Aramoana Made Profit Of £223,235

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30145, 31 May 1963, Page 12

Aramoana Made Profit Of £223,235

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 30.

A surplus of revenue over expenditure of £223,235 is shown in the operating results of the Cook Strait ferry Aramoana over the seven months and a half of service up to March 31.

Revenue of £652,465 included £29,236 for advance bookings. Expenditure amounted to £429,230 and covered not only the full day-;o-day cost o>f operating the ship and all harbour board charges but also included appropriate amounts to meet interest, depreciation and insurance costs, and a contribution to future maintenance and survey costs. The earnings from this service have not been taken into account in assessing the loss on the railways for the year announced by the Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine). The Minister said the patronage fully justified the introduction of the new and improved means of transport communication between the two islands. It Was now a matter of carefully assessing the future potential of the service. This was being studied and a clear and full picture would be available after the first annual docking and survey of the ship in June and completion of the first year of service in August. Mr McAlpine said it had been envisaged from the start that the A'ramoana would not only prove competitive in cost with traffic carried between the lower portion of the North Island and the upper half of the South Island but would also reduce the railair traffic over Cook Strait by 25 per cent.

Experience he-d proved just this but in addition the service was attracting cargo which actually could be moved more cheaply by other forms of transport. The answer to this was that direct freight charges were not necessarily the criteria in determining how traffic should move. Commercial interests were apparently prepared to pay more for a combined rail and ship service in order to participate in the indirect savings offered in regularity at service, speed in transit, minimum loss and damage to goods and the door-to-door service offered to private siding owners. The Minister said any suggestion that the Railways Department was adopting unfair competitive practices to attract business was without foundation.

Normal railway freight charges. including those applicable to bulk tonnage

loadings, applied to the rail portions of any through consignments. On the ship, normal shipping practice was followed in assessing the published charges. Since railway waggons were, in effect, containers on wheels, container rates applied to bulk tonnage loadings carried on the ship in waggons. Mr McAlpine said the annual Railways report to Parliament would give a separate detailed statement covering the financial operation of the service to March 31.

“A most pleasing aspect is the ease by which families owning motor-cars can now go on holiday in either island or share in the enjoyment of a day excursion to the Marlborough Sounds. This passenger and private motor-car patronage has exceeded expectations and proves the Aramoana is fulfilling a much-needed service to the public.” said Mr McAlpine.