THE RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1917, Page 4

THE RAILWAYS.

The operation of the new scale of railway rates calls for a few words of caustic comment (says the Dunediu Star.) One would like to know the principle which gdverns the administration of the railways during this wa» period. It cannot be to make the railways "pay," because some of the most profitable business is being cut off and a direct incentive offered to merchants to use shipping and other moans ot transportation from which the State will get no return. If revenue were the desideratum, the well-patronised evening suburban trainß would not have been discontinued. It cannot be to serve the public, because the people were never so much incommoded, It cannot be to promote war economy, because the pressure of the increased charges is driving men to other forms of conveyance, without any compensating diminution in the provision for railway conveyance. We stress this last point for the reason that it has been overlooked' by most of the critics of the Government's folly. The logical conclusion of the policy of the Minister of Railways is an engine running to timetable drawing an empty carriage and an empty truck, while motor cars and motor waggons are being imported with feverish haste to cope with the increased demand for their use. Is it the Minister's wish, in times of scarcity of labor and of material, that there shall be a greatly augmented consumption of petrol without an answering reduction in the »onsumption of coal? During the coming holidays motor cars will be as cheap, or cheaper, for parties of pleasureBcekers than the train. In days of stress like these the aim should 'be to concentrate transportation upon one means, and not to disperse it among several. The railroads arc laid, • the trains will run, and the Government's '■nlbv should hj? to make, it unprofitable to use any other form of conveyance between town and town. We do not suggest that the rates should be lowOed until competition is destroyed. But we do contend that the rates should be reasonable, and that heavy taxation should be imposed on the importation of automobiles and their accessories. The National Government refuses to impose & war tax on automobile traffic, but inu pose it on railway traffic, thus tending to diminish the latter and augment the former. This involves lose of revenue to the State, and a wasteful duplication of transportation service which disregards the National Economy made para mount by the exigencies of war;