RAILWAYS FINANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1938, Page 5

RAILWAYS FINANCE

MR HARGEST ON SERIOUS DRIFT BIG INCREASE IN WORKING EXPENSES MINISTER DEFENDS HIS POLICY

(By Telegrapn—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. What he described as the very serious drift in the finances of the New Zealand railways .was criticised by Mr J. Hargest (Opposition, Awarua) during the Imprest Supply Bill Debate in the House of Representatives last night. The Government, he said, was working toward a state of affairs in which the railways would be run partly as a public service, and partly to keep a number of people in jobs. Mr Hargest said he did not intend to cast any reflection on the railways staff. It had worked loyally and well for the board that administered the railways under the previous Government, and would work loyally and well for any Government. The Minister of Railways, the Hon D. G. Sullivan, was entirely responsible for the present state of the system. The figures showed an alarming drift in the finances of the department. Last year, the gross revenue of the railways was £8,640,000 compared with £6,627,000 in 1935. The Minister stated up and down the country that he was jubilant at the rise in revenue, but actually while the amount of line administered by the department had increased by two miles, the working expenses had gone up from £5,540,000 to £8,010,000, a rise of about 50 to 60 per cent. The position was that where the railways in 1935 spent £B3 10s to earn £lOO, they were now spending £92 13s 4d to earn £lOO. Whereas a few years ago the net earnings of the railways were £2,330,000, they were ■ now only £632,000. "The railways will soon be a dead weight on the shoulders of the country,” said Mr Hargest. “The railways are our biggest industry and they are a monopoly. Every time the Railway Department takes over a paying road service to secure its monopoly, the Government should remember that it is displacing a taxpayer, and making the burden correspondingly heavier on other taxpayers. The worst feature is that the Government transport departments are showing worse and worse results.”. Amongst other things, Mr Hargest criticised the large increase in the numbei- of men employed by the Railways Department, and said that in spite of this increase, longer hours were being worked than for years. MR SULLIVAN’S REJOINER - “There has never been a period in the history of. the railways in New Zealand when the service given the public has been as good as it is at the present time,” said the. Minister of Railways, the Hon D. G. Sullivan. “The member for Awarua .is very much concerned with the slight decrease in the net revenue since Labour came into office, but how does our record during the. short two and a half years ’ we have been in charge of the railways compare with that of the last Government? “In the six years before the. last election the previous Government lost more than £8,000,000 in the adminfetration of the railways, yet the members of the Opposition are concerned about the .slight loss we have made. And they lost that amount in spite of starvation of the men in the service and the rolling stock. The Railways Boards refused provision for maintenance of rolling stock by £400,000 a year, and we have had. to increase the. annual provision by more thatf; £ 800,000 to bring it back into a safe’condition.”) Mr'Sullivan said it was true that the net revenue was decreasing in spite of an increase in the gross revenue, .and in the extent of the business, but in addition to the necessity of increasing / provision for rolling stock by more than £BOO,OOO a year, the Government had spent almost £1,000,000 a year in improving the condition of the railway workers by raising wages, introducing the 40-hour week, and improving the wage schedules. Still further improvement would have to be made before all the requirements of the workers were satisfied. “The policy of taking over road services, about which members of the Opposition complain so much, .was started by the last Government,” the Minister continued. "In continuing that policy we have done the only sensible thing that could have been done in bringing about some degree of rationalisation. There are cases where we have saved as much as £5OOO a year by real coordination of road and rail services, and some of the most experienced road transport operators in New Zealand who have been eliminated have congratulated the Government on the steps it has taken.” , . * The Minister referred to the introduction of the rail cars, the multiple unit service on the Wellington-John-sonville line, and other new developments, and said that, with the co-oper-ation of the staff, it was his aim to make the railway service the best in the world. With proper control and whole-hearted work he did not see why that aim should not be achieved.