FOXTON-SANDON TRAMWAY EXTENSION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 898, 29 September 1910, Page 4

FOXTON-SANDON TRAMWAY EXTENSION.

The following is a continuation of the debate in the House on the proposed tramway extension petition. In our two previous issues Mr Craigie’s motion that the petition do lie on the table and receive the favourable consideration of the Government, and Mr Newman’s amendment that the evidence be printed together with the Hon. Mr Millar’s evidence before the Committee, and also Messrs Newman’s and Feild’s speeches, were recorded : The Hon. Mr Millar (Minister of Railways) said he had listened to the speeches of the honourable member for Manawatu and the honourable member for Palea, and he would now go into the matter and show the public what these gentlemen were endeavouring to do. They talked about assisting the settlers, but what were they trying to do with this scheme they had put forward ? They were trying to assist a few settlers at the cost of the many ; because here was a wealthy district, a closely settled district, and a district better roaded than almost any other part of the country. They had a tramway, which was a light line of railway, and they used that in lieu of the roads so as to save the roads. What did they want ? They had had this tramway for years prior to the Government taking over the Manawatu Hue. The Manawatu Company bad a special rate to Foxton. They gave to the Foxton people the benefit of a rate which was not given to any person, exactly as the Government had had to do in prior cases when water competition came into force. But when the Government took over the Manawatu Rail way they did away with that special rate as applied to that particular place. What did these gentlemen want the Government to do ? They wanted the Government to give them permission to carry this tram-line eight miles further so that they might go right through from Foxton to the Government line of railway at Greatford. An lion. Member; It is only five miles.

Hon. Mr Millar said his officers told him it was eight miles, and that was the evidence he gave before the Committee. But it it was five miles it was so much worse, because the great ciy was about the enormous amount of cartage, and now, according to the honourable gentleman, the maximum cartage from the terminus of the tramways to Greatford .Station was five miles. They were ready to ask the House to reduce the revenue of the Railway Department, and the result would be that whilst the members of this particular County Council might get the benefit there would have to be increased charges upon the rest of the people. Because the railways were going to be made to pay, and nothing was going to be done so tar as the Government was concerned to assist anybody to take away revenue. The policy of the country for years past had been that there was to be no such thing as private lines. They had purchased private lines already. The agitation to buy the Manawatu line was unceasing until it was purchased, and it was the last private line left. This was a light line of railway, and the Government trucks were running over part of it. The petition was practically asking the Government to take over twenty-five miles of railway which was a private line of the Manawata County. An Hon. Member; With the right of purchase.

The Hon. Mr Millar asked who wanted the right ot purchaseWere there not hundreds of thousands of acres in this country without any railway near it, and would they be justified, therefore, in buying a branch line which was serving its purpose when there were thousands of settlers in other districts who could not get a line at all ? It must also be borne in mind that this particular district was intersected with fine roads. He did not want the honourable gentleman to read his evidence, but at the same time he was prepared to give that evidence all over New Zealand. He was quite willing to go to Foxton and tell the people there that as far as the Government were

concerned they were opposed to the granting of this right to any local body or to a private individual. An Hon. Member : Take it over, then. The Hon. Mr Miliar said they would not. The honourable gentlemen had already shown, and the evidence came out in Committee, that they were losing ,£2,000 per annum at the present time. That information was given in Committee. The figures were given there by the Chairman of the county that the loss on the running of the tram-line was ,£2,000 per annum.

Mr Newman : No. The Hon. Mr Millar said his ears did deceive him olten, and in this case when the question was put to him by Mr Duncan —would they be prepared to buy it as a business proposition? —he (Hon. Mr Millar) said, No, as he had already heard the loss on it was £,'2,000 per annum. Mr Newman (Manawatu) thought the honourable gentleman was wrong. They spent all the revenue on the line. They did not look upon it as a source of income. They spent on the line the money that it earned. It had paid very well of late years, and would do still better if the connection applied for were given.

