RAILWAYS NORTH AND SOUTH

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 April 1910, Page 6

RAILWAYS NORTH AND SOUTH

Very pat to the current discussion of the relative usefulness of' the Northern and Southern railway systems comes' the Gazette with the railway returns up to March 5 last. Month by month we: have shown from the official figures in the Gazette that notwithstanding the utmost endeavours of Me. Millab -the Southern railways cannot be made even to appear other than unpayable, while the Northern lines continue profitable in despite of the bad management of the system. For the four weeks ended March 5 we get the following result: Expendi- Net Revenue, ture. Revenue. £ £ £ North Island lines 118,091 86,029 62.0G5 South Island lines 140,705 83,432 57,273 And the Northern superiority in net returns is in despite of the fact that the South Island has nearly 40 per cent, more miles of railroad than this island—to be exact, .1574 miles os against 1135 miles. The net revenue for the fiscal year up to March

5 (339 days) is contributed as is shown in the following table: Not Miles of Net return Rovenue. Railways, per mile. £ £ s. d. North 472,510 1,135 116 6 2 South 455.161 . 1,571 314 5 4 The net earning capacity of the railways in this island, that is to say, is 30 per cent greater than that of the Southern lines. When we come to consider the payability of the two systems—the relation between the net return and the 3.80 per cent, of interest on capital (Mr. Millar's figure) which has to be met—we find a very interesting state of things. The following table shows the results for the fiscal year so far as is recorded : • Net Capital Net return Revenue. Cost, percent. North 172,510 13,040,612 3.62 South 185,161 15,817,986 3.06 Assuming that for the remaining 26 days of the fiscal year the same ratio obtains, the nib return from the Northern lines will be 3.88 per cent and from the Southern lines 3.28 per cent. This will give the following result: North. South. Capital cost ... ,£13,040,612 .£15,817,986 Net return per cent. 3.8S 3.28 Interest charge per cent ... 3.50 3.80 Deficit or surplus per cent. .08 snrp. .52 deficit Loss or profit in - cash £10,132 profit. J582.253 loss. The lines in the South will lose, that is to say, eight times as much as the profit made by the Northern lines. Can anybody doubt for an instant longer that a North Island Eailway League is one of the most urgently-necessary things of the day? ■ ■ ; '