RAILWAYS COMMISSION

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1000, 17 June 1930, Page 14

RAILWAYS COMMISSION

“NO REFLECTION ON PRESENT STAFF” TO INVESTIGATE POLICY Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. “The setting up of this commission of investigation in respect to railway finance,” said the Prime Minister, the Hon. G. WE Forbes, “is not to be taken as any reflection on the management and staff of the railway service. I recognise that the men who are responsible for running the railways are capable and efficient officers and that they are actuated by a keen desire to get the best possible results from the service, both from a financial and a public utility point of view. “They are not responsible for many of the points of policy, and it is in these directions that the Government feels that there is a need for an investigation. The railways administration as such is not on its trial, as has been suggested in some quarters, but it is the policy with which they have been entrusted which requires overhauling. “There is a large sum of money to provide for the working of the railways this year, as was indicated in the recent survey of the national finances, and it has to be decided how much of that can be justifiably incurred; what is a fair thing to ask the taxpayer to bear, and what economies can be effected in the operation of the railways.'’