Support the Railways.

Under the above heading the “Taihape Daily Times” discusses the transport problem from the country district point of view.

“Pirate companies,” states the Times, “base their operations on the dependability of the railways. If any of their vehicles collapse and cause a temporary dislocation of their services, the companies can always escape from their dilemma by utilising the railways. But suppose competition became so ruinous that the railways were obliged to close down, what then? The country districts would be the first to suffer the inevitable disadvantages. Even at this early stage in the development of competitive motor traffic with the railways, the cost of the maintenance of the roads has enormously increased. Most farmers are only too vividly aware of this—their annual payments for rates are sharp reminders. What would happen to the country-side if the whole of the goods now carried by the railways had to be transported by roads, and especially through the central routes of the North Island, must be left to the imagination. New Zealand is many years behind the stage when its roads will be good enough to carry the whole of its passenger and transport traffic; and even when it does reach that stage, the public is bound to feel that it made a great mistake in allowing itself to be lured away too soon from its own dependable system, by the syren voices of the newer vehicles of locomotion.

Since the railways are public property, it is only fair that the public should, within reasonable limits, support and conserve a utility in which they are so vitally and heavily interested.”