RAILWAY CHARGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1938, Page 7

RAILWAY CHARGES

POSSIBILITY OF INCREASE

DISCUSSED BY PREMIER.

NATIONAL VALUE OF SERVICE.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

The contribution made by the railways to the development and general welfare of New Zealand was emphasized by the Prime Minister. Mr Savage, when asked during an interview last evening if an increase in railway passenger fares and freight rates were contemplated as a means of eliminating the present railway operating losses. Mr Savage said that the railway service was one of the few services that had not increased its charges. So far. the Government had done nothing about them.

“The present scale of railway charges has operated for many years," said Mr Savage. “We have been improving the service all along the line, and have not increased fares and freights. However, it is pretty obvious we cannot keep on that way for ever. Nobody ever talks of a good road being a drag on industry, and the resources of the country, and if that argument is sound in the case of a highway I don’t see why it does not apply with equal force to our railway system.” Mr Savage said that inhabitants in all parts of the country had asked for railway communications; Since the Government had been in office it had had demands for the completion of lines that had been begun and stopped, and for the continuation of existing lines. Apparently the people asking for these lines considered them economic propositions. When the Taneatua-Opotiki line was completed the farmer in the districts served by it would have better facilities for the transport of their stock and produce, quite apart from the general incentive it would give to development. He quoted that line merely as an illustration of the value of the railway system. In some places motor services may be advisable, but these should serve as feeders to the railway system. “Who could estimate the value that has been created by the railway system?” asked Mr Savage. “I suppose it would run into millions. Certainly it has never been reflected in any railway balance-sheet. When the men on the railways receive anything there are people who say the railways can’t carry the increase, but when some people make fortunes out of the values created by the railways nobody appears to worry. “Our railway system in New Zealand’s greatest social service. The development of New Zealand was made possible by the railways, the roads and the then existing forms of transport. As with other things, the scientist has improved in various ways the means of transport. I am not foolish enough to say we should stick to the old idea, but when we talk of the railway system and whether it is a payable proposition or not, we should take into account what the railways mean to this country. If there are better forms of transport we should have them, but for certain classes of work the railways stand alone. Even today I would shudder to think what the position would be if the railways stood still.”