The Hon. Mr Millar: All he said now was said in evidence. They were justified in losing, because the maintenance by the road would cost them more than they were losing in running the radway. He quoted before the Committee the different rates of freight, and he would soon show ttie scheme was a very cunning one. The Foxtou Harbour Board and the Foxtou people were dissatisfied with the amount spent by the Government in maintaining that harbour. They came to the House through their former member, Mr Stevens, for a Bill to incorporate the Foxtou Harbour Board ; and in that Bill they proposed that they should get the whole of the endowments which were in the hands of the Marine Department, and no doubt, too, with the wharf charges they asked for they would have done very well. But the Government refused —although Mr Stevens, the then member, was a Government supporter —to hand over the wharf and the right to charge wharf dues. They granted the land which was in the hands of the Marine Department as an endowment, and Mr Stevens was told, as the present member was being told, that if the Harbour Board wanted any further revenues they would have to take rating-power over the district. The Consolidated Fund was not going to find money for the Foxton Harbour Board to improve their harbour in order to take away the trade from the railways. An Hon. Member: You took all their revenue. The Hon. Mr Millar said that they got no revenue, excepting about ,£4OO a year; but if there was to be a fight between the Board and the Railway Department, the Government would ship their coal over their own lines and not allow it to go through the F'oxtou Harbour Board. The whole of their coal was sent by sea to Foxtou at present. The Government collected the wharfage, and paid the Board the shipping dues. This matter had been going on mouth after month, and deputation after deputation had appeared before the Government in the endeavour to force them into handing the wharf over to the Board. They were not going to get it, and had been told so plainly, unless they bought it at if.-, present value from the Railway Department. The wharf belonged to the Railway Department, which was making a fair revenue out of it, and they did not intend to hand it over as an endowment to the Board. There were other Boards in the same position who desired the same thing, but they had about as much chance of getting it as the Foxton Harbour Board had. They had been told plainly that they would not get these wharves until they agreed to take the power to strike a rate for harbourimprovement purposes. Until they

did that and were prepared to pay for their own work they would get nothing from the Government. When they tried to help themselves, then the Government would be quite prepared to consider the whole question. Now, this light line of railway, if extended, would tap the whole trade from Marton and take it down to Foxtou to the ships. The whole object of the tramway was to give the Board a big revenue ; or else it was thought by the Board that, in the alternative, by holding this threat over the Government they would force the latter to reduce the rates back to the old Manawatu Company’s rates and give the settlers there a special rate. He wished to be perfectly candid over the matter, and might tell them as Minister he would just wait and see how things went, and the moment he saw the revenue was being affected supposing they got their request—he should take steps to protect the revenue of the Railway Department, even it it caused the Foxtou Harbour Board to “go-bune.” Mr Massey: You should not make a threat like that. The Hon. Mr Millar said the Government were in charge of what was a national asset, and the railways belonged to every person in New Zealand. Over thirty millions of capital were invested iufthem, and there was a constant demand for a steady increase in the expenditure. Honourable members of the Op; position were just as keen as the Government members to get new lines constructed, and interest on the amount spent had to be earned by the railways. If, therefore, they were going to give concessions to any particular part of the country whereby revenue would be taken away from these lines and from the railways in general—because the new lines would themselves be the means of decreasing the revenue —if, in addition to the large loss of interest no new lines constructed in sparsely populated districts, they were going to give the thickly populated districts special concessions, then they were going to still further reduce the revenue of the Railway Department, with the inevitable result that the charges must be increased in order to make the railways pay. It was the duty of the Government to look at the interests of the people as a whole, and that was why the district had a tramway now which served a useful purpose. It opened up a fair portion of the land, which was some distance from the existing line of railway, and it afforded a means of access to water carriage. The Government had helped the district in every possible way. The Foxtou Harbour Board had been getting a portion of their revenue from the Railway Department, and the latter had given them trucks for this line, and had also allowed them to run over a piece of the Government land. They had never interfered with the Board in any way, but if they wished to come in as competitors with the Railway Department he knew who was going to win in the long-run. That was a certainty. The honourable gentleman would admit that where the railways belonged to every one, and the money was invested on behalf of the people as a whole, it was the duty of the Government to see that that asset was protected to the utmost. The Department were not putting the people concerned in this matter in a bad position. The honourable gentleman talked a great deal about the backblocks. Would not the backblocks people thank heaven if they were within five miles cartage of a railway station ? According to the honourable member for Manawatu, this jv as the position of the people of that district: it was five miles from the terminus of that tramway toGreatford railway station by a dead-level road. Mr Massey: It is their own tramway. {To be continued in our next issue.)