NOT HOPELESS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 67, 20 March 1931, Page 8

NOT HOPELESS

POSITION OF RAILWAYS

MINISTER'S OPTIMISM

1\ TE)V LINES THE

TEOUBLE

An optimistic note concerning the future of tho railways iv New Zealand was struck in-flic House of Representatives last night by (ho Minister of Railways (tho Hon. W. A. Veitch), when speaking on the Finance Bill. ro outlined tho efforts he had made to effect economies since he had had charge of the Department, and referred to tho wanner iv which capital charges had mounted up since 1912. The Minister said the position in the Baihvav Department was somewhat dUforent 'from that of other departments. The Department had been showing losses, and every effort had had to be made to reduce costs.. A great many economies had been effected before the 30 per cent, cuts were decided upon. His most unpleasant duty when he took over tho Railways Department was to dispense with the services ot a number of men who were no longer rcqmr-

'[■ho Leader of the Opposition: "Quite a lot of men were put on m IJ-J. The Minister: "Casuals only." £ enen4 trade depression had had the effect of considerably reducing the amount ol •business that came to the Railway penartment, ond there had naturally been a, corresponding reduction in revenue. That, had of necessity led to dismissals. Ho had had to dispense with the casual men and spread the work performed by tho casuals over the rest of the service. There were no casuals in the locomotive department, and the method of economy which he had adopted m that particular department had been in the direction of paying the men only their guaranteed weekly wages and cutting out overtime. Men had been granted time off instead of extra payment, and tho only alternative to that •would have been the retrenchment of permanent men. It was a much more serious matter to dismiss permanent men than to dismiss casuals, _ aspermanent men had superannuation lights and so on. As soon as the country returned to prosperity and the position of the Department improved, the men would have their rights restored. Members of the Ministry had no desire to deal harshly with the Civil servants, ■but: the whole position, was that the Government did not have sufficient money >lo carry on as in tho past. He hoped tho time was not far distant •when they would be able to return to tho Civil servants all that had been taken away from them.EBDUCED EXPENDITURE. Tho Minister said that it had been his duty to reduce the expenditure of the Railway Department as far as possible. The expenditure had been reduced to a greater extent 4han had been anticipated—£4o4,Bl9, as against the estimate of £309,000. Uniformnatelv, owing to the position ot the country, the fall in Uie revenue would exceed the amount of the economies, hut that, was not. to say that no good •purpose) had been server! by tho economies, the benefit of which would be felt later on. The difficulties with .■which tlicy were confronted were not peculiar to New Zealand. Referring to" tho question of the rentals, tho Minister said the Commission had recommended that the loss ot f& 78,000 on the houses should be refluced to £40,000, and the loss had actually been reduced to £43,000. The basis of calculating the rents had been altered so as to mako it more equit- ' Mr P Fraser (Labour, Wellington Central): "Didn't tho change hit the lower-paid men most?" • Tho Minister: "It's impossible to Bay." The Assistant-General Manager of the Department was going into_ the whole question, andJij had been given power to make reductions in cases m Which hardship was established. _ Tho Minister said the difficulties ot the Railway Department 'were great, but he was convinced that with prudent administration the Department would coon be placed on a sound basis, koine very, expensive work had been carried put.by the Department in recent years. ESTIMATES AND COSTS. The Minister quoted figures to show that there was a marked difference between the estimated cost of certain railway works and tho actual cost. Roferriug to eleven separate items, ho gpid that tho estimated cost had been £1808 000, but tho final actual cost •was over £5,000,000. That was an enormous difference. Mr AY D. Lysnar (Independent, uislorne: "What class of works were they?" Tho Minister said they included the 'Auckland-Westfield deviation, the Auckland railway station, and tho Hutt Yallev line. It had to be remembered that "the interest on every £1,000,000 amounted to £1000 per week. Mr. Lysnar; "And you are getting nothing nut of it." Tho Minister: "I can't say_ that we are setting nothing out of it." Between 1912 and 1930, 539 miles 14 chains of new lines were constructed M a capital cost of £12,738,626, while the cost of new lines amounted to £15,----500,000. To sum up, in tho period mentioned they had added only 539 miles to the railway system, but they had added £28,000,000 to the capital of the Railway Department. There was no doubt that there would be heavy losses on some linos for some years to come. For instance, the Taneatua line ■would result iv » loss of £156,000 (annually.

Wo are apt to assume that the future of the railways is hopeless, said the Minister; but the more I i look into the accounts and study the ■ position generally, the more I realise that the Railway Department will ■ 'becorae much les3 costly to the people of the Dominion. Referring to the services which the Uailway Department rendered to the community, the Minister made special reference to tho carriage of fertilisers. On a rough and ready calculation about 450,000 tons of fertiliser wero transported every year, and of that amount 420,D00 went by rail, 20,000 tons by sea, and 10,000 tons by motor vehicles. One could realiso the all-important fact that annually those parts of New Zealand that were being served by the railways were getting tho benefit of fertilisers to an extent that was worth considering as a matter of natiffial policy. _____ - «^ — ___