THE RAILWAYS.
| A recent deputation of Christchurch | business men to the general manager of the New Zealand railways, expressed the opinion that the railways, instead tffobeing a blessing, were a curse. They stated: "What was wanted was efficient. intelligent and sympathetic administration. Instead of assisting, the railways were strangling country merce.'' This „view, strong as it is, is not confined to Christchurch business men. It is held by most people who have anything 'to do with the railways, which department, is, perhaps, the most conservative and retrogressive in the land. The Post and Telegraph Department has for years consistently adopted an enterprising, progressive policy, always striving to improve business and serve the public, whose requirements it has ever' anticipated, with the result that no department is more successful or possesses the confidence of the publio to a greater degree. The Railway Department, 1 on the other hand, sets its face absolutely against anything new; it abhors change and consequently is years behind the times. Indeed, to ask it to improve any service, to remedy any anomaly or injustice is to court its opposition 'immediately, and it is not surprising that public feeling towards t.lie railways administration is rapidly becoming exasperated. Take, for example, the experience of Taranaki. For years efforts have been made to induce the Department to improve the services, which are practically the same as they were when the railways were first opened. There is 110 more go-ahead and
progressive province in New Zealand than Taranaki. but Its development is hindered by the conservative, do-noth-ing policy of the railways. We have but to quote the case of the breakwater charges, which, it was shown by the New Plymouth deputation that waited upon the Minister last week, are double those obtaining elsewhere, thus imposing a burden on the community and causing an unnecessary restriction on trade development. The charges before the war were high enough in all conscience compared with those in other places, but lately every device liiis been employed to squeeze the publle until the cost per ton, exclusive of wharfage, runs into 7s lOd—and the distance
is under three miles! On tuft one hand we have the people striving to make a success of the port and undertaking big financial responsibilities to that end; and on the other hand, we. have the Kail-v.-ay Department doing its best—or its worst—to strangle the port. New Plymonth has raised its voice on dozens of occasions in connection wjth this matter; it is a "hardly annual"—but the Department listens respectfully and promptly forgets all about the representations, and goes on its own way. Why should it worry about the public? The Department is master of all it surveys, and its word is law! It owns the railways, not the people, and it intends to run them its own way! That is the attitude adopted by the Department, and it is one that makes the business men of th(« country lose all faith in the railways and go the length of declaring the railways are a curse instead of ft benefit, a means of strangling rather than assisting the country's development. New Zealand will heave a big sigh of relief when there appears on the horizon a Minister capable of seeing that the railways are run in the interests of the people of the Dominion and not in the interests of the Department itself. If the railways of the Dominion were run by a private company on the same lines as those now adopted, that com-
pany would receive short shrift at the hands of justly indignant Ministers, and tile monopoly would be speedily ended, so also would the exploitation of the public by means of such exorbitant charges as those to which we have alluded. It is the. irony of fate that the people's own railways should become a stumbling block to their progress instead of an assistance.
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Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1918, Page 4
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648THE RAILWAYS. Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1918, Page 4
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