EMPIRE TRANSPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 598, 26 February 1929, Page 7

EMPIRE TRANSPORT

CHEAPER HAULAGE SOUGHT WORLD-WIDE INQUIRY A directing committee has been set up to study the assistance which mechanical transport can give to the economic development of the overseas Empire. There are to-day in the Dominions, and all over the tropical Colonial Empire, zones of what may be called, economically, No Man’s Land, writes Brigadier-General F. D. Hammond, a member of the committee, in “The Times” (London). These zones are potential areas of production. But it is not worth anyone's while to cultivate anything in them for export. They are too far from the market. Prohibitive transport charges cut them off from the world of commerce. In tropical Africa, to take the example with which I am most familiar, the railways are relatively few and far between. The gaps between them are (I speak, as throughout this article, in round figures) 300 miles. How are crops grown mid-way between such lines to be brought to rail? One answer is, of course, by lorry; but here again the question of cost intervenes. One shilling and sixpence a ton-mile under favourable conditions is the average, and this involves transport charges of £3 15s a ton for a 50mile journey to rail. XJp to that distance a lorry is economically possible; beyond that, except for high-priced crops, such as cotton and tobacco, it is out of the question. There remains, then, an area 200 mides wide between the railways and out of economic reach of the lorries. Who is to go before the railway engineer is the problem that presents itself to the newly-constituted committee. They have to bridge the gap between the rail costs of 2d a ton-mile 'and the lorry costs of Is 6d a ton. Increased Loads

What are the lines along which this problem has to be attacked? One method which has been strongly advocated is by increasing the * load which can now be hauled in one unit. By increasing the paying load, the heavy overhead charge and the wages hill would be distributed more widely and the ton-mile costs be decreased materially. This large unit must, however, be capable of running over lightly constructed roads, because the cost of building long mileages of firstclass tar macadam or concrete roads in these areas would be prohibitive. The advent of the six-wheeler has been a great advance, as it provides a vehicle which does not require a firstclass road. But, although it has reduced the burden of maintenance and repair both of lorry and of road, it is still a long way from having solved the whole problem. A second line of attack is on the fuel problem. The high cost of petrol (sometimes 5s a gallon) is a grave consideration in many distant parts of the Empire, and several alternatives have been the subjects of experiment.

If and when some vehicle capable of hauling a heavy load and using a cheap fuel has been evolved, the scheme of transport to which, I think, we can look forward in these new countries of the Empire will be something on the following lines: From centres on the branch railways large road units w'ill work out in a series of loops with a maximum range of 70 to 100 miles. Where necessary each vehicle will work two or three loops. These larger units will in turn be fed by six-wheelers, animal transport, or

even by head transport, though this must be discouraged so far as possible, as it is thoroughly uneconomical and diverts man-power from more fruitful occupations.

A system like this would not merely open up new areas, but it would act as a most powerful stimulus to increased production throughout the whole country it served. Not least would be its effect on the railways. If the cost of the transport to railhead could be reduced to 6d, or even 4d, a ton-mile, think of the effect on the existing railways of being able to tap an area two or three times as large as they do to-day! Think of the stimulus it would in turn give to the construction of new railways, because lines which it is not profitable to build to-day would become good paying propositions?