EXPERT ON ROADS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1931, Page 7

EXPERT ON ROADS

MR W. REES JEFFREYS IN DOMINION. PROBLEM OF CO-ORDINATING TRANSPORT. AUCKLAND, February 28. A world-renowned authority on roads and transport, Air \V. Rees Jeffreys, at one time secretary to the British Road Board, arrived by the Niagara to-day to make a private investigation into the transport problems of New Zealand He lias taken an active part in the road improvement movement in England during the last 40 years, and is chairman of the Roads Improvement Association, and a member of the Advisory Committee attached to the Ministry of Transport. Mr Jeffreys is now returning from a visit to the United States, where he acted as chairman of the British delegation to the International Road Congress, at which New Zealand was represented. He also represented Great Britain at the Canadian Good Roads Convention, held at Quebec in September, since when he has made a careful study of the transport problems of the United States and Canada. Air Jeffreys proposes to pay particular attention to the desirability of coordinating road and railway transport in the Dominion. During the last t'vo years, lie has made a special study of this problem in Africa, travelling from the Cape to Cairo. He believes that, speaking broadly, South Africa lias spent- too much on railways ami not sufficient on roads, with the result that the transport charges in the Union ar e unnecessarily high. “South Africh's high transport charges are brought about,” lie said, “by the fact that if the railway administration. especially a Government administration, builds railways (particularly brand) lines) which do not pay, it lias in effect to charge the overhead expenses of the branch line over the whole of the system, so putting up the cost of rail transport. Under a proper system of co-ordinat-ion, a country would not have a branch railway line that would not pay, and a bad road. It would chose which would suit conditions best, and would then shut down the branch railway line and spend money on the improvement and development of the road, acting on tile principle that it is best, to cut capital losses than go on losing hundreds of thousands of pounds on railways. In South Africa they are beginning to find that although the road system there is poor, it is necessary to close down non-paying branch railway lines and develop road transport instead. “All over the world T find this problem of co-ordinating road and rail traffic a very live and vital one. Tn the British Dominions in particular it is most impoUant that the cost of transport should be reduced to a minimum so as to reduce tile costs of production, both of raw materials and manufactured goods, into which transport charores enter very largely. The problem is more difficult in countries like New Zealand and South Africa, where the nation owns the railways. than in Great Britain and the United States, where the railways are owned by private capital.” The British Dominions, in Air Jeffrey's opinion, are not spending sufficient money on road research, including experimental bureaux and road chemists. They are not making the best use, he says, of local material an ( ] resources. Tn the United States, on the other hand. large sums were spent on what was called scientific road investigation.