THE MINISTER FOR RAILWAYS' FIGURES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1162, 24 June 1911, Page 3

THE MINISTER FOR RAILWAYS' FIGURES.

Sir,—"Caution" is nearly as amusing as the Minister in regard to raihvav figures. In the first place he is wrong as to the alleged inference he. endeavours to create with reference to statioumasters''salaries. I mentioned.the amount of re.it to prove that tho Minister could not, in fairness, •'•>}" that the Government paid interest on the houses as an extra charge on the .6230 ho stated ho paid statioumasters. Most of the houses have been built so many years that tho rent must have, by this time, wiped nut the original cost. "Caution" says: "Maybe taking tho cost of working these stations there may be only two which yield a balance of over .£SOO in the passenger division." Why debit the passenger division only with the cost of working tho stations? To cull an allegory from "Caution," passanger revenue is not tho only revenue derived from a station, as there are goods, live stock, parcels, and miscellaneous items which all go to increase the revenue. To give "Caution" some idea of tho amount of revenue, I am supplying him with tho total outwards revenue' (including passengers), and.also with the total traffic expenditure of each station for the' financial year 1910 (as stated in the Minister's report to Parliament)—

Ucvenue. Expenditure. £ X Featherston 11,(132 1,361 (ireytown 2,771 557 Carterton 10,156 !!!)1 Mastcrton 20,011 3,855 Mauriccville ... 3,735 521 i Ekclahuua 10,015 835 Pahiatua 11,085 1,207 Mangatainoka 2,839 111 Tho abovo totals revenue ,£78,550, and tho expenditure =£9,745. It must be remembered this is outward traffic only, and to the ordinary layman it would "naturally appear reasonable that the above stations have also a large amount of traffic going .into their .respective towns. This traffic is not included in the above figures, and it should not be far short of the traffic outwards, with no further increase of expenditure. As to "Caution's" inference that the Minister has been inisreported, that is simply reductio ad absurduin.—l am, etc., „.,,'• FAIKPLAT. Wellington, June 20, 1911.