RAILWAY RETURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 192, 16 August 1939, Page 8

RAILWAY RETURNS.

There is not a great deal of comfort for the future to be drawn from the annual figures of the Railway Department this year. The returns show a reasonable increase, partly due to the increase in rKtes imposed last year. That probably represents the limit to which the Department can go in that direction, but expenses are likely to increase still further when lines now under construction are opened. The figures for last year are fairly satisfactory from a comparative point of view. They represent a higher percentage of net revenue than last year, but a considerably lower rate than that of four years ago, before the reduction of the hours of the staff and the increase in their wages. It does not seem likely that the old rate will return—except perhaps during this year, when the Exhibition traffic should add very greatly to the net earnings of the Department. The Minister has much, to say of the service which the railways render to the Dominion; that service is admitted by every political party, but his remarks are surely a sharp reply to those members of his own party who hint at default and repudiation.