TRAMWAY PROFITS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 304, 17 September 1908, Page 8

TRAMWAY PROFITS.

[AUCKLAND v. WELLINGTON. INTERESTING FIGURES. It is authoritatively stated that the profit realised by the Auckland Tramways Company for the year 1907-8 totalled £32,551 6s. Id. Of this amount the Auckland City Council has been handed a cheque for £3005 2s. 7d. as its percentage of profits. So far the Auckland City Council has received the fol- ' lowing amounts as its percentage of profits since the company has been in existence: — 1902 (six weeks), £85; 1903, £2048 Is. Id. ; 1904, £2163 9s. 7d.; 1905, £2241 19s.' 7d.; 1906, £29*4 165.; 1907, £3005 2s. 7d. Total, / £12,455. As'against the Auckland Tramway Company's.profit of £32,551, the Wellington City Council's net profit for the past year, according to the official statement presented by the electrical engineer, amounted to £5568. Wellington owns its own servico (and with it a debt of over half a million). A ratepayer of an,inquiring turn of mind wants' to know •'•>. why the Wellington tramways iii the matter of profits compare so badly with Auckland tramways. It is generall}' admitted that there is no service in which the employees receive such generous treatment as in tho ' Wellington tramways, and despite this, and in faco of the diminutive profits returned on this huge undertaking last year,, the City • Council is being asked to grant further concessions to tho men. This matter has been dragging! on for months past, but a definite innouncemcnt that tho new agreement with iho men has been arranged should be heard ' iny .time before tho general election. Tho present administration of, our tramways has to face]the following figures:— -\ Auckland -Tramway. Co.'s profit £32,551 ■Wellington Municipal Tramways profit ... ... ... ' ■ £5,568 The margin is . so great that the excuses that can be made of dearer fares in Auckland,- or shorter sections, and that tho Wellington men are better paid,-cannot prove particularly soothing to tho ratepayers. ' Some members of the Wellington City Council appear to recognise thiit there is something amiss somewhere. .They know that,'ovon with tho small amount to credit :on the last year's working' ;half the cars are without a roof to cover them at night, • and moneys have to be 1 secured to buy land and erect carsheds for their accommodation. It is also stated that the tramway servico has on occasions been made a dumping: ground for those that must, be found work, and that the chief officials/ have'been helpless to prevent the practice!', A city councillor sa.id to a Dominion representative recently: "The tramways revenue is all right—it's the expenditure that, wants watching I" What this, city wants,, ,in tho opinion of many ' people, is'a:■ tramways board, independent of • municipal politics, who would have a free hand in tho .administration of the service except in ma.ttors of policy affecting fares and length of . sections. Freed from influences sueh as undoubtedly •' exist, our tramway'system might at least' be expected to show a- better profit than ' £5568 on a turnover- of £125,000—thn receipts for the year 1907-08..