RAILWAY STATEMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 11, 4 September 1931, Page 5

RAILWAY STATEMENT

"A BAD DOCUMENT." ' 6URPR1SES CHRISTCHURCH MEN. a decrease dn the revenue of the New Zealand Railways in its latest year's working (says the Christchurch Sun) was' more or less expected in Christchurch business circles, dnr quiries showed. Wbat has come as a surprise to many in the Railways Statement, however, is the amount of the year's expenditure. : . "The drop in passenger trade -and revenue is terriflc. It seems as if no effort has been made to adjust expenditure to meet costs," remarked Mr Y. E. Hamilton, president 'of the Canterbury-. Employers', Association, in commenting on the statement. ; Mr Hamilton .characterised the report as a "bad doeument." What struek.most 'members of the business communi'ty was the undue 'slze of the capital expenditure on the railways in the last few jears. The new Auckland Railway Sta'tion and deviation had cost £3,000,000, and the Tawa Plat deviation' now going on at Wellington was ano'ther extremely costly undertaking. \ Hard to Unddrstand. "All this is hard to understand," he said. "It would seem that ihe only expenditure justifiable at the present time would be in the dlrection of- obtaining further husiness. It is sheer waste to spend milUons ofi works that will not result in one more box of butter or carcase of lamb being carried." Middleton Yard, used for only a few months in the year, was another white elephant, in his opinion. It had been realised that the railways ha,d little ohance of paying, but all this ■exipenyfiit'ure hiad *made the position much worse. .. "Whether the new 'Railway Boar.i will be able to put a stop to this sori; of thing remains to be seen," he went on. "Work is still going ahead on the Wellington-Tawa Flat deviation, and it is 'obvious that several millions will be required to complete it." Mr H. Bradley, past president of the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association, thought that expenditure should be cut down, but not on valuable con•structional work such as tbe, completion of tbe South Island Main Trunk line. " "Get Down to Business." "The Railway Department should finish its job and then get down to business. It is just like running any business; you cannot start till yo'u have your factory, and your organisation is perfe'cted. Tbe department cannot make a profit so long as it has little bits of railway here and there. "We have a right to object tb tbe expenditure on the Auckland Railway Station, just to make that city beautiful. The Government should make some drastic alterations in the running of the department, and substitute a policy of profitable working for one of trying to make the railways look nice. "If some of this money had been spent instead on tbe South Island Main Trunk, it would have been put infco a definitely productive channel. The Railway Department needs to catoh the popular complaint and endeavour to balance its budget, and make its service a profitable institution in which everybody is working to make it profitable." I.,.. i ^ ■