RAILWAYS DEPUTATION

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1923, Page 4

RAILWAYS DEPUTATION

TO Hox. j. O. COATES. WEST COAST SERVICES. CHRTSTCTimCTI Nov. G. ibe Hon. .1 G. Coates. Minister of Railways and of Public Works, was yesterday morning waited upon by a deputation representing the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce and allied bodies liich placed before him a number of questions regarding tile Canterbury railways. and also the Midland line. The Chamber "'as represented by the. acting president, Ah' Stronach I’aterson. and a number of the members of the Council of the Chamber. There were also present the Hon. H. 1.. Michel, M.L.C.. the Hon. ,J. Griniinoiid. M.L.C.. Dr. E. Teiehelniann (Westland Brunch of the Catlteibury Progress League). Mr W. If. Bowntcr, 'Westport Chamber of Commerce. Air P. It. Cliniie. organiser for 1110 Canterbury Progress League, a number of members of the League, ami representatives of the different bodies connected with the Chamber of Commerce. Messrs H. T. Armstrong, ALT’., and D. G. .Sullivan. M.P.. were also present. With the Alinister were Afes-rs It. W. AfcVilly, General Alanager N.Z.Ti.. F. ,J. -Tones Assistant Chief Engineer, F. A. Grant. Commercial Agent. •T. It. Mitchell. District Traffic Alanagcr. f'll list r-lnircli, and A. -I. AlcCredie. District Engineer, Chrisfcbureh. The deputation was received in the City Council C hamber which was well filled by the members of tbe deputation. Afr Cliniie (organiser of the Canterbury Progress League) was one of the principal speakers. SCOPE OK THE DEITTATION. Air Cliniie said that the subject matter of the deputation bad been indicated. As to tile Alidlnnd Railway they desired to know: (1) AYlien the tunnel -eel ion would be handed over to the Railway Department; (2) if the .Minister had considered the question of encouraging back loading, east to west, by offering attractive freight rates in competition with sea carriage: and (A' if t!ic“ .Minister had considered the question of making Hokitika tile terminus of the express service. As to the Westport-Inangahua line, they desired to know when a start would be made on it. As to the l.yLtoltou-Christehuicli service they wished to know: (I) What improvement’- had the Depart meut under considerat ion at the present tune in regard to the I.vttelton railway yards; (2; what progress had been made, if any. with the new repoit on the lay-out at Chi ixtehureli : and to) if the Minister < nuld give an Indio.•Lion of his view- on the eleel rilh atioii of the Lyttelton line, ami on ihe question of the duplication of the tunnel with a view to the development of lulure traffic. As to rolling stock they desired to know what progress had been made in the matter of pioviding a fill! and adequate supply of trucks to meet the pressure of the grain season which is often also a heavy importing season. THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.

Mr Cliniie said that be bad been asked to speak on these several matters primarily as a member of i'c Chamber of Commerce and also on account of his association with tbe Canterbury Railway Committee. The necessity for the Railways Department controlling the whole of the Alidlnnd line must be apparent to these who had given the subject any consideration. While lime-honoured custom might pro. vent the tunnel section being handed over till the work had been complet'd to tile satisfaction of file Railways and the Public Works Departments, there scemotl 110 practical difficulty, as far as the layman could observe, why the oidinary charges should not be put into

operation immediately. The present excessive charges certainly placed the trams! ort of goods over toe line under a heavy handicap as would be -ecu from the following corn-rote examples: I'lidcr existing tales it cost ISs lid tu rail a t it of coal from .Reeftou to Christchurch. lOii miles, excluding tlm C.mnol section ol nine mlios; this amount included As lid charged by the Public Works pepariment for haulage through the tunnel. If charged on the usual lone: distance coal rate basis the cost would he 12s-Id plus As fid t mile I rat ■. o. .1 'total of lbs Id which was 2 s lOd less than ihe present cimtge. The rate ml coal from Kailangata to ( brisnlimoh. 2>’o miles, was has Sd ie. tun; if | (ee I i 1111 were on the same base; Ihe freight would be (including tunnel rate) IGs Id. It Kaitangutn wa le nil the name basis as Reeftou. the freight would amount to 2H 7,!. The les.-snu for this dispa.'ity was voiy visible; the broken journey front Tieefton was, alter nil, purely theoretical and 110 additional labour was involved in I'e

