Other items in construction costs are the numerous bridges and tunnels. There are many rivers fed by heavy rainfalls, and at frequent intervals long spans of steel and concrete are found. On the west coast of the South Island is the Otira Tunnel, which runs for five miles under mountains. The power used in the tunnel is electricity. This road was built to bring coal from the western fields to the eastern railroad connections.
The longest run in the Dominion is that from Wellington to Auckland, a distance of but four hundred and twenty-six miles. This is the only road in the country on which sleeping cars are used. The New Zealand sleeper, which is only fifty feet long, is by no means the roomy affair to which we are accustomed in the States. The car is divided into two- or four-berth compartments reached by a narrow corridor extending along its whole length. While my berth was being made up I had to stand in the hallway with the other three occupants of my compartment.
Though our cars were small, and much of the journey was over steep grades, the going was not nearly as bumpy as one would suppose, for the engineers take pains to run their trains smoothly and do not jerk and jostle the passengers at every start and stop as is often the case in the States. Practically all the engines and coaches used on the Dominion railroads are now built in New Zealand, either in the government railway shops or by a private firm.
The New Zealand government believes that the railroads exist for the people, and is managing them in their interests and for the development of the country. It does not try to make a large profit, being entirely satisfied with a return of from three to four per cent. per annum. In the past, surplus revenues have been returned to the taxpayers in the shape of reduced freight rates and passenger fares, but in the years of depression after the World War the lines earned less than three per cent.
The regular passenger rate is two cents a mile. Young people under twenty-one who are learning a trade or business and must go to work by rail are allowed reduced fares. All students may travel on cut rates, and in districts where there are no schools the railroads take children to and from those that are nearest free of charge. This is true whether they are going to private or to public schools. The government considers this service worth what it costs because it promotes popular education. Now and then special trains are run to take the school children out over the country for practical lessons in geography. The charge for such excursions just about covers the cost of running the extra trains, and any school can have an instructive trip of this kind upon the request of the teacher in charge.
One New Zealander with whom I talked said:
“It is our idea that the railroads are the servants of the people. We want to bring every farmer’s produce to the markets at the lowest cost, and to make it possible for our people to compete with those of other lands in the markets of the world. If we can build railroads so that the man one hundred miles from the seaboard can get his produce aboard ship at the same cost as the man who lives only ten miles away, the first man’s land becomes as valuable as that of the land-holder near the coast. Then we get more taxes out of him and he becomes a more prosperous member of the community. We are now devoting the roads largely to opening up new country, and are pushing them out into the public lands.”
“I notice that you have more than fifteen thousand government railway employees,” said I. “Is not the service on the railroads seriously affected by the fact that the government runs them? Do not the clerks and the trainmen vote to keep in power the politicians who promise them the most in the way of raising their wages or enabling them to hold their jobs?”
“I don’t think there has been any attempt to do anything of that kind, and I doubt if it could succeed,” was the reply. “Our civil-service rules are rigid and we maintain them. There are special boards to which railroad employees may bring their grievances. Furthermore, when a new party comes in, there is no wholesale overturning of the government service such as, I understand, used to prevail in your country. Only the elected officials are changed. Promotion in government service is by seniority, and few men, if any, get their jobs through political pull.”