THE RAILWAYS

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 24

THE RAILWAYS

MANY ECONOMIES EFFECTED INVERCARGILL, May 26. The financial position of the railways was dealt with by the Minister of Railways (Mr W. A. Veitch) during the course of a discussion with a deputation from the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce this afternoon. He said the financial position was very much better than the general public believed, and if the economic state of the country returned to normal it would be found that the economies effected in the Railways Department would place the railways in a very sound position. Mr Veitch referred to the live interest which railwaymen were taking in solving the problems of the railways. He said that since June last, when he took over control of the department, economies had been instituted at the rate of £1,000,000 a year. They would not show more than £500,000, but the answer to that was that some had only been in operation for a few months. “ When we get a full year, even if more economies are not made—and they will be—we will show a reduction of £1,000,000 in our costs,” he said. The reduction in the railway revenue was considerable, Mr Veiteh stated, but it could not be expected that the country would always be in the hollow’ of a slump, and if economies were kept up, when trade returned to normal the losses on the railways would be reduced to £300,000 instead of £1,300,000. Mr J. Gilkison: Does that allow for interest? Mr Veitch: Yes. So you see that though the figures look bad there is nothing bad about it. We only need continued rigid economy and the railways will be in a splendid condition. Motor competition had only stopped railway expansion, the Minister said, and had not reduced railway business. Before the slump the railways were increasing slightly. The Minister said the Railways Board would take charge on June 1. He added that station masters would be expected to come into much closer contact with the business world and the idea was to make every station master a commercial officer. He had nothing against the Commercial Department, but the commercial officers moved about and he believed that it would be better to have an agent established in each centre. He did not think that there would be any very early changes.