PRESS COMMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1927, Page 3

PRESS COMMENT.

Tlie great sum New Zealand already lias invested in transport problems will he heavily increased at the end of the period named. The Dominion will be more ban ever committed, and if, as is definitely suggested, continuation of present practice must inevitably mean a closing down of services, the sooner a. full readjustment is reached the better. The whole business is too great, its implications are too far-reaching to dogmatise on what the Railway Department claims, or to say oil the moment whether it is suffering to tho extent it suggests from forces over that, in New Zealand, us elsewhere, which it has no control. It is agreed transport is in a condition of flux. Th is brings uncertainty, and therefore it can be agreed that a careful inquiry into present conditions and future possibilities, always with a view to safeguarding the Dominion’s railways, is a sound move.—New Zealand “Herald.”

New Zealand’s greatest industry is dairying, tho product of which has to meet the competition of many countries. It can only continue to meet that competition successfully by maintaining high quality and by keeping clown the cost of production. This is probably 100 per cent greater than it was twenty-five years ago, the increase being due in a large measure to the Dominion’s policy of protecting local manufacturing industries, thus raising the cost of goods the farmer has to buy and attracting to the towns the labour which should he employed on the farms. The manufacturers seek still higher duties and their employees sec£ higher wages, all of which will make it more difficult for tlie farmers to carry on their industries, while tlie restriction of imports will also lead to a restriction of exports.—‘YTarnnaki Herald.”