The Press TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1951. Tramway Board’s Deficit

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26409, 1 May 1951, Page 6

The Press TUESDAY, MAY 1, 1951. Tramway Board’s Deficit

Expenditure of more than £400,000 by the Christchurch Tramway Board in the last financial year produced only £ 149 in net earnings to set against standing charges of some £llO,OOO. As Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon pointed out at a meeting of the board on Friday, the undertaking was very close to having to meet ordinary operating expenses out of rates. In other words, if all the board’s vehicles and other assets had been provided free, it would still be only just able to pay its way. The position is not quite as bad as it seems, since the 15 per cent, wage increase had to be paid for six weeks while fare increases hardly came into the year, and since wet weather reduced centennial takings (although it may have increased ordinary revenue). Nevertheless, it is unsatisfactory, to say the least, that the margin between gross revenue and operating expenses should have fallen from £20,000 in 1948-49 to £12,000 in 1949-50 and £ 150 in 1950-51. In the same period of three years the overall 'deficit to be met by the ratepayers has increased from just under £BO,OOO to £llO,OOO, which will presumably mean an increase in rates again. Mr Mac Gibbon certainly gave the board something to think about when he passed on a report that the company operating municipal transport in Wanganui had paid a dividend. This should not suggest to the board that Christchurch, like Wanganui, should hand over public transport to private enterprise, because there are obvious differences in the needs and problems of the two cities. It is not likely that a private firm would give the service which the people cf Christchurch desire, and for which they are prepared to pay, in reason. It should suggest to the board that it must seek maximum efficiency, and, particularly, that modernisation of the Christchurch transport system should be pushed forward energetically. Unfortunately for the ratepayers, the best pace that the board can manage is not likely to be fast enough to make up for the time lost through the defeat of the 1948 loan proposal by the successful Labour Party campaign. The reduction in net earnings has not been the biggest loss in those two wasted years. A greater loss was the opportunity to buy equipment before world rearmament made key materials scarcer and dearer. Those two years will cost the people of Christchurch a good deal in fares and rates before their transport is on a reasonably sound basis again.