given in the North in the matter of railways, the same as to the whole of the colony. He would liko to take this opportunity of letting them know what the position was. He had been very sorry whilst at Rotorua lately to notice certain criticisms in the New Zealand Herald on the railway administration, in which it had been endeavored to make out that the people of the North Island were treated differently to those in the South. This was absolutely untrue. On the contrary, the people here were treated better than they were in any part of the colony with regard to railways. Frankly, if the deputation, of the people generally, had any idea that the colony itself could provide carriages to carry excursionists, he would tell them that it was impossible now, and always would be. It was not done in any part of the world. In Australia, for instance, they had to' use trucks on Cup Day, as wo did. Unless the colony was going to decide to probably spend one and a-half millions of money in rolling stock, four-fifths of which per year would be idle, they could not remedy the matter. No Administration of this colony would do anything of the kind, and ho thought the

deputation would recognise this. He would like to take that opportunity of telling them whet had been done in the way of traffic during the recent holiday season throughout the colony. He ipui prepared some figures for the purpose. The railway mileage in the North Island was 806 miles, and in the South 1-100 miles. In the North Island there were 290 carriages, in the South 858. In the North Island there were 124 bqgie waggons, and 269 ordinary four wheeled waggons, against 87 bogie waggons, and 454 four-wheeled waggons in the South Island. The seating accommodation in the carriages of the North Island was 11,494. and in the waggons 14,464, against 14,870 and 15,565 in the South Island. In these the passengers carriod in the North Island amounted to 187,920, and in the South Island 285.000. Dealing with the Auckland section of the railways, he said that during the holidays 105 carriages were used, 52 bogie waggons, and 76 fourwheeled waggons. These gave a seating accommodation of 4250 in carriages, and 5156 in waggons, and the total passengers carried on the Auckland section during the holidays, when the waggons were in use, was 88,000, the approximate number of passengers carried in waggons during the five days being 85,000. Tho bulk of

these passengers were carried for short distances. Gut of 283 vehicles in use at Auckland there were 157 bogie waggons, running almost as easily as passenger cars, and affording infinitely greater comfort than the four-wheel trucks, so largely used on other sections. Auckland had less four-wheeled waggons in use than any other district except Wellington. At Invercargill 65,000 passengers were carried during the holidays, and they had only 70 carriages in which to carry them, seven bogie' waggons, and 288 four-wheeled waggons being in use. In Auckland, Wel-

lington, and Christchurch they had practically one car for each truck in use during the holidays, whilst in Wanganui the proportion was half a ear for each truck, in Dunedin two-thirds of a car for each truck, and in Invercargill 05 four-wheeled trucks for each carriage. He referred to these figures to show that the matter did not rest with the Administration. It was no use for people outside the Department to try and inflate public opinion to press the Administration to do impossibilities. It svas bad policy to say that any man in the responsible position of Mig/ster for Railways was treating the people who paid rates in the ITorth Island worse than those in the South island. Loti of people might believe that the Auckland district was the only place in which passengers were being yarned in trucks. This was not so. They had to his knowledge been doing it in the South for h'O years past. Jn Dunedin they had to carry people upon kg£h \v&ys through long tunnels "—W If, si Mi' M?fw su S‘ ' iu open wa 00 ..

eestc-d, the Depa'".muit were to take cai - ! r:ag;-R oh the Waikato line, we siiou;d j have an outcry lhetn in:- e mi try settler*, i to whom it would not be fm .s they ha t ' to travel considerable distances ov'eoui pari.-on with the journey to the rr.ei'a. It they had to make provision for carriages to convey a!! the people travelling during the holidays it would cost the colony one and a-huif millions, and for toe Auckland district alone about imii-a million, and for eleven months out of the year a very small proportion of the extra rolling stock would be in us-, whilst the rest would be pi'eti up. The difficulty was not to be got over in that way. The Railway Department were just as anxious as the deputation were to avoid the trouble arising from travelling in open trucks through sulphurous tunnels, but they had tiie same difficulty everywhere and could not avoid it unless they were going to do diill-rently to the great railway companies all over the world, fn Australia as many people travelled by rail in open waggons as in carriages. He would like to refer to one other important matter, lie had scan it stated that the enginepower of the North Island was inferior to that of the South Island. He had seen the statement that in the Auckland district we ha i no engines that would run 25 iiiilc-s an hour. As a matter of fact in Auckland we had some of the best engines in the colony. There were four class N, three class Q, and two class K engines in Auckland, capable of maintaining a speed of 40 miles per hour, and daily running 85 miles per hour on express trains. There were also nine class J engines good for 30 miles an hour. The deputation, he was aware, were not making any complaints in this direction, but he recognised that they might have the impression that there was something the Government could get over, which, as a matter of fact, the Government could not. The Government were buiidiug for Auckland and for the colony railway carriages to meet the normal growth of the passenger traffic. It was, however, quite impossible to provide cars in sufficient numbers to carry the enormous crowds which' had to be conveyed at Christmas and New Year holidays. Auckland’s carriage and waggon accommodation compared very favorably with that of any other part of the colony. Ho had before stated in Auckland that the first line to be duplicated was that to Penrose, and it was the intention of the Government, when they could get the necessary authority, to duplicate this line. But when they had.;duplicated it, if the deputation expected that the railway authorities could make provision for carrying excursionists in caning s 111 y were going to be disappointed, i'ho Go verinnenl had to make arrangements a i over the colony to carry pc quo on th railways for long distances, and iliev Ci-uo-■ob put these people ill open waggon Uess 3UOO or 4000 should c in along u requite ucc.uune dn im. To in--, as snug excursion biisiu, ss, to his nvt i. wkiige seats find heett made dining -e lust 20 years foi the open waggoi ind Where they could ilia Government nud made provision for covering them. They were anxious to carry excursionists as cheaply as possible, and with the greatest possible amount of comfort. But they could not —and they would not make it their policy, as it would be against the interests of Ihe colony—do it by increasing the rolling stock unduly. If they did they would be condemned from end to end of the colony. There was no such tiling as discriminating between the North and the South Islands. The policy of tho Government was to treat all alike. Whoever might succeed him as Minister for Railways would teli them the same as he did. However, he hoped the time was not far off when they could duplicate the Penrose lino. He was sorry to see that a slight attuck had been made upon the railway administration here. He was sorry, because in the Auckland provincial district we had far tho best railway service in tho colony at the present time. In the North Island, all told, there were 810 miles of open railways, in the South 1895 miles. In the North there were 2,202,751 running (train) miles, and in the South 2,808,009 miles, or only 600,000 miles more, notwithstanding that the Southern mileage was nearly double that of tho North. The passengers curried in tho North Island were 8,215,090, against 4,141,000 in the South. He was not adverse to criticism, and where a thing was wrong ho was one of tho first to have it put right, but where a statement was made and tho public were being asked to urge something being done that could not be done, ho thought it right to say he and the Government were doing their best to meet the general demands of the growing railway service throughout New Zealand. During the past holidays they had carried on the railways nearly 400,000 people in the whole colony without an accident or a serious hitch. As to the deputation’s request, he was anxious to minimise the trouble by lessening the tunnel run, but more was not possible. No doubt many people thought it was exceptional to use open trucks for conveying excursionists, but it was not. He would look into the representations of the deputation, and hoped to remedy them so far as he could by duplicating tho Penrose line at the earliest possible moment. In the meantime he could assure them that he and his colleagues wore doing their best. The difficulty was that they could not do all in one year.