STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7914, 30 September 1909, Page 3

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER.

I--- AUCKLAND. September 29. The Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Railways, interviewed to-day, made some interesting remarks upon the subject of. railway administration and the

arrangements which his Department have, m hand for the immediate future. "Notwithstanding the tightness of the money market." said the Minister, "the railway revenue has kept up wonderfully well. The returns for the

past five 'months of this year show a satisfactory increase over the corresponding five months of the. previous year. The increase m revenue reaches £153,000, while the. increase m expenditure has only been £73,000, so that we have a net profit of £70,000 over and above the previous year. It will be seen that the cost of earning this increased revenue was only 61 per cent, and I think that after taking everything into consideration, this increase m railway revenue for the past five months is to be regarded as highly satisfactory."

Speaking of his determination to make the railways pay, Mr Millar said: "I am getting all the information that is required m connection with further economies. These econoreies_ will not extend to the Auckland province to any great extent, not at any rate m the way of reduction of train services. The economics m cw^stion will have reference to many of the 'small stations where trains stop daily for little or no trade. In such cases, our endeavour will be to compress the whole of the traffic into two or three stops per week, and so considerably shorten tho time occupied m making journeys. The new time-table will come into operation on November 1. In connection with the Main Trunk service, I am thinking of putting on another express, leaving Auckland m the morning and leaving Wellington at night This will also start on November 1."