FORTY MILLIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 291, 8 December 1937, Page 9

FORTY MILLIONS.

COST OF TRANSPORT.

EXPENDITURE WITHIN N.Z. ROAD, RAIL, SEA AND AIR. .Tust how much do Now Zealandcrs spend on transport within their own country each year? If one were to hazard a guess one would probably be well wide of the figure of £40.000,000, but that was the expenditure on transport in its various forms in the year ended March 31, 19.57. according to figures compiled by the Transport Department.

Statistics are frequently dull things, except when they show a reduction in income tax or other taxes —a seemingly remote possibility these days—but sometimes they are illuminating, and Government officials in their avid search for fresh fields to survey certainlypicked on something interesting when they delved into the cost of internal transport.

It has been discovered that freight charges to business firms and the public, and fares to passengers, cost users of the road, rail, sea and air services £40,001,000 a year. Public transport, which includes the railways, coastal vessels, tramways, cable cars, service cars and buses, licensed goods services, carriers, taxis and air services, contributed £16,900,000 to the total in the twelve months ended March 31, 1037, the balance being made up by expenditure on private transport —private cars and trucks.

By r ar the biggest item is the £13,486,000 spent on private cars, and this is easily understandable when it is realised that there were 170,000 cars registered in the Dominion on March 31 last. The expenditure on private trucks in the direction of freights is the next largest item, being £9,705,000 —

naking a grand total for private trans iort of £23,191,000.

Under the heading of public transport, the Government railways carried the biggest proportion of freight and passengers. the expenditure being £.">,293,000 and £1.611,000 respectively, a grand total of £6,904,000. Then come the figures relating to licensed goods services. which involved an expenditure on freight of £2,665,000. and by passengers £14,000. an aggregate of £2,679,000. Third on this particular list was coastal shipping, £2,353.000 being expended on outward tonnage, and £286,000 by passengers using the steamer services between Wellington and Lyttelton. Picton and Nelson —a total of £2,639,000.

Train and cable cars absorbed £1.447.000, and service cars and buses £1,148.000. The expenditure on town carriers and taxis was £850,000, and on

air services—the lowest on the list— £03,000.

The statistician secnis to have overlooked ordinary ferry services, launches, push bicycles and a few other odds and ends, but he has pone a long way towards arriving at a basis of computing tKe actual expenditure by the public on transport. That his job has been no easy one may be gauged from the fact that, in arriving at the figure relative to private cars, he had to strike an average of the mileage covered by each car and multiply the figure by 4d, which represents the average cost of running expenses.

I The figures may not be strictly correct. but thev give a good indication of the extent to which New Zealanders use their various modes of transport, and the expenditure shown is truly amazing! [for so thinly populated a country.