RAILWAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4540, 6 December 1930, Page 1

RAILWAYS.

JUGGLING WITH ACCOUNTS. MATTER OF EIGHT MILLIONS. (Associated Chambers of Commerce). It is difficult- for the ordinary business man to follow at all closely the working’ methods of the Dominion's Railway Department, which, as is obvious enough., differ widely from the handling of his own business. It is open to him, however, to make the best he can of the Department’s accumulated figures. Here is a brief outline of the revenue and expenditure of the Department from April Ist, 1920, to March 31st, 1929, a period covering four financial years:—

The net earning's were therefore: —1920, £1,032,793; V 1927, £.1,498,ab 3; 1928, £1,349,840 ; 1929, £l,399,055; 1930, £929,257. A system existed during the lour years between April Ist, 1920, and March 31st 1929, by which the railways were relieved of the losses on certain non-paying lines, £359,540 being taken from the Consolidated Fund in the first year; £445,220 in the second; £189,508 in the third, and £498,930 in the fourth, making a total of. £1,793,204 for the whole period. In 1930 these subsidies were discontinued and in their place a sum of £8,100,000 was written off the Railway Loan Account, with the appearance, if not with an actual assurance, that this arrangement would satisfy the needs of the railways equally well. This may have been the more convenient manner of dealing with the situation, but as a matter of fact it neither lessened the losses upon the unpaying lines nor reduced the railway’s burdens. The net. result of the change-over from one method of accounting to another was, indeed, to increase the deficiency of the Railway Department in 1930 by £356,241. One can scarcely think of a business man carrying on his affairs in this fashion. For a time he might flourish —if lie had a few thousand taxpayers at his hack- — hut ultimate disaster would he inevitable. In other words, polities and 'business' do not make a well assorted team. Nothing hut a change from a political directorate to a business directorate, unhampered by parliamentarians of any degree, would provide a sufficient remedy for the present deplorable state of affairs.

.March 31. Revenue Expenditure 1920 8,101,221 0,408,428 :i.!>27 7,980,433 0,490,880 11)28 8,034,909 0,085,123 1929 8,249,038 0,849,383 1930 8,283,115 7,358,840