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Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1921, Page 2

During the sitting of the Harbour Commission here last Friday, some references was made to the payable prospects of certain railways. Tho figures

of the whole Dominion for the nine monthly period ending December have been made publicly lately, and they do not reveal a very cheerful position. The chief difficulty about the railways is the mounting up of the expenditure, which is advancing in greater volume than the revenue, notwithstanding the increase in passenger and tariff rates of late. The recently published figures show a comparative increase with the 1019 period of nearly nine hundred thousand pounds, but expenditure has gone up by nearly a million one hundred thousand pounds. On tluj net earnings thero is a decrease of over two hundred thousand pounds. This is not a pleasant prospect to either' taxpayer or user. To the former it means so much less to the general revenue and the prospect of making good with extra taxation. To tho latter it means higher tariffs still if the railways are to be inado to pay. That this outlook is not

very promising for the general public, the comment of the Lytteltoh Times on the position shows in very plain and understandable language when it says that for every additional £IOO of revenue it received the Department managed to spend more than £123. A private concern whose finances showed movements of this kind would not be regarded as a. favourable field of investment. Indeed, its shareholders would be asking the directors some pertinent, if inconvenient questions. In the statement of net earnings it must be remembered that before anything is available towards the revenue of the country there has to be deducted interest on capital cost. Allowing fOr this very legitimate charge the New Zealand railways are still being run at a heavy loss. They are a drain upon the taxpayers of the country, who have quite enough to bear without this additional burden.

Sir Joseph Ward’s brief comment on the Home situation which we publish to-day, is coriftrmed but too fully by the later cable news from Britain. “The real bad difficult times,” which Sir Joseph speaks of, has arrived in all its severity. The unemployed are now in legions, and when we remember that it is mid-winter at Home, we can surmise something of the want and distress being experienced. Some of the newspapers, as well as the Labor leaders are ready as usual to blame the Government. The latter has been endeavouring to stem tho adverse tide, it put all its cards on the table and summoned Labor organisations to help t. Labor as a whole has refused to do so, and while taking up this negative •t----titude still persists in criticising, when direct suggestions for real help are required. This is a phase of the industrial unrest noticeable all round the world. Even in Australia where La hour Governments hold sway, industrial matters are all awry, and the Labor organisations will not assist even their own comrades sitting as a constitutional government. It is easier to blame someone else, and make confusion worse confounded with noise and interjection, rather than useful effort to assist. Sir Joseph Ward states the fact of the position at Home, and seems to indicate that *loss of trade through undercutting of prices is one of the chief causes of the industrial trouble.. It may be contributing to the unfortunate position, but it is not the main cause, for the industrial unrest has been prevalent far too long—even when trade was good—at its height, and factories going at top. « There was a period of great prosperity, and not enough solid thrift about it. It was “easy money,” and those good times were expected to go on indefinitely. But they could not last, the money could not be found to keep up the pace, and restricted credit reduced trade rapidly. There has got to be a readjustment of trade all over the world, and everywhere people will require to conform to the recorded conditions reasonably and quietly. Only in that way can the dislocated position be met, and the new order evolved with less discomfort to all concerned.