PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1928, Page 1

PRESS COMMENT

ll’ there is any question of seizing or creating an opportunity to increase the share of the Empire in supplying Britain, these two factors, price and quality, must always he put first. The market will not always remain tfie same in its absorptive capacity. Economic recovery can decrease it, as well as growth of population. The Empire might supply more food in these circumstances, without increasing the proprtion of trade enjoyed, j To do that would not bring any advance towards the ideal of an Empire ,self-sufficient in the great essential of fife, food foF the people. There are only two means of reaching that end meeting any growth in demand ahead of foreign rivals and capturing from them trade they now enjoy. It cannot be a speedy process, it will not an easy one. Given godowill in the buyer, alertness and efficiency in producer and seller, there is no reason why progress should not he made, so that eventually the goods handled in those markets the Dominions farmers visited will he predominatingly from Empire sources.—“ New Zealand Her-

Thc Railway Department might very well try the experiment of including second-class sleepers in the express trains of both Islands. A fairly cheap and not uncomfortable, sleeping-car is used oil some of the European continental lines, and we observe that the experiment of third-class equivalent to our second-class) sleepers is to be tried in the United Kingdom. In England an‘d Scotland sleeping accommodation on trains has hitherto being exclusively first-class, a fact Aliat has

constituted quite a grievance for many years in a country wher<s third-class travelling is the rule, and the innovation is sure to he widely appreciVtod. The new sleepers are to he improverised, and, of course, will lack the comfort and the weight of the cars allotted to first-class passengers, hut they will not he the less welcome on that account. Perhaps Mr Sterling, who is essentially a man with ideas, will find it possible to try the same experiment in New Zealand, as part of his scheme for the reorganisation of the business of the Railway Department on modern lines,—“ Lyttelton Times.”

The Government is the body the people look w for the provision of transport and the regulation of the conditions under ryhicli it is carried out, hut unfortunately the Government are obsessed by the capital alieadc expended on railways. 1 ? They are now making a genuine effort to" put them on a good footing, and improvements will probably ensue, but the difficulties of running a State service in competition witii. a privately-owned service are so great that the Government would be well advised to build no more railways for tlie present. The abolition of eveiv other form of State trading would be an advantage to the people and to the Government. It would cheapen the services and save the Government from flic temptation to make laws for the purpose of. running competitions.— “ IVaikato Times.” .... ...