Railways Loss £2 Million

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30145, 31 May 1963, Page 10

Railways Loss £2 Million

(New Zealana Press A

WELLINGTON, May 30.

A substantial drop in the tonnage hauled combined with unavoidable extra expenditure contributed to the £2,073,710 loss incurred by the Railways Department for the year ended March 31.

The comparable loss for the previous year is £161,924. Revenue reached £35,791,013 and expenditure was £37,864,723.

These operating results do not include the earnings of the

and showed a small increase of £25.589 on the previous year. The Road Services operations had shown a pleasing profit of £80,756

Aramoana service over seven months and a half of the

"The severe check suffered last year may be properly regarded as a temporary one related to general trading conditions,” said Mr McAlpine. “I say this with the knowledge that the upward trend of the last quarter of the year has continued and for the current year goods tonnage is back to a buoyant level,” he said. Mr McAlpine described his anouncement as preliminary to the railways annual report to be presented to Parliament which would comment in greater detail. - z ' lAramoana Figures, Page 12)

financial year.

The Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine) gave this information today The Minister said that although the railways had hauled 10,000.000 tons of freight this was a drop of 800.000 tons or 7J per cent, on the previous year and represented a decline in goods revenue of £1,060.785 On the expenditure side, wage and salary increments paid during the year represented an increased expenditure of £921,000 on the previous year.

Mr McAlpine said that poor trading conditions which prevailed throughout the first half of the year reflected the general change from the near-bootn conditions of the previous year and the prevailing uncertainty concerning export markets. Not only were imports at a lower level but there had been a lower demand for timber, a marked reduction in the use of household and industrial coal and a fall in fertiliser traffic. A distinct upward trend in trading was evident over the second half of the year and was particularly discernible in the last quarter, but this enabled only a partial recovery to be made

The railways had carried more meat, road-making materials, and paper mill products than before but these improvements were more than off-set by the losses in other commodities. Normal expenditure during the year had been well controlled.

The Minister said passenger revenue had been maintained