tram-action. CONDITIONS OP THAI'!' K . The conditions of traffic were enlip-lv different from those on any other railway in the Dominion. It was brought into compeli tion with steamer itiffic which had been long; established. For it- length, tho line Pad iosl considerably mil'-' than any other line in the Dominion, which made it ini) endive

for the Department to attract a- mm Ii freight as possible. At present the hulk of the 1 1 a Hie was all one way from west to east—which made ii appear advisable, in order to altra t freight for the return run, to make I some truckage allowance, and thus re. | duce the number of empty waggons j which comprised the bulk of the westward bound trains. Assuming tlm'. ii cost almost as much to haul empty waggons as ii did to haul full ones, tin- Department could well afford to make a liberal truckage allowance m all east; to west traffic and thus capture trade which would otherwise go by sen. Tit any ease the line slum < he placed on a competitive basis with

sea-borne traffic; it so happened that j the traffic on which sen competition was most severe was the traffic on which the Department could host rfford to make a truckage allowance .Mr C'limio added that the people of ('ante; bury and Westland were very anxious that the fullest possible uso should be made of the railway, and said that all that was needed was a fair competitive rate, to induce a large volume of remunerative freight through the tunnel. As lie understood that tin Minister had been provided with a copy of the report prepared hy a committee of the (‘handier of Commerce or. Fast and West Coast trade, ho would not make further lofercuce to the

quest uni, HOKITIKA AS THE TEUMTNI'S. They desired to know whether the Department would favourably consider the extension to the whole line from Lyttelton to Hokitika of the practice already adopted on the Lyttelton. Christchurch line of accepting' ship’s

I measurement and carrying goods on that basis. As to the question of niai--. ing Hokitika the terminus, tho .Minister was no doubt aware of the tend- i ency on the part of passengers, both tourist and others, of running down! by motor from Otira to Hokitika in- j stead of going by rail. The service he-1 tween Mreymouth and Hokitika was so

unattractive that no one who had once used it wanted to repeat the experience. On his (Mr Climie's) latest visit to the West Const-, he arrived at Hold, tilca at 7 i?.m.. after an extremely tedious wait at Oreymontli; whereas fellow passengers who motored from Otira wore in Hokitika, in ample time for dinner at 0 p.m. In view of the approaching tourist season and the | opening of the Hokitika exhibition, it was strongly hoped that the Department would see its way to speed up the service on the final section of the

journey. The Hokitika people cone plained of the delays between Greymouth and Hokitika, and also of the very irregular operation of the schedule on the Mokifika-Ross line. On these matters the people of Canterbury, especially the commercial community, felt very .strongly. At present tho traffic from Canterbury to the West Coast was virtually confined to primary produce—chaff, hay, straw, wheat, oats, bran, flour and potatoes—and the railway had captured this traffic by reason of the very attractive freight rates it was able to offer tinder the ordinary schedule. It went almost without saying that, if some concessions could ho made with regard to other goods, the Department would have no difficulty in developing n very profitable trade from the East Coast to the West Coast. Air Cliniie referred also to the railway to Westport and Canterbury railway services tit considerable length. THE .MINISTER’S REPLY. Tbe lion Air Coates in the course of Mis reply said they must not overlook one fact, and that was that last year tin* railways did not balance, and that they went to the had to the extent of £2-18.(CO for the six mouths of the present year, that was better than the previous year, hut of this improvement only about c.'.11.0:::i was due directly to the increased amount of goods and passengers forthcoming; tin- balance was made up of economics. It was pcs.-able that more economies should he brought about, -lust as they brought down overhead expen.-us, ;.) were they able to give Letter facilities to 1 fie users of the railways. Well, for the til's! half of tie year they were £2lß,(Tit to the had, hut. they knew thai the balance ol' the year was likely to- he better - the better part -it the year was in (time. First ol all the railways had to lie made to pay p. r cent. Smile -aid that that did not matter; he said that it did heeai:-.-. 01 iu-rw isc. the general taxpayer had to Ism! it. He would not draw any cumparisons between different parts ol the Dominions, as lie would ask the General .Manager to speak later. He (Mr Coates) did not protend to have grasped the intricacies nor all the details oT railway administration: anil it was not Ins intention to worry a great deal about details. lie considered that the g -ncral policy of the railway was most important and ii was to it that lie must direct. Ids attention.

