MORE BRAINS AND GINGER NEEDED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 October 1931, Page 3

MORE BRAINS AND GINGER NEEDED

RAILWAY SERVICES w TRENCHANT CRITICISM ; BY MR. E. EARLE VAILE "TARIFF ANOMALIES" '* An appeal for more intelligent ad- - ministration of New Zealand's railway system was advanced by the Re-': form eandidate for the Rotorua seat, _ Mr E. Earle Yaile, in a public ad-:. dress last evening. "More brains,A®d more ginger mu-st;;: be put into the service, then it willhave a happy issue out of all its afr$ flictions," was Mr. Yaile's concludingi: sentence after a general review em bracing a number of aspeets of the;; existing railway service. The speaker^ devoted some time to trenchant cri-« ticisms of the lay-out and form of^ the department's tariff hook which; . he described as "a bundle of ^ absur di-« ties." He also advocated reductions; in both fares and freight charges tomeet increasing competition of motor; . tarnsport and provide a better ser-.„ vice for the public. The Mayor, Mr. T. Jackson, prfeX sided over a good attendance of the " public and at the conclusion of thg,. ' meeting a very hearty vote of thanks; was accorded Mr. Vaile for what the?; mover of the motion, Mr. W. W. P.*7 Hall, described as a "lucid, interest-. ing, and informative address." Mr. Vaile stated tbat tbe Domin-^ ion's railway system was the larg-" est business in the country, and its.; present position was of vital import-; ance to every taxpayer. The tremend-; ous capital of £70,000,000 sterling-; was snnk in the system. Of this; amount £50,000,000 had been taken* up in the cost of construction of open^ lines, £11,615,000 was the cost ofJ rolling stock, £124,000 of steamer" and road services, £153,000 of saw-« mills, houses and factories, and no* less than £8,134,000 was sunk in unopened lines. This represented an investment of £400 for every family of four in the Dominion.

Political Considerations In the past, he stated, railway con- * struction had been largely dominated by political considerations. In the\ earlier days of the Dominion the* • South Island had held a big prepon^ derance of political power and it had. not hesitated to use this to fill the^ South Island with railways, for which; the North Island was now being re-, quired to carry a heavy burden. ' The speaker contended that thik"1 principle was entirely wrong, and thaff railways should be constructed purely* as commercial propositions and not because of political considerations'.^ He also contended tbat railway con^ , struction should be carried into thejj. interior of the country in order tb;. open up new areas rather than follow the sea coast where it was expos; ed to competition from steamer lines/ whose freights were notoriouslyj cheaper than those which were pro; fitable on the railways. ; Improve Undeveloped Land Country which was already set--tled, the speaker contended, mus| already possess facilities, and anyj; extension of railway services merelyj added to these facilities. On the otheiv hand country which was compara^T • tively undeveloped could be vastly im* proved in value by tbe constructioa£ of railways communication through it. An example was tbe Aueklaircb? Wellington main line the only line ibj. New Zealand which was at preserii£ really paying its way and which waSL to a large extent, earrying the losse$Y incurred by other unprofitable con-;* struction. When this line was first;; suggested two alternative routes had-; been mooted. The first bad bee'nU along the coast by way of Taranaki,*and the second had been the preseritfv route. . i 5There had been a great deal of;* agitation in favour of the first route,;' but fortunately the line had been; taken inland and results had fully;* justified this step. Millions of acres--previously of very little value had;. been vastly improved, and towns sucff - as Taihape, Ohakune, Taumarunui,* Te Kuiti, and Otorohanga had grownL up along the railway route, wher&t some of this land was now valuahre" property worth £30 a foot. : 7

Great Advance Mr. Vaile expressed the opinion7; that the introduction of the new Rail--' ways Board was the greatest advance, ; which had taken place in New Zea1-" land railway policy. Its chief strength; was that it would remove the ser-.' vice very largely from political con-;-trol. With the exception of one ap-;; pointment, all its members had been . taken from outside the service. t CauseS of Position j The speaker grouped the causes of£" the railways present unsatisfactory;. position under four heads: — J (1) The previous monopoly which*''' the service had enjoyed and which he contended that made it arbitrary,, disobliging, and inefficient. (2) The gross over-capitalisation which had.taken place, (3) the very high running costs under the present system, and (4) the competition of motor" traffic. So far as motor competition was concerned, Mr. Vaile stated that to restrict fair competition of this nature by legislation was not only unjustified, but also immoral. If motors could give a better service, then the people had the right to that service and it should not be forced off the road by legislation. If railways could not hold their own by fair' competition they should go, out' altogether. At the same time, however, it was a fair thing that the road "users should he taxed for a fair proportion of the expenditure on roads. i Anomalies of Tariff Dealing witjh the railway tariff, Mr Vaile pointed out its unwieldiness. At present this document consisted of 154 pages with a mass of amend-" ments which the reader was expected to fit in for himself. It was divided into 13 classes and numbered 1500 items, beginning with accumulators, and ending with zone poles. The speaker proceeded to refer to numerous anomalies which occurred in freight charges. In conclusion the speaker contended that fares were universally too high. They were based on a mileage basis which in his opinion was wrong. This basis had originally applied to freight but had since been abandoned, and it was not recognised that the further the goods were carm. • ried the less the amount paid shoufd ' be,