REVENUE OF RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1922, Page 5

REVENUE OF RAILWAYS.

COMP ARISON WITH AUSTRALIA.’ INFLUENCE OF COAL PRICES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Replying to criticisms comparing the. financial results of the New Zealand railways with those of the Australian railways, the Hon. D. H. Guthrie said no useful comparison could be made bet.vaen these railway systems without closely analysing the conditions governing each. Take, for instance, the cost of coal. Had New Zealand able to procure coal at the Victorian rate, thd deficit for last year would have been £216.000 and not £1,021,156, while at the rate paid by New South Wales we would have had no deficit whatever. Or, putting it conversely, had Victoria paid the New Zealand price for coal the Victorian deficit would have been 951,000 and that of New South Wales upwards of £3,000,000. Was there any good reason why the New Zealand Administration should be arraigned upon the results of merely one year—the worat in the recent history‘of the department? Surely on such a momentous question impartial judgment could not reasonably be based upon the results of one year? If the comparison was extended to cover th® period from 1914 to the year jhst closed,’ the railways of this country had nothing to fear from the result. Every Australian State showed for that period a big deficit, but New Zealand showed a surplus of £535,176.