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Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1920, Page 2

The volume of overland traffic continues substantial. Liast week the passengers generally owing to the congestion, travelled in great discomfirt. There were more passengers/than the coaches could accommodate, and those who did not elect to return to Christchurch from Arthur’s Pass because of the overflowing vehicles, walked through the tunnel. There is every likelihood of the December traffic be'ng very heavy. It will he so about the holiday weeks. There is already abnormal hooking ahead on the part of would be, travellers. Boats, and hotels are now booked ahead, indicating very heavy traffic. It is said the Union Coy has stopped booking by the ferry steamers over Christmas week. Here, the leading hotels are well hooked up, and some large parties have not been able to find accommodation. These 'ndications confirm the expectations as regards heavy traffic, and in order to make the overland travelling ns comfortable as possible the railway authorities should bo urged to introduce a. daily service east and west a-s < ally as possible. Last season the daily service ran only from December 18th. to January 10th. It should he much extended this season if transit is to he as comfortable, and as convenient a« : t should he. The daily service should begin earlier in December and conn rue later in January. Now is the time to popularise the overland route. Probably by Easter the tunnel will he lined, and within two months the railway line should he laid. Perhaps with t 1 * electric motors it will he possible .men to carry on an auxiliary service through the tunnel, pending the installation of the main electrical service. The establishment of this main connection is of the greatest importance to the Coasl and all the local bodies should unite in a general request to make the overland service from now on as regular and as convincing as possible. The through traffic is going to be a reflation to the whole Dominion.

On tho money cost of the new Forestry Department, the permanent cordon put on the country by borrowing to run the Department is a serious matter. Not only is nearly £300,000 taken out of the Consolidated Fund, hut half a million is to be borrowed. It will take about £30,000 per annum to pajy the interest on the borrowed money, and the principal will still remain a debt. Add this burden to the £290,000 now voted, and it will cost the country for the year £320,000 to administer the Forestry Department. This is a tremendous outgoing and seems to he altogether unjustifiable. The quid pro quo for this rasli expenditure will be the imposition of various new fangled regulations which will hamper the industry in such a way as to increase the cost of production and the result will he an added charge to the consumer. The miller will he surrounded not only with regulations hut also with officials. Some seven districts are to be established in New Zealand, and we are told, “the scheme involves a certain amount of decentralisation of control.” A certain amount “suggests a limitation, and that will he found in the regulations which will be made and issued in Wellington, where centralisation control will continue supreme all the time. In WelIngton the officials vested with autocratic powers will deal as they please with enterprising millers. The industry will be in a way to be stifled. When the Minister was here some months ago and outlined the policy of the Department, the most eloquent comment made to the Minister’s face when he had concluded tho outline of his proposals was the remark of an experienced miller who had spent a life-time in our forests: “It is a pity Sir Francis you don’t own a sawmill!’’ That is the sort of comment which will recrir when millers have to fight the Department, line by line, over the irksome, if not impossible, regulations it has been suggested should bo introduced. Perhaps when the people get their full of all this after paying over a quarter of a million per annum to maintain this extravagant Department realisation will come and with it a return to reasonable administration at a reasonable cost.