WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1921, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE RAILWAYS. POOR RETURNS IN SOUTH ISLAND. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 19. The publication of the railway returns for the financial year ended March 31 last has given the local newspapers another opportunity to draw odious comparisons between the results obtained from the North Island lines and those obtained from the South Island lines. There were decreases in the net revenue in both islands, compared with the net revenue of the preceding year, largely, of course, in consequence of the substantial increases in wages, but while the North Island shows a decrease of £89,29 on a much larger total, the South Island shows a decrease of £280,232. This means that while the North Island lines returned 0.19 per cent, on their capital cost in 1919-20 and 5.69 per cent, in 1920-21, the South Island lines returned only 2.95 per cent, and 1.41 per cent, respectively “Apparently,” the Dominion sagaciously observes, “there is a serious increase of dead-running in the South Island railways.”

INCOMPLETE LINES. No doubt the North Island lines are doing much better than in the South Island lines, but the explanation of this fact does not lie in the increase of “dead running” on the other side of Cook Strait. The average gross revenue has been maintained in the South as well ,as it has been in the North. But the South Island is suffering under the great disadvantage of having its two most important lines, the Main Trunk and the East and West Coast Railway, still incomplete. The North Island was in the same position for many years through the great gap in the construction of its Main Trunk, and during that period, though it had the connections between Wellington, New Plymouth and Napier, its returns were considerably behind those of the South Island. The remedy for the state of affairs now prevailing in the South will be completion of its two arterial -Railways which are destined to serve Auckland and Wellington scarcely less well than they will serve Christchurch and Dunedin.

PROGRESSIVE PARTY. The members of the executive of the Progressive and Moderate Labor Party who were in conference here yesterday, express themselves as highly pleased by the support they are receiving from the “right sort of people,” as one of their number put it to-day. The “right sort of people,” in the opinion of this representative of the new evangel, are folk who have grown weary of the “caucusruled Reformers, the .uninspired Liberals and the destructive Socialists” and want to see the Dominion advancing along sound democratic lines towards the gaol of the ideal State. To the outsider, the party seems to be making the initial mistake of avoiding the publicity which has been the very life-blood of similar movements in the past, but its promoters explain that in order to avoid ■the reproach of provincialism they do not wish to herald themselves abroad till there is a completed national organisation.

HIGH ASPIRATIONS. But whatever the quality of the organisation of the Progressive and Moderate Labor Party may be, its platform will make a very intimate appeal to a large section of the community. The party is calling for as many reforms as Mr. Massey and his friends were doing ten or eleven years ago and there is .10 reason to suppose they are calling for them with less sincerity. It wants an equitable electoral system, a really representative Administration more rapid land settlement, fiscal reorganisation, a capable and satisfied Civil Service, economical and capable defence and a score of other things of which two generations of eager spirits have been dreaming. Whether or not the movement will develop into an active force in the public affairs of the country depends upon the wisdom and tact and courage of its promoters, but never before has an enterprise of the kind been vouchsafed in advance so many broad-spread opportunities.