THE RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1864, 25 September 1913, Page 6

THE RAILWAYS.

There are several pleasing features connected with the annual report on tho working railways of tho Dominion laid beforo Parliament yesterday by the Minister of Railways. The year has in most respects been a satisfactory one, and particularly so in respect of net profit earned. The total receipts constitute a rocord, and tho not re-

venue, £1,265,393, is equal to 4.04 per cent, of the capital invested in opened and unopened lines. Only once before have the New Zealand railways paid 4 per cent, on the capital invested, that being in 1911, wlien Mr. J. A. Millar was Minister in charge of the Department. Tho following table shows the percentage of net earnings to capital invested over a period of 15 years: —

1599 3.29 1900 3.42 1901 3.47 1902 3.43 1903 3.30 1904 3.58 1903 3.30 1906 3.2-1 1907 3.45 1908 3.33 1909 3.13 ' 1910 3.80 1911 4.06 1912 3.98 1913 4.04 The satisfactory feature about the net revenue is the fact that the result stated was obtained despite the improvements effected in the way of better wages and shorter hours for tho employees and increased train services and improved facilities for tho public. The Minister touches on this phase of the working of the railways in reviewing the increase in the percentage of working expenses to earnings. Tho factors which in the main have conduced to bring about tho position, he states, are increased wages and shortening the hourß of the staff, increasing train services by running trains for experimental development, many _of which are unremunerative, opening of new sections of railway in undeveloped country where business is necessarily very restricted and unprofitable, additional staff necessitated bv the expansion of interlocking ancl safety appliances, and the general increase in the price of stores, etc. Some of'these courses it will be seen are unavoidable, while no fault can be found with those which are due to the policy pursued of bettering tho conditions of tho staff and adding to the convenience and safety of the railways from the point of view of the general public. It is worth noting in this respect that the Minister proposes to further study the convenience of the public in tho matter of parcels delivery and in booking tickets in advance. As usual tho North Island section of tho railways shows to better advantage than the South, and pays its way handsomely. The net earnings per cent, do not show so wide a discrepancy as usual between the two Islands, and the explanation of this is to be found in the fact that the Government recognises that it is unfair to expect the users of the paying North Island railways to carry too large a share of the burden of the South Island non-paying railways. A substantially increased train mileage has been run in the North Island during the year to better serve the convenience of the public, and while this has slightly reduced the earnings per train mile it still leaves the net earnings of the North Island lines far ahead of those in the South Island. Altogether Mr. Hereies and tho country are to be congratulated on the results of the year's operations.