0. P. SKEBBETT.l

181

D.— 4.

event the line would only be a feeder for the Government railway-line. It would deal with local traffic, I admit, but that is not, I understand, objected to by the Department. I desire to point out that one could quite understand the vigour of the Railway Department in objecting to this connection if there was any solid basis for suggesting that we were to be a dangerous competitor for the carriage with the Railway Department. I submit there is no foundation for such a fear ; and, your Honour, if it should prove that we are a greater competitor'—though, as I have said, the remedy is absolutely in their own hands—they can have a right or option to purchase, or they may construct, as they please, a railwayline with which we could not possibly compete, and, as I pointed out, they may regulate the conditions of interchange of vehicles so as to prevent the carriage of foreign goods. May I remind the Commission that all the Government have got to do is to treat Marton as a terminal point on the terminus of the extended tramway, so as to make the carriage of foreign traffic practically impossible. All they have to do is to prevent the taking of foreign through traffic and foreign traffic cannot be practicably carried, and there is a complete end to the bogey which the Department raised. I do not want to occupy your time, and shall not be very much longer. I do not want to repeat the evidence already given, but I do ask the Commission to consider whether there is not satisfactory evidence that this district will increase in population, in subdivision, and in production, and that this line will be a useful feeder to the Government system. What is the experience of most railway companies ? What has been the experience of Government lines, and, I suppose, partly the Wellington-Manawatu line ? The traffic is constantly changing. In the early days the main traffic may have been timber, and I have no doubt the management often had troublesome times worrying what would happen when th? timber industry was exhausted. But other traffic has sprung up and supplied its place, and this district of Sandon, which is a rich district, is not going to stand still. The returns which were put in by Mr. Wilson show an increase of subdivision from 1898 and 1899 to 1911. The subdivisions almost doubled themselves, and it will be found with subdivision that increased prosperity of the country will go on. I venture to put it to the Commission that the broad way which the Railway Department ought to look at it is this : " We can secure ourselves against the carrying of anything but local traffic. If facilities for the carriage of local traffic is going to develop the district, the increased progress of the district is going to help our railways." Because what are the two market towns of this district ? Feilding and Palmerston North, on the Government line ; and the development of this line is going to develop Feilding and Palmerston North, and possibly Marton. I do want to adopt what fell from the learned President of this Commission, that it is the policy of the Government to support and encourage branch lines, not by private individuals, but by Boards which are substantially public bodies. Your Honour will remember that under the Act of 1913 local authorities might become constructing railway authorities under the Railway Construction and Lands Acts which existed from the year 1881, and under the Act of 1914 provision has been made for facilitating the constructing of light branch lines, and section 74 of the Act provides expressly for their junctioning with the railway-line. But, your Honour, it is said that this will not be a branch line, but a loop line. I venture to say that no more technical argument has been adduced. In a sense it is a loop line, because it connects at two places on the Government line ; but it is not in any sense to be a loop line because it is not expected that it will carry any foreign traffic, and we are prepared to submit to such conditions as will prevent the line from dealing with foreign traffic or other than local traffic. It has been said that a terminal connection has not been asked for before. I submit that is quite irrelevant to this question. Obviously we asked for perhaps a little more than we expect to get. Mr. friend Mr. Luckie reminds me that by the Act of last year local authorities were authorized to construct branch railways beyond their own district for the purpose of connection. I was saying that because we had not asked for a terminal connection is quite irrelevant. We had hoped to be able to ask the Commission to recommend an interchange of vehicles, but I have found, and the advisers of those concerned in this matter have found, that the Railway Department have grave objections at the present time and under present conditions to that course ; and we at once concede that the Railway Department must fix for itself the conditions upon which any interchange of vehicles or any interchange of traffic is to be adopted. But we can hardly think it conceivable that the Railway Department will not give us facilities to ship on to our tramway such goods as were intended for local consumption within the district which may be conveniently done by a siding. The question' as to whether the tramway will pay or not is quite beside this question. That is a matter entirely for the County Councils concerned. They are prepared to undertake the construction of the tramway, and it is their concern and not the concern of this Commission whether the tramway will pay. Now, your Honour and gentlemen, I have done. I have only referred, of course, to the most general topics, but I submit, if your Honour pleases, that when the objections of the Railway Department are closely analysed it will be seen that their objection is on what they call a principle— namely, to allow no facilities for local traffic which in their timidity they may think might slightly affect the railway revenue. They say their principle is not to draw a balance of convenience, not to consider the natural advantages of the district or the advantages which increased facilities would give to the district: they have only to consider one side, and that is whether there will be a loss of revenue to the Department. My submission is that that is not the right principle. The Chairman : They say it is against what they call the public interest. Mr. Skerrett: I submit that is a fallacious way of looking at the public interest. My submission is that the principle which I have already referred to is not the true principle, and will not receive the acceptance of the Commission. My further submission is that the objections of the Department are pure phantasms, and have no foundation in fact; and that further, the conditions to which we submit leave it in the complete power of the Railway Department to prevent our carrying any through or foreign traffic. I do want to say this : that I submit the evidence shows quite clearly that with the facilities offered of getting the goods cheaply to the railway-station the northern market will be open to us for reciprocal trade ; we shall be able to get away our oaten chaff and other agricultural products to a district which purchases them, and be able to get in return products, like timber and so on, which are not produced in the district.