The Press. Tuesday, June 21, 1927. Municipal Trading.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19032, 21 June 1927, Page 10

The Press. Tuesday, June 21, 1927. Municipal Trading.

One of the most interesting features of the second issue of the Local Authorities Handbook is its review of the trading operations of local bodies —gasworks, electric supply stations, and electric tramways. It will be remembered, of course, that in addition to the trading operations begun and carried on in the usual way under the Municipal Corporations Act there are services which have been declared to be trading undertakings by the GovernorGeneral in Council —the distribution of milk, for example, in Wellington—but since information about these appears in the reports of individual boroughs, their omission from the general review does not affect its usefulness. The value of such a survey to the average ratepayer and layman is the light it throws on the general question of the efficiency of municipal trading, in itself, and by comparison with private enterprise. In the case of gasworks, for example, it is shown that the proprietary concerns have smaller working expenses (per 1000 cubic feet of gas sold), lower capital charges, and a higher revenue; but since they generate nearly three-quarters of the total gas used with little more than one-quarter of the total number of works, they certainly* have the advantage of largescale production. Perhaps the most valuable result of the survey of gas production is the evidence of increased efficiency in the industry as a whole — an efficiency forced on it, as the alternative to extinction, by the combined pressure of hydro-electricity, dearer coal, and higher wages. But the average Christchurcli reader 'will be more interested in trams than in gas, and the pages devoted in the Handbook to tramway undertakings are particularly instructive and clear. Christchurch, as most of our readers know, is the only centre in the Dominion in which the tram system is not controlled by the Borough or City Council, and it is also the only one of the larger centres in which the average passenger load per car-mile is alarming. Indeed, all the passenger statistics for Christchurch are alarming—in themselves, and by comparison with the figures for Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin. We carry only a million people more in a year than Dunedin, though we have a much bigger population, and sixteen million fewer than Wellington, which is approximately our own size. We have to collect our passengers over 38 miles of single, and 30 of double tracks, while punedin gets 96 per cent, of our number of passengers over 11 miles of double track and six miles of single. Our average passenger load per car-mile is only 6.8, while Auckland has 9.9, Wellington 10.7, and Dunedin 13.3,' so that if we had not some advantage i (per car-mile) in operating costs we should be in a hopei less position relatively and actually. The following figures for the four chief centres show, certainly, that Christchurch is holding its own with Wellington and Auckland on a balance of .traffic, .revenue, operating costs, and capital chtxges: • Per Car-Mile Run. OperTraffic ating Capital Revenue. Costs. Charges, d. d. d. Auckland. .. 21.58 17.60 4.26 Wellington 24.70 18.29 5.42 Christchurcli 18.36 12.64 5.48 Duneciin .. 23.56 13.13 5.54' They do not, however, prove or indicate that we are in as good a general position as those other centres, since the competition of other forms of transport will increase here rather than decrease, while the North Beach experience shows. that it will be enormously difficult to reduce expenses by cutting our car-miles. Competition by motor-buses is of course too big~a problem to be discussed, and dismissed, in a line or two, but it is perhaps safe to say that in proportion as this competition is interfered with by the cenI tral Government the local authorities saddled with tramway systems will find them more and not less of an embarrassment. For in Christchurch at any rate the problem is still further to reduce expenses, and one of the indications that they can be reduced is supplied by the experience of New Plymouth. It happens that the New Plymouth system was built during the warperiod, at war-prices, and that the capital charges are therefore " un- " usually burdensome." But the management has met this handicap, has in f Act been compelled to meet it, with an unusual struggle to keep the costs of operation down —with the result that New Plymouth, though it has one of the smallest systems, has now also the smallest operating costs per car-mile for the whole Dominion. This is a striking indication, like the greatly increased efficiency of the gas companies, of what management will achieve when the pressure is severe enough.