THE NATIONALIZATION OF RAILWAYS.
[To sax EDTIOIL or ring .SPIC.7011." J SIR,—The article on the nationalization of railways in your issue of November 1st, 1913, treated the subject from the financial and political points of view, but said nothing about the point of view of the travelling public. We are all travellers, but few of us care who owns the railway lines by which we travel so long as the service is a comfortable and a quick one. Having lived in three countries where the railways are owned by the State, I have no hesitation whatever in saying that a Government cannot run a railway as well as a company can; and let anyone who doubts this come to New Zealand and try for himself. The three countries I refer to are Ceylon, which has a very comfortable service, but one which is excusably slow, seeing that, save for the engine-drivers and some of the guards, the labour available is native or Eurasian ; New South Wales, where the service is com- fortable, but, for no reason known to me, slow ; and New Zealand, where the service is both uncomfortable and slow. To verify my statement I take the following figures from the railway time-table, and I enclose a copy of the time- table in order that you may revise them if you care to. The two examples taken are the most important trains, one in the North, the other in the South Island. The Wellington. Auckland express averages 20-46 miles an hour, and the Dunedin-Christchurch express 20-14 miles. Talk of the "Government stroke," why even the engines seem to have it. The reason for such slow travelling cannot be hills, because the highest point on the line between Dunedin and Christ- church is only 373 feet above sea level, and the Wellington. Auckland train, which rises to 2,660 feet, goes faster. There is only one other train, the Auckland-Rotorua express, which has a higher average speed, but even it is under twenty-one miles. Narrow gauge certainly prevents trains travelling at sixty miles an hour, but it does not limit them to twenty. This is the result of twenty years of Ministerial management under the Seddon-Ward rule; but one of the first actions of the present Government was to import a highly paid practical manager from home, and the long- suffering public of New Zealand hope soon to see their rail- ways run on business lines—I am, Sir, Ste., SCOT. New Zealand.
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