WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1932, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE RAILWAYS. THEIR FUTURE. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, April 21. It would seem from a statement made by an authority of isome < (>-•sequence who passed through Wellington the other day that the change of the New Zealand Railways Horn political control to board control has not yet met with universal approval of observant critics. “Sncli investigations c.s 1 have been able to make of some ol the economies that have been affccte or, more correctly, such reductions of expenditure,” said the passing traveller, “give me the impression that they will not be turned to the best possible account simply by reducing the volume of money expended upon them. If was obvious, the authority went on to sav, that the railways in common with other business concerns, bad lost revenue month by month and bad been compelled to dispense with the services of many of its worker--. In these circumstances the authorities were bound to look around for remedies for their troubles.

THE REMEDY. There were two methods open to the Railway Board, this authority averred, and the board did not choos the one he regarded as the bettm The method it adopted was to retir. 1 .On. superannuation a very large number of middle aged men with thirty or forty years’ service. “The men ro':'r <>d from the staff by this arrangement,” it was stated, “will draw pensions averaging £2 a week or more: not sufficient for a man with a family to live upon, but involving the Treasury in a very heavy expenditure for a large number of years. Jhesi middle aged men will have a reasonable prospect of drawing a pension tos a period of twenty or twenty-five years.” It certainly does look as H a considerable proportion of the moi cast adrift with a pension of ‘25-s or 30s a week might have been assured of a supplementary income that would have kept a home over the r heads.

ANOTHER WAY. Tho critic, without professing to be familiar with all the facts involved, was ready with another solution of the problems that beset the members of the Railway Board. “x\n alternative method of dealing with the difficulty,” he said, “would have been first io ascertain the number of men whom it was necessary to retire from each branch of the service and when up t:. that number to dispense with tliosi of the shortest service. Then the short service men could have been repaid their superannuation contributions with no serious loss to either the Government Railway Account or the Consolidated Fund.” This, on the surface, looks as if it would have been a more satisfactory proceeding than the retirement of-a -number of comparatively young men .who, though still strong and active -could not expect to find easily a vocations wdli which they were either -acquainted or suited.

RESULTS. The public will recognise n't one-' that• economics which-merely show belter figures in the Government Had way’s Account than they do in th Cam undated Fund are not real ec-on-cm’es at all. One would not like to suggest on i-iicli authority as that just quoted that this is the case with t'aoperations of the Railway Board ; hut it is quite legitimate to say that Independent Control still has to prove itself more effective and more desirable than Government control. So far Independent Control has done little more than transfer the losses upon the unpaying lines to the broad shoulders of the Govern men and proclaim war against- the motor traffic obtrud ng upon the preserves it desires; but indoubt in the near future the rank am' file of the Railway Board, as well as its very capable chairman, will be glad enough to accomodate themselves to the march of modern transport.