MAKING RAILWAYS PAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1012, 1 July 1930, Page 10

MAKING RAILWAYS PAY

Sir, — In view' of the opening of a new session of Parliament and the present sitting of a railways commission. I think it timely to open the railway question through your columns and in giving my opinion how to make the railways pay, 1 hope many of your readers will reply and thereby give an expression of public opinion on the seemingly indifferent attitude of the general public to the necessity of making our railways a payable proposition. Firstly, I will submit that the railways are the property of every citizen and i the Government is empowered to con- : trol and maintain the interests of every citizen. This being so, I will take j readers back a few years to the transI port problem which harassed the Auck--1 land City Council, when bus competi- ! tion threatened to send the city tram- ; ways into insolvency. AVe all know | how, in desperation, the City Council succeeded in inducing the then Government to put a penal fare on all buses running competitive services with the tramways and by such an act, bus competition was eliminated and the- Corporation Tramways lifted from a losing proposition to a payable enterprise. This Act I submit because the tramways ownrd by the ratepayers of Auckland were L’-eatened with destruction by a mot panies. Hera, in Ysl> opinion, is the solution of our question. The 1 railways owned b.v o.v’i. and evervone i of us are threatened fcv ‘notor trans- ; port. I say most emr- c.” illv if the , Government can protect ' int-resis o able i » protect the interests 01 X»-\v ‘ Zealand ratepayers and abolish motor

competition. Each year sees added taxation to make good the heavy losses on our railways. Men are dismissed from the service to swell the ranks of the unemployed, while a few motor companies eat out the very vitals of the Railway Department. Put them off the road, I say, either by Act or by taxation. Soon our railways would thrive, our uncompleted lines would be carried to their objective, new lines would |ho run into new country, duplicate lines constructed in busy sectors, and i there would be heavy building of rolling stock. Soon we wouid have access • to new country, new land under the . plough, and more production. Now we pay out money for trucks, benzine, oil and tyres. Hundreds of thousands of pounds a year goes out of New Zealand—money which is urgently needed to solve our own difficulties. I know the rinvor iaient would be condemned as a killer of private enterprise, etcu but the abuse would soon become praise as the people loalised their own interests were being placed first. While «• the question of money leaving N*** Zealand. I would mention the petition of gas companies to tho Prime Mini** | ter to prevent a tariff being placed on Newcastle coal. I say not only ahtsH a tariff be placed on this coal but i* should be prevented from entering the country. We have done without Newcastle coal for the past year and s'* can always do without it. Why should the motto “Buy New Zealand-mad* Ooods" be ever before our eyes such inconsistency is allowed? should this money go to Austral*** when our neighbour refuses to allow our butter and potatoes within her portals. lam sure New Zealand can S more easily self-sustaining than country in the world. Put up duties** protect all articles produced her© | bring them down on all necessities-* I ten. sugar, etc. _ Devonport. JAMES h.\WKIN*I