OUR INEFFICENT RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 49, 17 February 1908, Page 4

OUR INEFFICENT RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.

To the Editor, Sir.- .Now that tlie holiday', arc uvlw \v<; may reasonably hope that in anti-i---pation ul tin; coining uliiili will bo ln-iv all too >OOll, our M.clumber* t»l ronunvrtt', harbor boards and i-ilizens gnu-rally will havo ilruii Munition (lireou-il to the wry Ih-j4rarel.il statu of iiU'ilk-ii'niy into which our railway administration has t'allon.

First, lot me call attention to i-onio very remarkable utterances of Sir Joseph Ward's during last session. In his speech oil imprest supply, Mr. Il'rries had severely attacked the railwav administration, and had drawn marked attention to the much greater los* made on the Hurunni-BlulT .section than on the Auckland or W'ellingtoii-Taranaki-llawke's Bay sections, although far greater facilities had been given lo the Southern lines.

The extracts given below are taken from Hansard, No. !l, July 20. 10117. On page (iti2 Sir Joseph commences his reply to -Mr. llerries by accusing him and myself of unworthy conduct iu attempting to create an implosion that favoritism is being shown to one island us against tile other. "This." Sir Joseph went on to say, "is absolutely contrary to tact, and lias been shown to lit: •■>» time and time again.'' I duly Sir Joseph to give a single instance ol when and where, and think I am justilied in retorting that it is quite unworthy of the Prime -Minister to make statements in Parliament that he cannot prove to be correct.

Sir Joseph, in trying to justify the rapid increase of loss ou the lluruuuiBlulT section, and the very slight increase in the gross trallie there, argued that as time went the same results must obtain in tnc Norm Island. Oil page (j« he is reported to have said:

"As the North Island lines increase in age they will require more expenditure on repairs than at the present moment, and tliey will then go through the same process that the .jouthern lines have. .... and the earnings of the whole of the railways in the North will require to be greater than they are now, in order to maintain either the present gross or net revenue. The disproportion between the revenue and expenditure will, as the years go on and *a greater capital is invested in the North island, become equally as marked in the North island as the lion, member has said it is now in the South island.'' On page titia he again says: " Wherecs the coot of working both the Auckland | and Wellington-Napier-N'ew Plymouth sections will continue to materially increase, and this increase may be expected in the near future to be in a very much higher ratio than the earnings.'' i ask why should this be'r On page U2U he says: "The honourable gentleman (Jir. llerries) says 'How much further is it going to go' down?'" This in in reference to the decreasing rate of interest earned by our railways. "We ought to wait, I repent here—and j the honourable member for Hay ,;f ' Plenty and the Leader of the Opposition will lind it is so, too—that when you get the whole of the sections of the North Island hiihvavs completed, and when you have to provide the maximum facilities for handling and carrying your trallie over the whole of the sections—when the time comes, as come it must—as it did in the South Island, where the increased railway business, which is brought about by largely increased settlement, and by the o|ieiiing up of new country, and the expansion of trade and industries, demand the maximum facilities to deal with the business, and when the initial cost of the railways has to lie increased by charges for bsi.terment and by expenditure for repairs that are not yet required on the liewr lines of the North Island, and when light lines have to be converted into heavy ones, and bridges to lie transformed from light structure* into heavy ones—l repeat that when that time conies —brought about by age and increasing weight of rolling-stock—you will lind, however much you may try to ' disguise it, and however mucji you,may assume that 1 am not stating it lie position correctly, if you choose to put it that way. that the same causes which have operated to bring alioiit the results iu the South Island will operate to bring about similar results in the North Island.'' At this point Mr. llerrie- interjected —as well he might—" That is not very encouraging."

My object, sir, in asking you to s •- produce these utterances of the right honourable gentleman is to draw attention to the fact tliat we have the Prime Minister of the Dominion, the Ministnr who has so long controlled our railway-, -and who ha- had more power and capital placed at his disposal than all his predecessors put together—the Minister who has hail all he aske.l from Parliament for the purpose of carrying out his ideas ot railway administration, he is forced to confess his failure, and admit that the result is that they are making a rapidly-increasing loss, and he now tells us in the clearest and most forcible language that this loss must still largely increase. I ask if it is not amazing to see it man in Sir Joseph's position stating clearly, distinctly, forcibly, repeatedly, that the more capital we invest iu railway construction, the more we extend our mileage, the greater our transit facilities, the greater our population, trade, and commerce, so also must the loss on our railways increase.

I say that if any good is to lie (lone with our railways tlu' public must take the matter in hand. It is abundantly evident that Sir Joseph ami his general manager have proved themselves incapable of managing them. 'Sir .Tosepli. at any rate, not only admits, but loudly asserts, that under the most favourable circumstances he believes it to l>e utterly impossible to make them pay the country. What are we to expect when this is the tixed opinion of the Minister wlio controls them.—l am. etc., SAM TEL VAILE. Auckland, February 12.