RAILWAY FINANCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1383, 8 March 1912, Page 4

RAILWAY FINANCE.

Last night's Gazette gives particulars of the working of the railways up to February 3 last, completing 44 weeks of the current financial year. We noted a month ago the disturbing fact that the net revenue from the Southern lines had become stationary and looked like going back; and this despite the fact that the capital sunk is largely increasing all the time, and with it the interest charges.' For the four weeks January 7 to February 3 the net revenues we're shown in the following table, in which the corresponding figures for 1911 are also given: 1911. 1912. Inc. or dec. £ £ £ North 53,607 G4.072 10,405 inc. South .19,082 , 43,880 5,202 dec. For the whole 44 weeks the net revenues were as under (the 1910-11 figures being also given): — 1910-U. 1911-12.'Inc. or dec. £ £ £ North 518,159 572.1 M 54,305 inc. South 408,539 407,919 020 dec. Here, surely, is a very bad drift that demands the attention of the Minister and that requires an explanation ; and we suggest to Me. Millar that_ before he quits his office (if he is to quit it) he should demand a clear and candid report from his remarkable Head Office. Taking the 44-weeks figures for the last three years the drift becomes strikingly apparent: — Net Revenue. North. South. Year. £ £ ■ 1909-10 410.446 . 427,888 1910-11 518,159 468,539 1911-12 572,464 467,919 There is no longer any need to emphasise the meaning of these lemarkable figures so far as the public is concerned—all we have to do is to remind the public that the rail-mile-age of the Southern system is nearly half as large again as that of the Northern system, and that during the past three years more has ■ been spent, and more miles laid, in the South than in the North. In the interests of the nation as a whole the strange and disturbing facts that tower up behind the remarkable figures we have quoted must be investigated. Why is the Southern system drifting backwards despite the huge sums spent upon it 1 Why should the North Island railwayusers be exploited to bolster up bad management! If Mn. Millar cannot understand that his Head Office is unable or unwilling to abandon a policy that is plainly wrong and ruinous, then Parliament must take •the matter up. The country cannot afford, to tolerate any longer a management that under the long dominance of "Liberalism" has apparently lost the capacity either to know or to care how to administer the greatest and most vital of our public undertakings.