RAILWAY FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 194, 18 May 1928, Page 8

RAILWAY FINANCE

MR. HOLLAND REPLIES TO MR. COATES

By Telegraph.—Press association

. Westport, May 17. In .a statement to the Press to-day, Mr. il. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, expressed the opinion that a change was necessary in the railways system of accounting if the public were to bo permitted to have a clear knowledge of the financial results' of the yearly operations of the Railway■ Department." . ; . It was agreed, of course, that whatever losses. were made by any Department, it must in the end be borne by the Consolidated Fund; but that was no reason why such losses should not be clearly stated. The figures furnished by' Mr. Coates at Paparoa' were likely to be wholly misleading to the general public. On the surface Mr. Coates’s statement showed a deficit, of £293,479, whereas the actual ’loss) was £783.047. The smaller amount proclaimed'.by Mr. Coates was arrived at by taking £489,508 from the Consolidated Fund, and passing it through the Railways Account as if it were net revenue. This was done under the provisions of the amending legislation of 1925. Mr. Holland pointed out that in 1920 a deficit of £338,518 was. transformed into a surplus of £21,022 by transferring £359,5'40 from the Consolidated Fund, and calling it railway revenue, while in 1927 an actual loss of £5-14,880 was made to appear to n casual observer as a deficit of only £99,659, by similarly transferring £445,221, and treating it .as railway revenue. .