The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1927. RAILWAY PROBLESMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1927. RAILWAY PROBLESMS.

\\’e do not remember a Railways Statement, says the Auckland Star, so interesting as the one that Air Coates presented to Parliament last week, it is notable i'oi‘ its candour and its ideas. An attempt is really made not only to grapple with the problems that beset the system, but to tell the public, who are the owliersj how serious is the position of their property. The people of New Zealand have sunk £oti;uuJiCOO in a business that is threatened by another form of transport. That is the position, and it is to everybody’s interest that this competition should oe met with energy, brains, and justice. For the past year the return on capital invested was a shade under 4 pet cent., add eveii if tvhiit tile Depart* meat has to say in its defence is accepted, this cannot be considered a very satisfactory result: It is not nla lie ahV tnol'e so by the reflection that in the coming years competition will probably be a good deal more lormidable. It is to the Minister's credit that he faces this competition.He claims that the Department lias been retdr'hletl ili td-el : y difCttidll. Prior to the coming of motor competition there was no “commercial sense or businessgetting side” in the Department. Since then the Department has been reorganised, And thudi lias been done to attract business, but the feforhis MiUve not succeeded in providing the Department with an adequate proportion of increased business comparable with* the expansion which has taken place in population, and in our export, im- ' port, and internal trade.” This is the crux of the matter. Tim number of motor vehicles in use in New Zealand is very large in proportion to population, and motor transport lias been able to “pick the eves out” of business The Minister contends that in meeting this competition the railways have been handicapped by being a national service which has undertaken developmental work in the- interests of the whole - nation. , lie implies, however. that this inequality should he removed ; that the Department should be credited with what it does to develop the country, and should he free to readjust its tariffs and that the mqtor should pay adequately for its-use of roads So important* is jthe question of safeguarding the national'SinyesDpent in Railways against this competition

that the Minister finds it necessary “to inaugurate transport control through a properly constituted Ministry of "transport.” The proposal is at present little more than a suggestion; what the Ministry is to do will apparently not be known until an investigation has been made, ill* Coates, however, peimits himself to look into the future and to picture a time when a more homogenous railway system—isolated sections will by then have been linked up with main lines—and a system improved in various ways, will be restricted to certain kinds of business, but at the same time will work in with road services. There will then, lie says, be a more definite line of demarcation between the kinds of work best suited to tile two kinds of transport. The difficulty is, however, that nothing used by man remains indefinitely the same, and the Department may find it more difficult than Mr. Coates imagines to put a limit to the motor’s activities. It is obvious that if the State tries to restrict these operations by its legislative power, injustice may be done, and the development of the country hampered. What lias occurred between the tram and bus interests, in the cities, is a warning. In the meantime, during Jii.s difficult period of change or uncertainty, the call ■ is for all the energy and new ideas the Department can command, and there are signs in the Minister’s statement that the Department lias both vigour and enterprise.