INCREASES IN COSTS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1930, Page 7

INCREASES IN COSTS

• ROLLING STOCK. MAINTENANCE. : Increases iu the cost of almosl every department of the working rail ways are shown in the annual report of the General Manager of Railway! (Mr H. H. Sterling). The principal increases are:— Maintenance of ways and works i £g*,780.. This included unemployrelief work totalling £6400. ■ Maintenance of signals and electrical ' apparatus, £5371. Very extensive re-arrangements of the interlocking facilities had to be undertaken at the east end of Christchurch yard in order to permit of the readier reception of the ferry train to the platformin the mornings. Previously it wais necessary for the ferry train to remain outside the signal until the 7.25 a.m. train for Lyttelton had departed from Christchurch. Almost invariably the ferry train had to be kept either at Lyttelton or at Christchurch- A rearrangement was designed and carried out that has this difficulty, and ,hafi enabled a much improved service to be given in connection with the conveyance of the passengers from the Lyttelton ferry boat to Christchurch in the morning. The whole of this work WM charged to working expenses, ~ 7 BOLLING STOCK. ■ Maintenance of rolling stock, £256,754. In v Commenting on this, Mr Sterling estates that since the workshops re-organisation was put in hand ■ disturbance of operations An th«:twpfhehops . prevented that amount of work being done in the matter ofrepairs' to rolling stock. This more, particularly - applied to of repairs alwaysj ihaile the repair bill. heavier w;lteri r'diiciimsitlanoes made it inevitable that work ' must be faced, and "this; is /what happened in the present , instance. Last year they arrived' at : The stage when the postponement, of work could no longer epiitinue,v.and: the. position became aucih; ; that;'.,immediate and definite action lof . an intensive nature had to be taken; in order to enable the position tb ’be met, and the services carried on .with a reasonable degree of efficiency:- They had to draw up a programme of concentrated work inianedliately .' they obtained the use of the new.j workshops, and even before the reorganisation had been wholly J bearing the expenditure was the work they- had to undertake in connection'with the relief of .unemployment, The; expenditure that, was insolved hid ithe effect of throwing the ffmmcei oht of focus. dealing with th©: increased ex- . pettditureion rolling stock, Mr Ster-

ling -/states that repairs to locomotives showed an increase of £182,542. The number of heavy repairs carried out during the year was 240, as compared with 153 the previous year, an increase of 57 per cent. The increase in Tim 'expenditure, on (the other hand (£182,542) was 31 per cent, and this notwithstanding that, as mentioned above, a good deal of work had to be done at overtime ' rates. ■Unemployment relief uuder this heading was responsible for £23,044 of , the total increase. The , increase in expenditure on maintenance of ears and vans was £26,923, or 11 per cent, of which unemployment relief accounted foi £7046. The number of heavy repairs to cars , and vans increased (by 27 per cent. Expenditure on maintenance of wagons increased £46,311, or 8 per cent, including unemployment relict, £12,199. The number of heavy repairs increased by 27 per cent. LOCOMOTIVE TRANSPORTATION. There were increases under this heading of £19,021 in drivers' ana firemen.’s wages, and £80,20j in fuel, while there was a decrease of £12,12u in cleaning costs, adds the report. The increase in drivers’ and firemen’s wages was due to increased train services. The percentage of increases in the wages bill ior last year was 0.41, and the increase in engine mi*es was in exactly the same proportion, showing that the ages cost in relation to Work done remained constant. Ihe increase in the fuel bill was due to the difficulties which were experienced in obtaining suitable classes Oi coal. As a result, principally, of the flooding of the Hikurangi Mine and the earthquake on the West Coast, which interfered with supplies from the mines in that w e a, they were forced to supplement such supplies as were obtainable in New Zealand by further supplies from Australia., Owin'*, unfortunately, to the fact that the mines in Newcastle, field were not working, they were compelled to seek supplies from the southern New South Wales mines and even from. Queensland. These classes of coal were not up to such a high standard as the fuel which had been obtained during previous years, and, in consequence, the consumption of coal per enginemile increased from 56.711 b last yeai to ' 59.71 b this year, while the cost of the fuel, increased from 10.77 d to 11.18 d per engine-mile. The total number of tons consumed increased by 36.45, or 8.92 per cent, while the engine-mileaga increased by only 3.41 pe,r cent. • Examination and lubrication of coaching and wagon stock expenditure increased by £9,298, the figures | being; 1929, £34,710; 1930, £44,008. / OTHER INCREASES. Included under traffic transportation was an increase of £57,953 in expenditure. The principal items going to make Up this increase are as follows: General superintendence, £7487, (included in this item is advertising). The station expenses show an increase of £44,495. The principal factors contributing to this in-

grease wove* the introduction of night .expresses in the South XsJfind, the opening of the Tauranga section, the opening of central bolting offices in the cities, regrading of positions in the First Division, scab increments due to the staff, more shipping traffic, and a greater volume of goods traffic handled, and the running of week-end excursions. Train expenses show an increase of £8658,. equal to 3.23 per cent. This is mores than, accounted for bv the increase in train-mileage, which was 5.61 per cent. There was an increase under general qharg;es of £14,168, equal to 5.66 per cent.; ; The principal items making up this increase are as follows: Head ', office (increase, £4452). This was due principally to the fact that the Land Office staff, which was previouslv attached to the Maintenance Branch, was brought under the Head Office' This does not represent an increase in the total expenditure of the department, 'but simply transfers the Land Office expenses from the Maintenance Banch to the Head Office.