RAILWAY POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 June 1917, Page 3

RAILWAY POLICY.

STATEMENT BY MINISTER. Replying to a Christchurch deputation, the Minister of Railways made a clear statement of the policy" of the Railway Department with relation to the reduction of traffic. The Hon. W. H. Herries. in replying to the deputation, said it was continually being asked, not' only hy the Defence Department Trot also hy the general public and the newspapers, when they were going to "comb out" their Department with the view of sending the men to the front. As a matter of fact, the Railway Department had already sent considerably more than it? share under the voluntary principle, but it had come to a sta»e when it had to ask for exemption if it was coing to carrv nn the full railway service that had been given the public—and for some time lie was determined to earrv on that service because lie thought the people Wanted it. apd be thought it was dosirnble for the Dominion that it should be eavricd on; hut various circumstances had arisen which compelled the {lovcrnluent to adopt another principle, and to tnsk the public to agree to shorter serriees and leas conveniences from the RailWay Department in order that the Department could liberate its men for military service. It came to this: that the main reduction would have to be made in the traffic department. When thev came to look at the traffic, the first thing that (truck them was that it would not be In the interests of the Dominion or of ibe Empire to reduce the goods traffic. The goods traffic rmwt be maintained. t>eeau=c it was necessary to get our hroi'ucc to the ports in order to scud It to the Homo Country. That seemed to him to be an argument that could not he got over. Then thev were driven to this: that the reduction to be mode must be made in the pnsscnger traffic. What the fSovernment proposed to do. nnd what it wanted to stick to, was Ibis: To try and work the suburban traffic in a certain range of hours so that they might, not hn'-c two shifts, nr In some eases three shifts, as thev bnd before. It stood to rea=op that it thev Inulrt not carry out that process thev would not be abl" to release so many men. Supposing they worked from 7 to T with the main staff, then after that they would li-v* to say to the' Defence Department: *We cannot release these tnen; they are necessarv for us." That was the general principle the Railwav Deportment laid down. Thev did not detire to injure any port in the Dominion Tt was a general principle whleli be thought could be established by anyone Ivho knew anvth'ms about railway matters that the'way to reduce the service was to limit the service to a certain number of hours in order to release the ni»n who would be omnloved otherwise after those hours. That was the pvin»iple thev adopted. , '•T can'assure von." so id the Minister, "it is wing to cost the Dominion ft considerable amount. The Railwav Department will make a verv considerable sacrifice. We nre cutting out a great.deal nf our most important trade, and trade that is very remunerative to us. Aim ive tire doing it—and we think the public Kill back us up—in order to release men In ™ in the. front I regard the mo»B----tprv position as nothing. Taxation will remedy that. Tf the Saihvay Department does not give so much revenue, the revenue will have to be raised in iom- other way by taxation. We reP.ird the sending of men to the front as if supreme importance. Xext to that comes the sending of produce."