THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1919, Page 12

THE RAILWAY SERVICE.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE FUTURE. At a farewell tendered by the service at Wellington on Friday, Mr Hilcy said that during the war the Department had been pressed to its limits to keep the trade of the country going, and he would urge the Government, to • give the Department the facilities it must have if it was to deal not only with the .'sent trade of New Zealand but with the trade as it must develop in the future. He would not be doing his duty to the management and the staff). or to the Dominion, If he did not stress the importance of a vigorous forward policy in regard to railway improvements. The 1914 programme of improvements submitted by the management remained practically untouched. No part of the scheme had been completed. Had he supposed for a moment that the Government and the people would "digest" a larger proposal than the expenditure of 3J millions he would have suggested tl.j expenditure of much more money, because more was required. That programme should have been completed ere this, and another larger programme embarked upon. Five years of valuable time had been lost, no doubt inevitably. So sure as anything conld be, New Zealand would go through a period of rapid expansion, and the railways had no margin to deal with additional business;. Unless the Government was prepared to go on, and push through the 1914 programme, and the later programme to follow it, the railways would retard progress rather than aid it. If the railways should fail at any time the General Manager of the day would be charged with inefficiency, because a'service which touched so closely the comiort and pocket of the people could not escape criticism. The Railway Department was often "The Whipping Boy" to the Government of the Day. But the Railway Department would not be to blame if things went wrong because of lacik of development work so necessary. In addition to the 1914 programme many things were necessary if the railways were not to be allowed to become more out of date and more unable to deal witlj the business to offer. Take the Wellington-Johnsonville-Paekakariki line as an example: That line should never be allowed to remain as part of the main line with its present grades. Duplications would haye to be made in the neighborhood of chief centres to make possible the separation of suburban and main line traffic. The suburban lines would have to be electrified to make possible the Tapid carriage of passengers in comfort through tunnels. The Rimutaka route was an absolute anachronism. It was impossible for the Department to carry the traffic offering from Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa on that line, with its grade of one in fourteen with curves.'. He urged the Government to have the deviation routes surveyed at once. There were shortages, also, of modern engines and cars, and these must be obtained. Perhaps most important of all was . a policy of bridge strengthening, to provide bridges that would carry modern engines.