RAILWAYS NORTH AND SOUTH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 900, 20 August 1910, Page 4

RAILWAYS NORTH AND SOUTH.

We have dealt generally with the Railways Statement ' in another article, but there is : one aspect ot the working of the , system during the year 18us)-10 that calls lor special notice. Of the £1,080,316 of net revenue, the sum of £1624 came from the Lake "Wakatipu boats. The remaining £1,078,69" .was thus divided: North Island, £5-16,567; South Island, £532,125. The length of line open for traffic is given as 1135 miles in the North Island and 1574 miles in the South 'Island, which gives us this result: Revenue Net Miles . per revenue. of rail. niile. £ £ North ... 546,5U7 1,135 481 South ... 532,125 1,574 344 This little table needs no commentary to make clear its indication of the way in which the money for railway construction should be allocated. -When we come to-a closer examination of the details we find some extremely interesting results. The capital sunk in the jjforth. island main lines and branches (£12,516,072) is practically the same as that sunk in the South Island main line.'and..branches (£12,540,331), but the return in this island is £4 4s. 2d. per cent and in the South £3'4s. Sd. Taking'all, the lines in each island we get the 'following results from Return No; 6 appended to the Statement: — ' Capital cost Net Koturn opened lines, revenue, per i £ £ cent. North 12,977,258 '■ 516,507 4.21 South 15,31)5,716 532,125 3.4G The interest on. capital, according to a statement made by Mr. Mxllah when in , Australia, is 3.8 per cent. The South Island linea, therefore, lost .34 per cent on £10,,'!65,716; the North Island lines showed, a profit of .41 per cent on £12,977,258. .The users of the North Island lines thus paid £53,206 into the Consolidated Revenue alter paying all expenses. The users of the South Island lines failed to pay expenses by £52,243. The people of the North Island, that, is to say, contributed £50,000 for the benefit of those in the South. It must be obvious that it is bad business, from the national point of view, to continue the policy of spending the lion's share of the construction money in the South.