WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1922, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE RAILWAYS. REDUCING THE COST. ' (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, March 6. The local critics of the Government’s administration of the railways refuse to be greatly impressed by the Hon. D. H. Guthrie’s’statement that the loss on the working of the lines has been reduced from £4OOO to £3OOO a day. Firwt, they say that a particularly busy season’ of the year has been selected for the comparison, and then that with all the unprofitable services cut out, no loss of any dimension is excusable. Thue retort, of course, is no more conclusive than the Minister’s assertion, T%e railways account#, are not kept in such a way that the losses and gains can be easily distributf?d among the different lines, and an exact analysis of the expenditure and revenue on thia basis is practically impossible. The charges for interest on loan money during the course of construction have been enormous, probably doubling the nominal cost of such a line as the Midland Railway, for instance, and yet they do nat appear at all in the Minister’s monthly and annual returns. This system is not peculiar to the present Government. It has been common to all Governments since the institution of the public works policy fifty odd years ago. LOSS OF REVENUE. But without delving into the intricacies of the railway accounts the erfttaa of the Government take their stand on the contention that it is losing thousands of pounds every week through its conservative and inefficient management of the lines. The mail trains on tbe Wellington-Auckland trunk line, particularly since their reduction to one each way a day, continue to be fairly well patronised, but the mixed trains running over the various sections of thia line are rarely as much as half full, and there is evidence everywhere that a growing proportion of both the goods and the passenger traffic is 'being driven, on to the roads. This means not merely a loss of revenue to the Railway Department, but also a very heavy tax upon the local bodies in the maintenance of roads, and, where local trains have been abolished, a very serious inconvenience to the public. On what system the reduction o£ services is proceeding no one seems to know, not even the Minister himself, but the result has been to discredit the railways and to magnify the motor to an extent which does not forbode well for the future oi State enterprise. BRANCH RAILWAYS. The Dominion, looking upon the brighter side of this development, sees in the progress of the motor a deathblow to branch railways, and rejoice# over the prospect. It is pleasant, it says, to find the engineers of the Public Works Department deprecating the construction of such lines in view of the approaching revolution. “Branch rauways have -been in nearly all cases unprofitable in New Zealand,” it declare#, “and are to-day a dead weight on tarn back of the Railway Department that is responsible for a large share oi the heavy loss at which the system is run. The branches seldom paid even before motor transport ‘became a competing factor, and the best that can be said of them is that their justification lay in the necessary linking up of outlying districts with the main lines.” All this is very true, but if the Government is going to abandon the construction of branch railways forthwith it must bear its share of the cost of making and maintaining the *oads that are to take their place. It cannot with decency shift any more of its responsibilities on to tbe heavily-laden shoulders of the local bodies. “FALSE ECONOMY.” The Government does not get very far with any of its economy schemes without encountering opposition of one kind or another. Reducing State expenditure is an unpleasant business at any time, and particularly so when the health and safety of children are concerned. These facts are being brought home to the Minister of Education very pointedly just now by a loud outcry against his proposal to discontinue the present subsidy for teaching swimming and lifesaving in the schools. “This is false economy with a vengeance,” protests Mr. J. A. Duffy, the chief honorary instructor to the Wellington Centre of the Royal Life-saving Society. Since the commencement of the bathing season, this authority declares, some thirty live® have been lost by drowning in New Zealand, an average of two a week, and. this in spite of all the society has done towards the encouragement of swimming. By the withdrawal of the subsidy, Mr. Duffy predicts, the number of fatalities will be greatly increased. The straits of the Treasury must be very desperate indeed if this sort of economy is necessary. Surely there is some alternative to the abandonment of children’s swimming lessons.