GOODS TRAFFIC.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19413, 12 September 1928, Page 18

GOODS TRAFFIC.

STEADY INCREASE REPORTED.

[THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, September 11. | •In course of the Railway Statement presented in the*, House of R^P re " sentativies yesterday the Prime Minister, who is Minister for Railways, saids The goods traffic conveyed on the New Zealand railways shows a steady groMh, but it also has suffered, severe ly from road competition, principally in the Jiigher-rate'ct classes of goods. The average charge of conveyance ot freight traffic by rail last year was 2.41 d per. ton per mile. If this average charge could have been increased by as little as O.J6d per ton-mile, the deficit on the year's. working would have been 'met, while air average charge of 2.91 d would have placed the railways in a position to dispense with the credit reoeived from thb Consolidated Fund for the loss incuired on branch lines and isolated sections. . , "The 'question of ton-mile- costs by any other method •of transportation must be kept, ever in view. To illustrate m> point.-, I may it is t estimated that to carry, existing; railway freight. by road—even assuming the roads were in existence and sufficiently strong' (which they are,not) to carry the freight—its transport would cost no less than Is and possibly nearer Is 6d per ton-mile. 1 In other words, the y6ar/s qoods-freight of 7,366,762 tons, which cost less than £5,000.000 to transport by rail, would have cost at ✓least £23,000,000 to transport by, road. The impossibility of economically carrying all freight by road is obviousj one need only mention coal, timber, stock, and fertilisers to give point to this statement. Then there are the many inland industries, entirely dependent for their very existence upon cheap transport cost, which' the railways alone can supplv It must further be remembered, that the more' frekrht is carried by road the less will be the benefit derived by the community from the facilities available for cheap transport by rail."