23 DECEMBER 1932, Page 24

• UNFAIR COMPETITION.

Nor is it as though railway charges themselves had not increased, for although of recent years there has been a great increase in facilities for cheap short-term travel, ordinary fares are still about 50 per cent, above the pre- War level. I am not suggesting that there should be a reduction, for I doubt if much increase in traffic would result, but the increase I have referred to does at least seem to preclude the possibility of greater revenues being obtained through still higher fares. Meanwhile, railway workers and railway shareholders have this in common, that conditions having arisen threatening the income of one and the weekly wage of the other. And in such circumstances and with the Salter Report having mani- festly commanded the approval of a large section of the community, including motorists and pedestrians alike who find the roads over-crowded to the point not only of inconvenience but also of public danger, it seems astonish- ing that the Report should not have received urgent attention. At present the railroads are suffering from unfair and almost subsidized competition. ARTIILTR W. KID. DY.