THE RAILWAY FINANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1001, 16 December 1910, Page 6

THE RAILWAY FINANCES.

• Last night's Gazette contains the railway returns for the four weeks ended November 12—the eighth fourweekly .period of the current railways year. Wc should like nothing better than to be able to say that the railways are being run efficiently and at a profit. That may. appear to be inconsistent'with our desire to persuade Parliament and tho public that the ' system of Ministerial control must be ' abolished, but-" it is not actually so. If_ Mb.' Millar were to make the"' railways really pay, which ho has not yet done—and which he. will not do this year, although he may have figures that will help _him to show a "paper" profit behind 'which is hidden real losses—the case for nonpolitical management would still stand. It would, not be weakened in tho least by any appearance of moderate success under a system that is intrinsically bad. The. figures under review, just now show an improvement. upon the figures of last year, and ip is possible that tho Minister will be able to show a hotter net return per cent on capital than last year. But.wo showed .conclusively that tho apparent small'-profit for 1909-10 w,as not a real profit at all, and would have been a large unconcealable loss wore it not for an unwise economy in maintenance, a raid on stoves, and, amongst 'other things, a raising of rates. Much, therefore, as wc should liko to feel that the improvement shown in the Gazette figures is a real one, it is impossible. to .do so. For tho 32 weeks ended November 12 tho total revenue was .£2,010,305 and the total 'expenditure £1,381,609, leaving a not revenue of £628,756, an improvement of £118,554 upon.tho not revenue for the corresponding period last year. How the two islands participated in the results is shown in this table, which covers the 32 weeks in each case: Net revenue. Net revenue. luerouse. 1000-10 1910-11 ' J: £ ■ £ North 232,595 310,771 87,178 South 277,G00. 308,051 31,375 It will .be seen that last year, at the point reached by these figures, the

net revenue .from the North Island was over £45,000 less than the net revenue, in the South, and yet tho year ended with a larger net revenue from the North Island than from tho South Island. This year the North Island was already leading at the same point, and it is-safe to say that at the end of the year its 1150 miles of line will have .yielded a vastly greater net'return than the 1583 miles in the South Island. The net revenue per train mile—which is the proper measure of value in respect of usefulness as a railway field —is shown in the following figures for the 32 weeks, calculated to the nearest pound: J?et revenue per mile of line. 1909-10 1010-11 Increase. Nor(li 205 ' , 278 73 South 177 195 18 The Northern lines, tliat is to say, which last year earned. £28 a mile more than the Southern lines, for the 32 weeks, have this year earned £83 a mile more for the samo period. The figures for-the last four weeks of tho 32-weeks period are of , the samo character. The net'return in this case of the Northern system was £43,039, or £37 Bs. 6d. per mile, and from the Southern system £32,484, or, £20 9s. lcl. per. mile. Figures which; though less emphatic than these, were still very emphatic indeed, forced,the Government to recognise that it must admit the soundness of our unceasing contention that justice and national- prudence required that the South Island should no longer be pampered at the expense of this under-railed portion of the Dominion. As a result of the attention which some of . our contemporaries assisted us to focus upon the subject, 'the Government' went some -way towards mitigating the injustice of its policy, but it still persists in wasting huge sums of money in hopeless railway projects in the South. It is still pouring out hundreds bf thousands of pounds, for example, upon that fearful Midland Railvyay, some idea of the character of which was given by our Christchurch correspondent yesterday. The next thing.to be foiight for is tho equalising of the treatment of the railway users in the two islands; The people of the North Island are being robbed in order that • other people may ba favoured. A ; return of 5 per cent from the lines in this island and of 3 or less .than 3 percent from the Southern, system—tho result that will be recorded for this year —is evidence of unfairness as well as of greats, unwisdom.