The Sun FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1928 MAKING THE PUBLIC PAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 399, 6 July 1928, Page 8

The Sun FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1928 MAKING THE PUBLIC PAY

|N the business of popular transport, the Auckland City Council * persists in robbing Peter to pay Paul. Its transport department fills its purse with handsome profits from the trams, and then nearly empties it on meeting heavy losses on the municipal buses. But things are not as had as they have been, and optimism, nay, even a note of jubilation, marks the present outlook. Rejoicing is, however, necessarily restrained and confined to anticipation. Splendid results, as forecast at the council’s meeting last evening, are merely estimated, and therefore by no means guaranteed to become actualities, though current profits from the trams are measurably excellent. On that basis of computation prospects are now so good as almost to obliterate the other prospect of the administration being taken away from the existing authorities, and given’ to the super-administrative transport hoard. As one commentator, with tongue in cheek, has put it: “If the present estimates are exactly realised, the result of four years’ operations will be a net profit of £121,000 from the trams, and a loss of £195,000 on the buses.” That would mean a quadrennial loss of £74,000, or only £18,500 a year—probably a trifle in the eyes of the municipal administration. Since opportunity to rejoice over the results of the City Council’s enterprises is so fugitive and rare, let us all be glad with the administrators that their transport system is running nearer to profit, and may yet become again a profitable and completely satisfactory business. But, so long as the wretched This losses, obtrude, there can be no actual cause for public jubilation. The community is being compelled ruthlessly to pay for the bus monopoly that was thrust on the tramway administrators by panic legislation. Tram fares are high, and the trams, in rush hours, are grotesquely overcrowded. This condition must remain until the grievous loss on bu.Sxtransport has been eliminated. * It is never pleasant to go back to painful history, but it has to be noted that the results of the tramways side of the business, the panic that overwhelmed the city authorities last November, was not altogether justified. On that occasion the adminstrators repudiated a former decision to give penny fares a six months’ trial, and stampeded back to the imposition of a twopenny fare for each first section. It was then estimated that reversion to high fares would yield nothing more than a tramway surplus of £8,730. The actual surplus was £18,942, while it is estimated that this year that substantial balance will be expanded to £58,894. Indeed, the net surplus for April and May of this year alone was £10,213. These official figures show that the public is being compelled to pay an excessive price for that form of transport. It is satisfactory to know that it is the intention of the administration to strangle Paul so that Peter may not be robbed to pay him. Mr. Allum, whose work in dragging a ricketty system out of a financial bog on to firmer ground must be' commended with honest cordiality, made it clear last evening that it is not in accordance with the council’s policy to maintain all existing services under present conditions. This is the right view to take, and the only view open to business men. It is reasonable, of course, to hold the strangulating rope until the recommendations of the Transport Commission have been made public, but the time must come soon for pulling the rope tightly and without any foolish sentiment. Perhaps a word of warning is due Mr. Allum. With some pride he has emphasised the splendid condition of the tramways accumulated sinking fund. He should not boast too loudly about its growth. The council might be tempted to raid it. Meanwhile, praise is due the administration for the improvement it has wrought in its business.