RAILWAY CURTAILMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1919, Page 5

RAILWAY CURTAILMENT.

STATEMENT BY GENERAL MANAGER. By Toiejriph—Press Assn.-~Copyr'lM-Wellington, July 9. Mr. McVilly, General Manager of Railways, publishes a statement in defence of the railway restrictions, in which he reiterates that the restrictions are entirely due to the coal shortage. He points out that the diminution of railway coal stocks was due to circum- | stances over which the department had no control. He says that since 1914 i the Dominion has been taking part in a world's war, every industry at Home and abroad having been materially affected, while shipping had been diverted from ordinary peace channels and taken for war purposes. Men in tens of thousands have been withdrawn from industries to serve with th» colors; epidemic Bickness ravaged the country and had taken its toll in the ranks of the workers; the output of coal from the local mines had decreased by threequarters of a million tons per annum, and finally, on top of these conditions, camo the disastrous strike of seamen in Australia, which suddenly cut the Dominion off from supplies upon which we were dependent, even when the output of our own mines was at its normal figure. It appears to be lost sight of that in 1915 the condition of the coal supplies became so serious as to necessitate the appointment of a Coal Trade Board under the direction of the Minister of Munitions. This board assumed full control of the allocation of all supplies of coal in and for the Dominion, and supplies for the Railway Department, in common with other industries, came automatically under its control. The Railway Department has taken care to keep the board fully apprised, week !>v week, of the state of .the department's stocks and requirements, and has, in addition, by the use of its organisation, and in fact by every means in its power, assisted the board to obtain both coal and shipping from outside the Dominion. It did this, moreover, with the full knowledge tnat the supplies ai» arranged would be subject to the board's allocation, and might be, and in fact frequently were, diverted to other industries. It seems clear from a ••onsideration of the foregoing that tho strictures upon the management of tho (Department for failing to look ahead were based upon incorrect or incomplete 'information. This applies equally to the assertion that the management, with the War Regulations behind it, had the power, if it chose to apply it, to commandeer both vessels and coal mines in order to obtain its supplies. The management had no such power with or without the War Regulations.