The Daily News THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21. NEW RAILWAY POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 219, 21 October 1909, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21. NEW RAILWAY POLICY.

Dhe Prime Minister made an importan tatcment on Monday to a deputatio l>at interviewed him in the interests c .he suspended Lawrence-Roxburgh rail iva,v, and his definite pronounccmerj nay be taken as indicating the futur lOlicy of Hie Government with respee .0 new railway works—that is, we pro mine, railways other than those arteriii mes yet to be constructed. Sir Joscep. stated that the Government had decide definitely that it would not carry ou railways which were not paying) an while the Government did not wish t extract anything to which they were no entitled, the people interested would b asked to pay the difi'ereiice between per cent, and what the railway reall, earned. The suggestion is not a nei one, but the Premier's emphatic stat; nieiit is the first wherein it has bee indicated as part of the Government' policy, we are entirely in accord will the proposal, which is more in accor wiui ihe spirit of Government construe tioii and ownership of the railway than the plan adopted in the case o Hie Waikaka branch railway, for why •tile sealers practically provided til cost of construction. That it is only souu business to expect every railway 111 t.i Dominion to earn at least iiueiest 01 its capital cost cannot be questioned, al though allowance must be made iu til' ease of certain pioneer lines—railway: that to some extent must precede close settlement;. In such a case, lor instanc: as the Stratford-Ungarulie railway; a* suming that it did not actually earn interest lor a year or two, the Government's proposal could not be applied with any fairness. And lh e reason is obvious: that the country, despite its productive potentialities, can only be thoroughly settled after access through it has been provided by a railway. It would be absurd, of course, to expect a mere niuidtul of settlers in that big expanse of country to shoulder the burden of so costly a trunk line. To cite another local instance, however, there would be nothing unreasonable in asking that the rich and closely settled district between Onuuake and the mum line should guarantee the earning capabilities of the important railway loi which they have long agitated. .Nor til we think there would be any hesitatior on the part of the district allectcd U accept tli c conditions suggested, and lor tile very obvious reason tiiat til! district has confidence that the volumi of trallic on the proposed railway woulc ensure to the Department a profit. Tin dilliculty— not an insurmountable one however—we see in the scheme, is jus ho»- the suggested guarantee is to b< provided. An individual one is out o the question; the only other mean whereby the burden—6hould a call eve have to be made on a ''guaranteed railway—might be most equitably dis tributed would be through the local be dies, as has already been suggested. J will be interesting to see how the pee I'le of the Koxburgh district receive th Premier's suggestions. Apparently th Government is doubtful regarding th paying prospects of the line, but the district docs not share this pessimisti view. If, however, they arc prepared t back their opinion against that of th Government, everyone will wish thei: success iu their enterprise. There i one aspect of the position, howevei that must be dealt with if the Govern meut policy in this matter is to ae fairly throughout the Doniiuion. If th Government insists—rightly, we saythat every new lino of railway shouli earn not less than 3 per cent, on it capital cost, then tho condition should in fairness, be made retrospective. I is a fact that there are a few lines i: the Dominion that do not pay, an while the country as a whole may no object to share portion of the burden i: Hie interests of the districts concern ed, it would be extremely unjust t make, say, the guarantors of the Law vence-Koxburgli railway also liable fo an equal share, with those immediate!, benefitted, of the losses on non-payin| lines. Accepting as .sound '.lie princip! that the railways, severally and as , whole, must earn a minimum of 3 pe tent., then every locality should b treated alike. Accordingly, while th settlers in the Lawrence-Roxburgh dis trict would be guaranteeing the Stat against loss, the State should insist tha persistently non-paying lines, construct eel before a guarantee was required, b brought up to a paying point. Thi could only be done by differentia charges being imposed, and howcv" much it might be opposed to the hithei to accepted policy of uniform rat; throughout the Dominion, it is the onl "Kaiis whereby the new railway polic may be realised. -\\' o are certain, how ever, that even were i( necessary i some localities to "make a call," it woul not lie of long recurrence, for with th steady growth of production i every part of the Dominion, the tin, would soon come when the railw.i traffic would show n balance on th credit side.