OUR RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1091, 1 April 1911, Page 10

OUR RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

THEIR POSITION. (By Samuel Vaile.) No. 11. It is quite certain that tho position of railway workers cannot bo permanently improved until some method has been discovered of making railways pay a reasonable dividend on tho capital invested in them. This so far has not been dojic in tho United Kingdom, nor.; in this Dominion. Such dividends as : have been got together have been obtained mainly by "screwing" the employees and charging to capital items which ought to have been paid out of revenue earned.

Why is it that the financial position of working railways is so unsatisfactory? speaking generally, all the world over. ■; There must bo something wrong. I say it,is an'absurdity to supposo that a virtual monopoly of the inland carrying trade of a country like that of the United Kingdom cannot bo niado to ; pay more than 3} per cent. This apnears to be a terribly bad in-vestment-for £1,400,000,000. Surely wc ought .to bo ablo to do better than this. ' i The present mileage "no system" of railway has now been on trial since 1825.. During those 86 years vast improvements havo been made in the road and rolling stock, .while the stations have grown into veritable palaces, yet who is satisfied, with our railways? Is tho public? Is there anything elso in tho whole social system that is found so much fault with ? Aro tho shareholders, . vith their-largely increasing business j their demand for new capital, and at the same time rapidly decreasing dividend? .Aro tho ■ users anywhere satisfied with their treatment? Is there not one continual complaint? As to tho actual workers on tho railways hero and elsewhere, is there any other set of men in .the world among whom such universal discontent exists? Let it bo remembered that what we in Now Zealand call our railway system \4s -simply a. slavish copy of the English system, and that the Hon. J. A. Millar is the most slavish exponent it has yet found in this country. I havo studied this English "no system," as it his been aptly called, and it was ,my knowledge of it that enabled mo to foretell so accurately what would bo the outcome of Mr. Speight's administration of the Victorian "railways. Ho

worked to concentrate things in Melbourne. Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Millar aro doing their utmost to concentrate things in Canterbury and Otago, and if wo. a 1 low them to go on they will succeed, but they will ruin the country by doing it. As wo aro more slavishly than ever copying the worst features of the English "no system," it will be as well to take a glance at what has been going on there during the last 48 years. I

have the British railway returns up to 1908. I ought to' receive those for 1909 And 1910.next month.. ..Tliev-wilUshow a further falling off. In iB6O therowere '.10,-133 ."! miles: of railway working: in ■ tho . United Kingdom. In 1908, tho latest return I havei to hand. 23,205. Increase, 12,772 miles. In 18G0 the capital invested was £348,130,127. In 190S £1,310,533,212. Increase, £962,403,085. In 1860 the total number, of "ordinary" passengers carried was 163,435,678. In 1908 it was 1,278,115,488. Increase, ldl-,t,p|g,,810.;' , , „., ",. In lSOft %c'»total ftdn'nagc.' of goods carried, miojtiding minct'a'ipwtis 89,857,719 tons. In 1908 this had increased to 191,595,056, mi increase' of 101,737,337 tons.In 1860 the gross cash receipts amounted to £27,766,022. In 1908 to £119,894,327. Increase, £92,127,705. In 1860 the working oxnenses wero £13,187,368. In 1908 to "£76,407,801. Increase, £63,220,433. ■ In 1860 tho net rcceints were 14,579,'254. In 1908 only £43^480,520. In the- same 48 years, notwithstanding the vastly improved methods of handling traffic, the working expenses have riser, from 47 to 64 per cent., an increase, of 17 nor cent., while at the same time the dividend has fallen from 4.19 per cent- to 3,32 per cent., pria decrease of-17s. sd:' Surely" it should have been the other way.'! about.';';' S There is one feature revealed in, tlic British railway returns which deserves special attention. It'is this:' In' 1860, what the British companies and our Government call "net receipts" exceeded "working expenses" by £1,891,BS6. _ . • Forty-eight years later the working expenses exceeded tho net receipts by £32,921,275. What a fearful decrease in dividend-paying power this reveals. After a trial extending over 83 years the above- shows tho position in England at tho end of Juno, 190S, and although I havo not seen tho figures, and do not expect to till tho middle of next month, I havo no hesitation in Raving that on Juno 30, 1910, they will* exhibit a worse result. It was not my wish nor intention to have gone so fully into the position of tlio British railways at the present time. It would havo suited me better to havo left it for another year or two, but as our railways have been handed over to a man whoso only qualification for dealing with them is a blind and obstinate determination to closely copy and apply to the railways of this Dominion tho very worst features of tho British "ho system."' it has become necessary to deal with some of its faults, and in proposing a remedy it is'well to bear in mind tho fact 'that so far there arc only two railway systems before the world. First, "there is tho English "no system," and its various adaptations throughout the world, and thou there is tho New Zealand stage system and its adaptations by Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Denmark.

■ All the European adaptations' of tho' New Zealand sfago system have proved a great improvement on the preceding English system. ' I know of no country in which tho English "no system " has proved itself a success.—l am, etc., SAMUEL VAILE. . Auckland, March 20, 1911. P.S.—Sinco the above was written a well-known citizen has asked mo to write a paper as plainly and tersely as possible, showing the advantages of the stage over tho mileage system. This paper will show whero tho money is to come from. I take up the position that by greatly reducing— not raising, as Mr. Millar is doing—all fares and rates, and altering the system of levying them, that it is quite easy to add at least a million per annum to tho railway revenue.—S.V.