The New Transport Problem.

In order to get the answer to the question in its proper setting it was necessary to look into the transport problem, and the conditions in the transport industry, many of which were not peculiar to New Zealand, but were universal, because there was not a railway concern in the world to-day that had not felt the pressure of the new conditions in exactly the same way as the New Zealand Railways had. In the old days, before the advent of the road motor vehicle, the railways had what might be termed a quasi - monopoly. They could in those days give unpayable services and readily recoup themselves. Sometimes there would be objections from the people who were going to be asked to pay a little extra in order to make the accounts balance, but in the final analysis they had to pay.

In time a new element was introduced, an element which enabled the people to say: “We are not going to pay this; and if you do not remove it we are going somewhere else,” and in these and other ways arose disturbances of the public mind which have led to an inadequate analysis of the position.