History Of N.Z.’s. Railways

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 61, 28 June 1948, Page 5

History Of N.Z.’s. Railways

ROTARIANS HEAR INTERESTING TALK New Zealand Railways, since their start in 1861, have had a tremendous effect on the progress and prosperity of the country, said Mr W. Bishop in an address to the Whakatane Rotary Club on Tuesday night on the progress of the New Zealand Railways down through the years. The first railway in New Zealand was started in 1860 by the Canterbury Provincial Council, Mr Bishop continued, to make a link with Port Lyttelton from Christchurch. This railway, completed, cost the Council approximately £300,000 and became the genesis of - the present comprehensive system. Early in the history of the New Zealand Railways' a gauge problem presented itself and threatened to make the country a land of several gauges, but Sir Julius Vogel, with his scheme to borrow £10,000,000 to further the progress and development of the country; started to construct the New Zealand Government rail system on a uniform 3’ 6” gauge. This put a stop to the multigauge menace. From this point the railways in this country went ahead in leaps and bounds, till 1901 saw 2100 miles of track laid. . Mr Bishop exhibited a number of charts that showed the progress of the Railways' through the decades even to the latest 1947 figures which indicated the growth of the traffic and increased facilities provided by the Department to handle it. Thes® charts showed a wonderful improvement in turnover between the years 1911 and 1921 and a lesser improvement in the succeeding ten years, when intensive competition was met from other means of transport, mainly from road-services. This competition was met by the government with a policy of absorbing these other means of transport passenger and freight and operating them in conjunction with the existing Rail services. Mr Bishop mentioned that the earnings of the Road Services are now over a million and a half a year. Further progress was indicated in the Railways Department by the latest revenue figures which -show an increase of over £15,000,000. Thq interest in the railway capital is £3,000,000 per annum, and with increased costs in wages, coal and construction material, * the earnings of the Railways over the past few years have barely paid working expenses, and the whole of the interest bill has had to be drawn from the Consolidated fund, the speaker declared. It was, therefore, up to the public to make as much use of the railways of the country as possible to enable them to keep on a paying basis.