TRANSPORT COSTS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1930, Page 7

TRANSPORT COSTS

ENORMOUS INCREASE IN DOMINION.

WELLINGTON, October 13

The growth of motor transit Jins added surprisingly to the annual ost of transport in the Dominion. Expressed in terms of population, the annual bill in 1914 was £66 per head, but in 1929 it was £ll7.

This conclusion, supported by great detail, appears in the annual report of the Transport Department, which expresses the opinion that to the extent that developments proceed too far in excess of actual and reasonable future requirements, the national productive machinery will be impaired. Economic history affords a number "f examples of the evils attending overdevelopment or unscientific development of transnort facilities. “It is considered that the time has arrived when road and rail facilities ■ cannot, in the national interests, be developed entirely on the theory of indirect returns, particularly in view of the fact that there is and will be increasing competition between road and rail,” states the report. “New developments should only be proceeded with after the most searching investi.gation into the economic aspects relating to existing services and the transport requirements of existing standards of industrial and social development." The annual cost of transport has incensed enormously in its relation to the value of the country’s production, as the following details show:— Land Rational transport, production. Annual cost. Annual. £ £ 1914 ... 17.756,973 60,060,000 1929 ... 43,825,862 "121,000,000 i The most outstanding feature in the figures is the huge increase in “the amount paid annually in connection with the operation .of motor vehicles. From a modest £3,000,000 (or less than half of the figure for horse traffic) in 1914, the amount has grown to £28,000,000 in 1929. In 1914 the annual operating hill of motor vehicles was approximately 75 per cent of that for railways, while the figure for 192829 approximately trebled that for railways, without taking into account the annual road maintenance figure of >31,000,000. Stated broadly, New

Zealand now pays approximately £32,000,000 per annum as the cost of road motor transport, against just under *£9,000,000 for rail transport. The railways, according to the same authority, have fallen into the background as the chief transport agency. On the basis of estimated capital cost, the relative positions of road and rail facilities have undergone big changes since 1914. Between 1914 and 1929 the relative position of the railways shrank from 47 per cent to 34 per cent, while road transport gained, as a result of the expansion in motor transport, from 51 per cent, to 63 per cent. The figures demonstrate that in estimated capital equipment, road transport (value of roads, motor vehicles and horses and horse-drawn vehicles