NOT PAYING CONCERN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 82, 4 October 1938, Page 6

NOT PAYING CONCERN

N.Z. RAILWAYS %

REPLY TO MR. HAMILTON

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

MASTERTON, This Day.

"In the ordinary sense our railways have never paid except in 1926, when the Government increased freight and passenger charges by £300,000 and transferred £365,000 from the Consolidated Fund," stated the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), when replying last night to criticism of railways accounts by the Leader of the National Party (the Hon. A. Hamilton).. In. every other year, added the Minister, under all forms of Ministerial and managerial control, the railways had never been made to pay. -'-'/';

Mr. Sullivan said that for six years prior to the Labour Government coming into office the railways had shown a total deficit of £8,000,000. To quote results to July and assume that they were representative of the whole year's operations was definitely wrong. The net revenue of the railways was mostly earned in the busy summer months last year. For the months of May, June, and July the net revenue earned was £38,000, while for February the amount was £152,000. The net revenue of the whole railway undertaking at the end of July last year was £171,000, while for the year it was £632,000. This year, at the end of July, it was £44,000, while the estimated net revenue for the year was £505,000. The railways certainly earned a smaller net revenue last year than the previous year and were earning less this year, but this was due entirely to the fact that no increases had been made in tariff charges, notwithstanding big increases in operating expenditure.

"Our predecessors," added the Minister, "were able to make the railways pay on an accountancy basis, but on actual earnings under the National Government, £8,000,000 was lost on the railways in the six years before we came into office. During the four years of the Railway Board control, the nominal net revenue from the railways was £3,861,000. In the same period the: salaries and wages of employees were reduced by £2,175,000 and the nominal ordinary provisions. for maintenance and efficiency were cut by £1,786,000, making a total of £3,861,000. Over that period, they said, they had. made a net revenue of £3,861,000, so that their only net revenue amounted to what they took out of the pockets of the workers and by starving rolling stock."

The National Party now said that they would make the railways pay, but the question was how were they going to do it? Labour had not increased freight charges or passenger fares or reduced the salaries of employees. The railways were the only trading concern in New Zealand that had not increased its charges to users.

The Minister had an excellent reception at the meeting, which was attended by about 700. He was .cheered at the end of his speech, and a vote of thanks to the Minister and confidence in the Labour Party and in Mr. J. Kobertson as candidate for Masterton was carried unanimously. The Minister was also accorded musical honours.