RAILWAY EARNINGS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 January 1926, Page 4

RAILWAY EARNINGS

NEW SIH 'll] VASES' SEI!VICES. SYDNEY. December 24. The Chief Railway Commissioner (Mr Fraserl astounded the public the other day when he revealed to them, in a speech bristling with figures, Clio magnitude of the New South Wales railway and tramway services, the capital invested in which, at the end of the last financial year, totalled £111.00(1.000 East year the railways and tramways earned £20.348.000. The departments spent about 915.115.0* 10. leaving C5.27J.009 to pay 4.88 per cent on the capital. This return on capital, according to Mr Fraser, lias not been equalled by any railway in the world operated bv white labour. In .that period. furthermore. the services achieved upwards of 50,000.000 tram and train miles, the trains can it'll 128.532.009 passengers and 1(5.200.000 tons of goods and the gross ton mileage was 7.000,000,000. Mr Eraser, whenever he makes a public* speech, which is rare, fairly revels in figures. He has worked out the approximate seconds in a vein at 30,000,000. in each of these seconds his Department earns 13s Id. In the face of figures like this one can understand how it annoys Mr brasei when a person who has lost a tlnccpenny parcel on ihc railways, not infrequently through his or her own carelessness, wail, a lament through Ihe Press about the bad administration ot the railways. In bis 47 years ol service in the railways Mr Fraser has unquestionably put up a great record. A tall man. ol somewhat spare build. Jlr Eraser has two other Commissioners with him, but lie is generally recognised as the Titan of the service, as the man on whose shoulders tho burden of controlling this huge service falls mainly. Incidentally, the Royal Coinmission of British experts, which investigated the railway service some time ago. not only vindicated M.r Eraser, hut it paid a tribute to his great work.