The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12th, 1924. PREFERENCE FREIGHTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 February 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12th, 1924. PREFERENCE FREIGHTS.

Thkkk seems to be the suggestion in 801110 quarters that in the request for a reconsideration of ilio railway freight charges east and west there is the desire to secure preference freights. This it not so, yet the commercial rivals of Canterbury in Wellington bo dosciihe the agitation on the Hast Coast. What is desired is an adjustment to enable the railway to compete economically with sea-homo freight and carry cargo profitably over the railway which is now lost through the more alert enterprise of the shipping companies. The railway management notwithstanding that there are numerous returning empty trucks resultant from the coal and timber traffic, does Hot seek to utilise those for return freight; yet there are many commodities which could be carried, which arc now lost because of a ridiculous tariff barrier which shuts out tiade. As regards freight, the Hon. Minister has made a recent statement on railway freights east and west which is of interest. Mr Coates has remarked that when the line is finally taken over liy the II ail way Department, there will be an adjustment of freight rates which will mean cheaper transit. But in the next sentence he indicated that the question of a special tunnel rate had not been determined yet! Now, it has tx-C-u given out all along that there would not he a special tunnel rate. To apply such will bo a breach of faith, and it will ho the means of shutting out further freights front the railways, and playing more and more into the hands of the shipping companies. It is admitted that the tunnel cost a great sum to complete, hut that was not the fault of the users of the line, but of the country in the leisurely way the work was allowed to proceed; and when the war came, progress was slower still, with costs mounting up in an extraordinary way. It would not be equitable to place upon the principal com--1 nuinitv using the line all the responsibility for the extra cost involved. It was clearly a national liability, and the Dominion as a whole should hear the burden, ns it is doing in regard to other essentially national works which have heer carried out. Apropos the coat question, there was the suggestion made by the Hon. R. MacKenzie, exMinister of Public Works, at the opening of the tunnel, who said that a portior of the cost of the work should la? written off as a national loss bein? part of the burden placed on the conn try by reason of the war period. That was a very fair suggestion to make in aH the circumstances, and though it may not he acted upon, it shows that outside the district there are those die posed to view the matter in an equitable spirit. It would appear that now, in view of the Minister’s latest statement. the Committee's on both sides of the range will require to watch developments very closely, and see that a permanent injustice is not done by the imposition of a special tunnel rate. While the community does not ask for any special preference it is certainly opposed to a penalty rate, and it is for the Department to seek to make the line a more profitable one by conducting

the traffic on sound commercial lines in the light of the opportunities and lie opposition it has to meet.