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The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1934. Tramway Finances

The report of the two accountants appointed to investigate the finances of the Christen urch Tramway Board, given in full in " The Press " this morning, is a gloomy document. It says clearly that a tramway rate is immediately necessary, that in fact a rate should have been levied several years ago, and that from 1927 onwards the tramway budgets have been balanced by unsound financial methods. There are passages in the report, and the most was made of them at the meeting yesterday, which do not place previous boards in a very favourable light. It must, however, be pointed out that the report does not, as some members of the present board seemed to assume, convict previous boards of slackness or lack of enterprise in the actual management of the tramways. The fault of the boards between 1926 and 1933 was that they put off a day of reckoning, that they deferred striking a rate because they believed or hoped that a revival in revenue would make a rate unnecessary. That they deferred too long is beyond question; but they are not the first and they will not be the last elective bodies to make that mistake. " The Press" has said repeatedly that the management of business concerns should not be entrusted to ad hoc elective bodies, because sound business and sound politics do not often go together. The present board would do well to examine its own position in relation to the electors very carefully before it begins distributing blame for the present state of the irimway finances. If it is preparer? to manage the tramways on strictly business lines, to ignore local and sectional clamour, and to forget the election promises it made in so far as they hamper its freedom of action, then it can be as virtuous as it pleases.

The great task of the (present) board, says the report presented yesterday, is to use every endeavour to get the undertaking back on a satisfactory basis from the point of view of revenue and expenditure—that is, to build up the revenue or reduce the operating expenses, if at all possible, or both.

If the board proceeds to that task energetically and fearlessly and independently it will earn the gratitude of the whole community and the right, if it cares to exercise it, to criticise its predecessors. Probably, however, a year in office will make the board more charitable than it is at present.

The authors of the report have not been able to present the board with much guidance as to the policy it should pursue. Their task, which they have performed admirably, was to examine the tramway finances; but they have been properly diffident in expressing their views about tramway policy. Their general argument seems to be, however, that the board must look to a reduction in expenses rather than to an increase in revenue to better the financial situation. They support the view of the general manager that lower fares will almost certainly mean lower revenue. On the other hand, they point out that any substantial increase in fares will drive away passengers. Assuming these contentions to be sound, there is nothing left but to reduce costs; and clearly this will not be easy, since operating expenses a mile are already lower in Christchurch than they are in the other centres. Moreover, all line 3, except possibly that to North Beach, pay operating expenses and contribute something to the standing charges, so that there can be no financial benefit in discontinuing any of the existing tram or trolley-bus services. Nearly £IOOO a year can, however, be saved by getting rid of the petrol buses, which have been a continual source of loss; and the authors of the report consider that further savings can be effected by extending the one-man tram system. None of these measures, it must be confessed, offers any prospect of an immediate and substantial improvement in tramway finances. The present board may be reluctant t 0 accept this conclusion; but if it seeks spectacular results it will almost certainly do more harm than good.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19340424.2.62

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21147, 24 April 1934, Page 10

Word Count
691

The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1934. Tramway Finances Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21147, 24 April 1934, Page 10

The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1934. Tramway Finances Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21147, 24 April 1934, Page 10

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