COM RKTITI YE RATES. The deputation had asked for competitive rates between Canterbury and tin- We.-t Coast »s against sea-carriage. I,el them imagine that he granted tlieir request. What about Napier, wliat about New I’lymntilh. Auckland. Gamaru. and Timarur They were just as lunch entitled, in Ids humble opinion. to competitive rates, as the West, Coast. Where were (hey to draw t Inline' That seemed to him to he llm difficulty. It. was trim that competitive rates were iis.-d on short lengths - they had it in (‘liristchurch, ayd it was fur a very good reason; it was one of the old relies handed down. A member of the dnpuialoti interjected: You have romp.-til i\ e rates now. Air Coates: “Hui in a very small way. How far uni you extend it i' I am not crabbing it. I have listened to what you say and ! am only pointing out that the West ( nn.t and Christchurch are no more entitled to it than other places in New Zealand, where a similar set of circumstances exist." Thu Alinister went on to say that the whole, question of rates and tariff was under review, and he had recently given the General Manager ilistritei ions to have the new rates printed. Alter dealing with aiKimniirs and alter bringing the rates up to date, tlirv had to go into the question of policy to meet requirements and getting business over the railways. Alter.ill. that was ;hc first tiling they had to do if they wen- to make a success el the New Zealand rail wavs. (Applause). ART! 11 It'S HASS SECTION. 'I lii-y had mentioned the Arthur's Ills- tunnel. Tin- position was wellknown to everyhndv. Th" deputation

were urging that the tunnel section if j the line should he administered by one Depm lilleot. and at nic e. lie was going through the tunnel the pillowing; day and v. otdl meut eel tain gent !em. 0 with whom !g would diico-r. matt, rs in the hope that, at thi‘ eari'eM dale pns- ; sible, they would he able to hand it over t ■ t In- pniiiit nn ut 1 hat •. add : 1 mitre! i. m the nil on . 'I bey asked J Railway Dcp irioumi void,! iahe i on- ) trol, 1 1:;l Iw 1 and not make no pro- j mis.-. As to the tunnel charges, they knew th:' position as well as lie Hi'! ed than himself to -,■>> the < enl rai. tors j done fait in wa- not his ini cat ion to ] allow :he <-mil raelnr.s to get out of tlieir ! liabilities. As tar as the coin reelurs , • hey r. el " doing ; heir hast. Mr D. G. Souiva.i : A • the .Minister i Mr ( miles .aid that ;s Mine ;.r of J Radii:ii s it 11 nn in srti-faetion to him j Hint the I i.-pai Inn-in was mi g tiiug 1 the ha-t servile. What i: • was out to' i do was to g a lim- I ■’-! service. j GENERAL MANAGER'S STATE- I A! EN T. ! Mr I!. MrYil!v. General Manager : N.Z. R slated that there were several mailer, touching on r.diui hi->l rat ion question, with which lie would like to ileal. Speaking of the I ime-table-, observed by [rains running on the Grey- ) mouth section. Air .MoYiily sinks! tied ho had received information lo the 1 effect that. broadly speaking, tle-se kept

fairly good time, in arriving aml leaving their dcsilltatiolis. An occasional I l ain, o! coni.;' ; . might be late, bet this was not unusual in any railway service. The matter of tlm transhipment of passengers travelling from Christchurch to Hokitika and ii j versa at Hvovniouih was next dealt with, Mr McVillv stating that at the present time such a coiir-e was nu avoidable. There was a daily average of twelve passengers 1 ravelling through from (In i-tehureli to Hokitika, b" said, and the Department had to ('insider the nrople of South We-lland. However, if the Department, could adjust tin* service ill such a manner as to give sail-fact ion to both through and local passengers the matter would be considered. The increase of (rain mileage on the West Coast sceiion was

out of the (jmrstton. and with regard to moiling a through train, there were not the facilities at Hokitika to deal with ip. The D'epartnmni. however, was reorganising the Hokitika station at tin* present t into Mr Clinic: What about the Fxhil.ition ? Air .McVillv replied that special arrangement- were being made to cop • with the additional traffic whirl; would result from the Fxhibition. The charges levied by tlm Department for the transport. of Rocftnn and ICaitangata coals were also referred to lev Mr .MiA illy ReetToit coal, he said, was a much better coal than Ivaitnngnin coal, and it was being carried at a cheaper rate than it was actuallv entitled to.