BETTER RESULTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 126, 31 May 1910, Page 4

BETTER RESULTS.

IN RAILWAY WORKING. COMMISSIONER v. GOVERNMENT CONTROL. COMPARISON BY THE MINISTER. , [BY TELEGRAPH — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, 30th May. The Hon. J. A. Millar was entertained at a "(social" by his constituents of Dunedin East electorate to-night. In the course of his address the Minister said that he would state the result of last year's working in comparison with the result of the last year of the administration of the Railway Commissioners in New Zealand, together with the results ten years later under Government control. He would first say that the commissioners had charged higher rates, and had paid lower wages than did the Government — two very important factors — yet, notwithstanding this, and "the concessions given on the railways- during- the last ten years, and the increase in wages, the Government could show better results than had been previously obtained. REVENUE NORTH AND SOUTH. For the year ending 31st March, 1910, there were carried on the_ North. Island lines 5,794,000 passengers, on the South Island lines 5,324,000, and on Lake Wakatipu 21,000. There had been an increase in season tickets, parcels, horses, dogs, and in every class of gopds except timber. The revenue from passenger traffic in the North Island was £619,302, in the South Island £448,620, and for the Wakatipu service £2769. The large increase of passengers in the North Island over the South Island was due to the fact that the people in the North travelled more and further than was the case in the South. Season tickets in the North Island represented £60,000, and, in the South Island, £39,000. In goods, tha North Island claimed £782,000 and the South £987,000, making total revenues £1,614,000 for the North Island and £1,628,000 for the South. The train mileages had been 4.290,626 miles in the North Island and 3,598,540 for the South, and the rates of, interest earned were £4 3s 3d for the North and £3 9s 5d for the South, antl £9 17s 7d on Lake Wakatipu. THE INTEREST RETURN. The average rate of interest was £3 15s 9d, which was a record for New Zealand, with the exception of one year. In the year previous the earnings had been £3 2s 7d, and the increase was therefore 13s 2d per cent, on a capital of £28,500,000. A sum of 13s 2d per cent might not seem very much, but when they considered that it had been earned op a total capital of such magnitude they must admit that the Government had done fairly well during the past year. He had no doubt that with careful administration the same result could be achieved again. He did not believe that the railways ought to be used as a feeder for the Consolidated Fund, and, per contra, he did not see that the Consolidated Pund should be charged one penny for railways. If New Zealand could accept the same prices and pay the same wages as in Australia, he would guarantee that our railways would pay 7£ per cent., as against 4j per cent, there. COMPARISON WITH COMMISSIONERS. v He would now take practically one of the best years during the commissioners' term of office in New Zealand, viz., 1894. During,, that year he found that the tota' revenue from passengers was £378,000. In 1905, under the Government regime, it had increased to £680,905, and last year it totalled £1,070,000. The total revenue earned by the commissioners in their final year was £1,172,000, and in 1905 this had increased to £2,209,000, and last year stood at £3,249,790. The total expenditure in . the commissioners' last year had been £735,000. In 1905 this stood at £1,492,000, and last year at £2,164,000. The expenditure per train mile had been 56.69 d (1894), 58.46 d (1905), and 65.84 d (1910). He quoted these figures for reason that it was always said that they earned a high rate of interest by starving the railways. The expenditure per cent, on revenue was 62.70 in 1894, and 67.58 m 1905, whilst last year it was 66.74. In the year previous to that in which he had taken over control the figure was 72.19 per cent., so that the reduction last year was 5.45 per cent. The amount of slock ordered last year was 14 engines, 76 carriages, 12 brake vans, 34 bogie wagons, and 701 four-wheeled wagons-. The increased traction power was 239,5841b, and the extra seating accommodation equivalent to 895 persons per day. At the present time there were in hand (because he could see that there was going to be a very fair increase of business), ten big locomotives (by Price Bros.), and ten B locomotives — ten nearing completion and ten more to be put in hand, making a total of forty more locomotives to be ready during the next eighteen months. There were also two special locomotives, sixty-two big bogie wagons, seventeen brake vans, and 1212 four-wheeler wagons on order now in the different railway workshops. The amount expended in the railway workshops on new machinery last year was £5612, but this year_there was machinery on order totalling £25,000.