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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 2 (June 1, 1927)

The Relative Advantages of the Railway and Motor for Developing Hawke's Bay

The Relative Advantages of the Railway and Motor for Developing Hawke's Bay.

Indiscussing this question we must first consider what kind of transport service Hawke's Bay requires for its development, and which of the two alone, railway or motor, will best supply that service, so as to develop the resources of the province to the fullest possible extent.

Hawke's Bay is chiefly a pastoral and fruit growing province, if we except its trawling industry, some dairying and some timber milling.

On the development of these depends the development of the province. The transport service must be regular, rapid and economical, suitable both for passenger and goods or stock transport, available for short or long journeys, and for large or small numbers of people and quantities of stock or produce as may be required. It must be a portion of a large chain of service, as the railways are, or must link up with other similar services; for stock and produce must be transported in the quickest and most economical way to wherever the market may be.

In my opinion, the railway best performs all these necessary services. It is regular, rapid, and economical. Moreover, being composed of a number of vehicular links with one source of haulage power, and one staff, it can, at short notice, be contracted or expanded, by taking away or adding carriages or trucks, as the case may be. In this way busy and slack times may be equally well catered for without any change in staff. In addition, the railway by its clasticity, also assists development step by step, at comparatively small cost.

Motor transport is by single vehicular units, each under separate haulage power, and each requiring separate man power to control it. Each vehicle is limited in capacity and provides a service which is only capable of expansion by increasing both haulage and man power. This makes the service uneconomical in every way, for provision must be made for special occasions by providing more vehicles and more men, than are normally required, and also extra accommodation for these vehicles, which are subject to much greater depreciation than railway carriages and trucks are. This would make a motor service much more cumbrous and costly than a railway to perform the same service. With the railway much expansion could take place before additional vehicles or any extra staff would be required.

It is questionable indeed if dependence on motor traffic alone would not retard instead of assist development. If it is uneconomical, as I believe it to be, it would retard development in two ways.

(1) By absorbing capital which might otherwise be used in development; for the savings of one period finance the development of the next, and if we do not save we cannot progress.

(2) By absorbing labour which might otherwise be used in productive employment.

We may try to realise what the difference would be if we take 10 per cent. or 15 per cent. of our labour from productive employment and add this to the distributive or non-productive portion of the community. Development proceeds by the extent to which production can be increased. If we decrease our productive power and increase the cost of distribution it will retard development.

If we can imagine the enormous increase in motor transport which would be required to perform the service now being performed by the railways, quite apart from further development, we shall get some idea of the much larger staffs required. Depots and garages would require to be established at every small town just as railway stations are now, and these would need similar staffs for loading and unloading, unless time was to be lost. Our highways, too, would have to be made wider and better to cope with the great increase in traffic. I do not know, but I do not suppose the cost per mile of laying down such roads as would be needed for this vast extra traffic would be any less than for laying down railway lines.* And unless all motor transport services could be combined, or even if they could be, they would be liable to sudden page 29 changes or stoppages, caused by financial and other reasons, for all privately owned enterprises have their financial embarrassments at times.

Except for greater speed, motor transport is very similar to horse transport, which the railways have already superseded. Like horse transport it has greater mobility because it can go where the railways cannot, but its drawbacks are much greater. Besides, nearly all producers already have either horse or motor transport for their individual needs, but it is when individual needs are combined that something more than motor transport is required.

Lastly, I do not know of any country in which motor trannsport has superseded the railway for general community purposes.

In conclusion, I would point to the development in the Dominion which the Railways have so largely contributed to. For a new country New Zealand leads the world in railway mileage, and it leads the world in the rapidity of the country's development, and in the individual wealth of the people.

A Unique Exhibit

A Unique Exhibit

These facts may have no relation to each other, but on the other hand I am inclined to think they have.

The above exhibit (Locomotive No. 1) created considerable interest in the State School Jubilee Procession held in Greymouth recently. The exhibit was constructed by the staff at the Greymouth Workhsops, who are to be congratulated on their ingenuity in giving such creditable shape to the old materials out of which the exhibit was constructed. The following are particulars of the material used in its construction:—

An electric wire cable reel (for the wheels); a wooden case (for the coal bunker); a wooden roller from a roll of linoleum (for the smokestack); old oil drums (for the cylinders); whilst the dome was from a discarded “D” boiler. Cardboard was the material used for the mountings, hoop iron was used for the lagging bands, and the serviceable looking tools on the tender were made from wood—altogether a most creditable job.

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* Note. -The average cost per mile of railway in New Zealand is about £15,000. This amount includes the cost of all buildings and equipment. The cost of road construction with modern surface and for medium traffic, is about £3,000 per mile. The annual maintenance cost of Railways is, however, substantially less than that of roads. —Ed. N. Z. R. M.