The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1919. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION POLICY.
For many years past the people of the T >ominion have been looking in vain for a sound policy of public works construction, especially in connection with the railways, which are so essential to the development of the country and the prosperity of the settlers. In the general way public works have been dominated by political exigencies, and not determined on according to urgency. They have been used by politicians as a lever for raising votes at election time, and by Ministers | for party purposes, so that they have acquired the distinction (or shall we say the degradation?) of bribes to the electors in the shape of promises that can be, and mostly are, conveniently ignored after a general election'. This pernicious system has persistently been i condemned, but it has proved such 1 a successful snare in the past that
like all wire pulling or log rolling, it still flourishes. Now that We are approaching another general election and the old parliamentary hands are faced with the prospect of being idle, there is apparently an awakening process set in. Evidence of this is afforded in the reply given by the Hon. G. W. Russell to the Otira tunnel deputation on Monday, when the Minister made the startling announcement that he had been "considering the principles that should guide the Dominion in regard to public works." It would almost seem as if the world's new era bids fair to be an age of miracles when it induces a Minister to confess after many years of Parliamentary service that at last there is an awakening to the value of guiding principles, instead of pursuing hand to mouth methods of construction at the bidding of vote-seeking members. It is almost too much to hope that other members of the Government will subject themselves to the exhaustive process of thinking out | national problems and placing the ; affairs of the Dominion on an intelligent and sound footing. If they did, the change would certainly be welcomed. We must not, however, be too sanguine of such a proeess being productive of action, for other Ministers have not hesitated, when pressed for a definite statement on important matters, to proclaim that they, too, have been using their thinking apparatus, but the connecting link between thought and action is conspicuous by its absence. So far as Mr. Russell's pronouncement goes it is on very safe and obvious lines. His first principle regarding public expenditure is that it should be concentrated on the most rapid possible completion of lailway lines in order that they rn;y attain their full revenue-pro-ducing power as early as possible. While from the viewpoint of a Finance Minister this principle is sound, yet it fails to grasp the fact
that development of resources is of far greater value to the State than any small surplus of revenue to be obtained from the railway service. Roads and railways are essentially powerful aids to development and the greater the transport facilities given to settlers the more will the Dominion prosper. It is an amateurish way to merely consider direct results when a new country like New Zealand is concerned, especially in view of the imperative need for greater production and closer settlement. !~Vy'ith the Minister's second contention that preference should be 1 given to those lines which will open up country for settlement or bring mineral districts into contact with their natural ports, there will be a consensus of approval, and there ,is no railway that so completely comes unler this heading as that from Stratford to Okahukura, yet that line has beea allowed to be starved in its construction by the Government to which Mr. Russell is attached. It is a great pity that lie has taken so long to think out this principle, and it will be interesting to see whether he has the courage of his opinions and will insist on this line being finished with commendable dispatch. We are emboldened, under the circumstances, to assist the Minister with another thought in the direction of establishing a principle that railways acting as distributing agencies for ports of call of overseas vessels should be placed in the same category as railways for settlement. Mr. Russell's third principle of attaching to the State a "just and niuitable proportion of the increases in values of land, consequent on railway construction," is theoretically sound, and had it leen adopted when the railway? [were first built the State would have had its share of the unearned increment, but it seems fably certain that any attempt to tax the settlers within a defined area of every new railway would meet with intense opposition, If the Government held the land the process would be easy, but it parts with the land many years before the line is built, and the long-suf-fering ssttjers f'eel they have we!! earned the boon when it arrives. Mr. Russell suggests that the most equitable method would be State rysumption of the lands affected prior to construction being started. Such a revolutionary propos al would not be entertained for a moment for it would be regarded as arbitrary confiscation. We quite agree with him that the day when twenty railways should be under construction at the rate of a mile or so a year must cease. It should never have been allowed to exist, acd Mr. Russell must bear his share the blame therefor. This is no time for phrases, but for energetic development. Principles that are sound will always be welcome, but the great need of the Dominion is for men of action, and their advent is eagerly awaited.
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Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1919, Page 4
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944The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1919. RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION POLICY. Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1919, Page 4
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