OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 310, 17 October 1929, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

RAILWAY IMPOLICY. Parliament in its handling of the railways has produced no .policy save a policy of half measures. First of all, Parliament played with the principle of commercialisation; it ordered the commercialising of the opera-

tions, but not of the policy. Then it took up the idea of compensation for unprofitable service, and ordered the taxpayer to compensate the railways for certain non-paying sections of line; but all the other non-paying

services on the system as a whole remain uncompensated. Thus, in applying two leading principles, Parliament went half-way and then stopped; it expressly admitted obligations which it has failed to shoulder in their entirety, and it stands selfconvicted of illogic. We have said u Parliament ” lest the use of the word “ Government ” might be construed as meaning an indictment of a particular Government the Massev. or the Coates, or even the

Ward. No such particularisation is intended, because in railway policy all Governments seem to be tarred with the same brush. There is a general disinclination to face all the implications that a principle involves. The management is asked to balance | the incomings and outgoings—pro--1 vided that freights and fares, the I basis of incomings, are not raised l against sheltered users, including farmer and worker. Also, it is decreed that the railways shall be subsidised against policy-dictated de-

ficits, but the subsidy must stop dead when the train reaches a non-subsidy set of rails, while the train and its unremunerative load steams gaily onwards. Having walked a little way down this street, and a little way down that street, Parliament has paused, baffled; and for some little

time all that the politicians have been doing is to wait for something to turn up. To call them back to action, what is needed is a cold, clear-cut analysis of the situation, and the outlook—a candid stock-tak-ing such as the General Manager, in this, his first annual report, has set out impartially and pointedly. He deals with realities, and he gives both Parliament and public something to think about. Cannot a new Government make some effort to end the deadlock? Can it not pause a moment in the task of planning new additions of losing line—new Kirikopunis with a Southern complexion —in order to find some means of dealing with the deficit which is either a danger to economics in its reality, or, in its unreality, an in- . justice to the railwaymen? Lastly, if the Government cannot itself find a way out, has it the courage of self-effacement —the pluck to de-poli-ticalise the railways on Canadian lines and give them a chance by their own efforts to swim or sink? — Wellington Evening Post.