THE PUTARURU PRESS. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1929. RAILWAY ECONOMICS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 279, 14 March 1929, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS.

THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1929. RAILWAY ECONOMICS.

’Phone 28 - - * P.O. Box 44 Office - Oxford Place

CABINET’S decision to stop construction work on the Rotorua-Taupo railway is a wise one, however disappointing it may be to residents of the district. From an economic point of view the proposed railway was, as Ministers stated, .quite unjustified and the figures which were produced from time to time to show that the line would return interest on cost of construction would not bear examination. It may be said that uneconomic lines are being constructed in other parts of the Dominion, but though this may be so, and we think it is, two blacks do not make a white.

We have long advocated that, owing to motor competition, and the pressure of taxation, our whole outlook in regard to railway construction needs revision. Our view is that before any new lines are authorised a concerted effort should be made to make existing lines pay by way of (a) developing and settling all lands contiguous; (b) by speeding up and popularising the service. Such concerted effort, by all the various departments interested, would do much to settle vital problems of the day, including such as unemployment, reduction- of taxation and the introduction of business methods into Government.

Too long has the country suffered the tremendous burden cast on it by the inefficiency of political and bureaucratic control and it is to be hoped that a first step has been taken in the direction of freeing taxpayers from this incubus. All the promises and golden vistas held out in support of the proposed Rotorua-Taupo railway, are associated with the Putaruru to Mokai line, but in an intensified degree. Further, this railway has huge and profitable freight which already feed the main line. In effect, this line can be used at r.o cost to the country, and this feature cannot be too strongly emphasised, to provide a vast experimental area which will provide the solution for those problems about which politicians have been content to merely talk.

By simply applying in a business manner those principles of co-ordina-tion and co-operation, so fully enunciated in the past in the columns of Hansard, to existing machinery, the party in power will solve problem* which are vital to the Dominion’s prosperity. By supporting such an experiment as can be made with the 50 miles of light railway between Putaruru and Mokai, Rotorua residents will undoubtedly bring the day for the construction of their own line much nearer, hut in the meantime they are quite entitled to ask the Government to apply the principles, which have been applied to their request, to other lines in the Dominion, especially some of those in the South Island.