The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1928.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1928.

AN UNPOPULAR. RAILWAY. The Government is still busy constructing railways in the North Island, while works of a similar nature in the South Island are ignored. The pleas for extension of the South Westland railway goes unheard, but even doubtful requests in the North Island get a “good hearing.” Yet not always to the satisfaction of the country to be served. As witness the following resume of a case by the “Lyttelton Times.” —The decision of the Government to construct a railway between Rotorua and Taupo, we are told, has ■been received “somewhat coldly” in the Auckland province, and thaifsiiould be sufficient to make Mr Coates pause. The proposal cannot be defended on any grounds. The commission of 1922 based its estimates on a capital expKmditure of £700,000 for construction work and £50,000 for rolling stock. To-day the work could not lie done for that figure. The cost of running one passenger and two goods trains each way daily was set down at £52,547, and interest at £30.000, making the total estimated expenditure £82,547 per annum. The traffic, within ten years, was estimated to produce £01,492 annually, so that a substantial deficit would be certain. The Prime Minister, years ago, stated that new works would not l>e authoiised until the various departments had reported, and the closest investigations had been made, and the country has a right to expect the production of those reports. In the Railway Statement of last year we can find no reference to this line, and it does not figure on the Public Works construction vote, yet, if the railway authorities wore to report on the estimated revenue and expenditure, the Public Works Department on the probable cost, the Lands Department on the area that would be tapped and the country that would be developed, the investigations necessary must have been put in hand months ago. It canhot be supposed that this line has been given priority without thj most careful investigation, and the Prime Minister should make the information available. Last year the Auckland Chamber of Commerce questioned the economic justification for this particular line, and doubted whether the passenger and goods traffic available would justify the expenditure for the next twenty years. The commission, when dealing with possible revenue from passenger traffic, worked on the basis of “sixty-six passengers a day each way.” That will not do much to pay for a line now estimated to cost £20,000 per mile. Then Mr Coates, in his announcement, stressed the fact that the line would enable artificial manures to 'be delivered economically. It might, hut he has overlooked the statement in one of his reports that these manures, classified as low-grade commodities, have been carried at- a price “barely sufficient to cover the cost of transport,” so that the Railway Department would get little or nothing from that source. As lor the land to be opened up by this developmental line, much of it is oT the class that the Minister of Lands is understood to have offered to give to anyone who would undertake to develop it. Has this project been submitted to investigations such ns those inatfo in connection with the proposed

completion of the South Island Main Trunk, and, if so, when will the reports be made available ? The Government has proclaimed, long and loudly, its devotion to »the policy of strict economy, yet it proposes to authorise a railway undertaking, that will traverse stretches of third-class land, com© into competition with established road services for any passenger traffic, and cost the country 150 per cent, more than would the construction of a modern road. We fully agree with the Liberal journal in Auckland that “tho Government will be asked to give a good deal more in explanation than it has done.” f The line finds, no place in the. list of works authorised, and the country has been told time and again that concentration is the keynoto of tlie Government’s policy. And what of the statement of the Minister of Finance two years ago that “on completion of tlie- large undertakings now in hand in respect of railways and hydro-electric power, a tapering-off policy should bo adopted” until increasing population and trade justified further extensions? Whatever else, it my ho, this is not tapering off, and the Government must explain why it has embarked on the enterprise. If this is an illustration of “more business in government,’’ let tlie proof be produced.