PROFIT LAST YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 48, 25 August 1931, Page 10

PROFIT LAST YEAR

PIRATE SERVICES Despite the opposition of taxi services, the Hutt Valley bus service has been able to show a profit during the financial year ended 31st March last. In his annual report, the General Manager of Railways (Mr. H. H. Sterling) gives the following particulars of the year's operations as compared with the previous financial year: 1931. W3O. Revenue 82,203 S-.Tt* Expenditure .. 81,054 Bg',Go7 Profit or loss .. £1,149 Profit ~£Sls Loss "Notwithstanding a decrease in revenue of £3589, the operations of this service during the past year have resulted in a profit of £1149, as against a loss last year of £815. The decrease m expenditure of £5553 is principally due to a reduction in maintenance and repair charges of £3643, owing to the new vehicles placed in this service requiring less maintenance, etc., than the older vehicles which are gradually being scrapped. Running expenses decreased by £2712 due to the reduced mileage run. The expenditure, in addition to the usual charges for depreciation and interest, includes an amount of £3300 written off as 'goodwill' paid for the vehicles taken over from the previous owners of this service. The nature of this 'goodwill' payment has been fully explained in my previous reports. "The passenger journeys in this service totalled 2,671,511, a decrease of 176,795 on the figures for 1930, which decrease is due to the depression. In the early months of the financial year the passenger journeys in this area showed an increase over the figures for the preceding year, but, as a result of the depression and acute unemployment, the figures have decreased consistently fot the remaining months of the year. "In these circumstances every effort was made to adjust the services to the shrinking business, and by time-table revisions it was possible to reduce the mileago by 114,753 miles. "This service has now been brought up to quite a high standard by the provision of new and up-to-date buses, and it is regrettable that the people of the district should afford their patronage to the pirate taxi services which can only have the effect of weakening the capacity of the Department to give a still higher quality of service. So far as tha past year's operations are concerned, it is very satisfactory to know that, in spite of the opposition of the taxi services and the general depression, which must have been a material factor contributing to the drop in the passenger traffic, it has been found possible to show a profit on the year's operations."