Railway Finance.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18903, 19 January 1927, Page 10

Railway Finance.

The returns of revenue and expenditure for the ;S(3 weeks ended December 11th Last seem to make it clear that the Railways Department will not have done very well by the end of the financial year. The net" earnings of the system for the 30 weeks amounted to £753,9-16; for the corresponding period of 1925 they amounted to £757,595. The last sixteen weeks of the year 1925-26 brought in net earnings amounting to £BOO,OOO, but this large return was in the main due to the extraordinarily heavy railway traffic induced by the Dunedin Exhibition. It is most unlikely that £BOO,OOO can be earned between December 11th last and March 3.lst next, even though the period includes the whole of the holiday season. The net earnings for the whole year, therefore, are likely to be no more than last year's, if, indeed, they are not actually less. The new arrangement whereby the losses incurred in respect c/f certain non-paying i branches and sections arc made good I by direct payments from the Consolidated Fund will-enable the Department to present a balance-sheet showing only a small loss at the worst, but the fact will remain that the Railway Board has still much to do before the finances of the system can be said to be on a sound footing. The revenue its not growing at all fast, but perhaps the increase, for the 36-week period, from £5,051,346 in 1925 to £5,254,640 in 1926 is not unsatisfactory. The mild depression of the past year has naturally affected the Department's business. There was a really substantial falling-off in passenger traffic; it amounted to something like 14 per cent., and the decline was doubtless due in some measure to the competition of road vehicles. There were increases, however, in the amount of stock and volume of goods carried. The weak spot in the Department's accounts is still the expenditure. This increased from £4,293,751 for the 36 weeks in 1925 to £4,500,694 for the 86 weeks in 1926. What has caused the increase we do not know, but there is no record of increased business sufficient to explain it. Nobody expected that the Railway Board would be able to cure all at once the financial weakness of the system resulting from decades of dull * and unprogressive management, and everyone admits that in many respects large improvements have been made. But it is a little disappointing, even when allowance is made for the fact that the economic and. financial conditions have not been favourable, that we are not nearer to the day when the system will pay its way.