A RAILWAY PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 137, 12 June 1922, Page 4

A RAILWAY PROBLEM.

The problem that confronts the Jfew South Wales Railway Commissioners, as reported on Saturday, is one with which liNew Zealand is also faced. The cost of running has increased enormously, so that in the year 1920-1021 there was a deficit of half a million on the New South Wales system. Since then iheTe has been a fall in wages (and presumably also a. fall in other costs), but the Commissioners find that the wages savings, amounting to half a million, have been almost neutralised by the increase in the interest bill, which is estimated at £400,000. It is stated that this tigure showe "the effect of high interest on loans raised during and since the war," but how much the total has been affected by this rise in interest rate is not stated. New Zealand is suffering from the operation of the aame factor. We have borrowed money at high rates of interest during the last few years to construct railways that do not pay their way. The Department estimates 33 per cent as the amount required for interest on loans, but no one outside the Department accepts this as adequate. It really is time that more information was furnished about this side of railway finance, so that the- public could see at a glance the exact amount of railway liability in respect to interest ehaTges. iln the meantime the fact that money is i being borrowed at high rates for Tailway construction, rates which the Prime Minister himself admits cannot be made, profitable, is a fresh arsruTnent for the ruthless application of business methods )in construction and management.