The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1929.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1929.

motors and railways. A few months ago the Grout Western Railway Company, one of the strongest transport organisations in Britain, called a meeting to consider the financial •position of the railway, “with special 'l reference to the competiton from motor car traffic.” This conference was attended not only hy the directors, but I ov ali the officials and employees of the company—booking clerks and porters, engine-drivers and signalmen, guards and greasers, and everybody present was invited to take part in the discussion. As a sign of the times, and'an indication of the extent to which the motor has already encroach-' ctl upon the sphere once reserved for I railways, this conference, remarks the Auckland Star, is uni(|uo in the history of the British transport service. Those responsible for the administration and I the success of the British railways seem to have no doubt about the reality , and the urgency of the motor menace. Sir Felix Pole, the general manager of the Great Western, and one oT the ablest of British transport authorities, told his audience at this conference that the railways can no longer wait

for the public to como to them, but that employees of every grade must do the work of salesmen and canvassers for their own lines. This pneess of “selling the railways to the public,’’ to use the nppropriiue Americanism, is already inaugurated at Home, and it is Imped that it may assist in stemming the threatening tide of opp sitton which, rising slowly for many years, has now culminated suddenly .iiul rapidly in the f nun of the übiqlitu.K um oi' lorry and motor car. All 'his is in lores ing and important as 'bowing Lhe e lent to whi h m dor ompeli inn has jeopardised the ala o' t impregnable monopoly which the great Jritish railway oomnan.es once enjoy'd. But to New Zealand the interest of this con fere n e lies chiefly in the • ppiieation of Jin principal to he coalition of things o.\i ting here. The

ail ways are suffering severely in a

mam-in! sense from, the rain’d grow 111 of lmitor traffic; and it must not he forgot on that the constant improvement of the highways, necessary and desirable as it is. must as time goes on militato increasingly against the railway system as a .commercial enterprise. The inference that we must draw is so obvious that our readers must long since have anticipated it. In view of the growing in.ensty of motor ■ompetition, all railway construction in this country, whether this involves the laying cf neiv lines of the completion of lines already begun, must bo undertaken only after due reference ■<> this all-iinrortalit factor. The clmllces of commercial success in the case of our railways can no longer ho estimated, as :, i the far-off days when our Public Works policy was inaugurated, on the assumption that they will be able to maintain a virtual monopoly of transit and transport faci ities. The motor velicle. fast and cheap and omnipresent, must he taken carefully into account,

and only after adequate allowance lias been made for this disturbing factor can any given railway in tin’s country be credited with a reasonable prospect, a I financial prosperity and success.