SHAG POINT RAILWAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2487, 10 March 1881, Page 4

SHAG POINT RAILWAY.

— [By Telegraph.] Wellington. March. 8. The “ Post ” gives the following information, apparently on authority, relative to the absorption of the Shag Point Branch into the Oamaru section of the southern main trunk line, explaining that this branch was used almost exclusively as a coal siding for the supply of the main line with fuel, for which important service it received no credit in the accounts- The actual cost of working is not large, being only about £325 per mile annually. It is only relatively that the cost seems heavy when reckoned by its percentage to the actual receipts. These latter may he taken at about £3OO per annum and the expenditure at about £GSO, but then, in addition to the work for which £3OO or so is paid in the year by the public using the line,some 15,000 tons of coal have been hauled over it for the use of the railways. If this work were done for the public, and paid for, it would represent an addition of fully £750 per annum to the earnings of the branch. In that case, the receipts would be about £IOSO, with an expenditure of £650, a little more than 60 per cent., thus leaving £4OO net profit. The public is also a large gainer in another way, as the Shag Point coal is purchased for railway use at 13s, while Newcastle coal would cost 30s. Consequently, the Shag Point branch is really one of the most profitable bits of road in the colony, through the groat facilities it offers for the supply of coal at a cost enormously cheaper than that at which it could be obtained elsewhere. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Eyreton, Waimate, Outram, Lawrence, Riverton, and Mount Somers branches, which are veritable “ suckers” of the main line profits.—“ Press.”