ECONOMY LIMITS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1932, Page 12

ECONOMY LIMITS

A TRADE WIND WANTED

RAILWAYS READY FOR IT

The net revenue improvement shown in the railways figures is credited partly to the public's response to the lower fare policy, but mostly to economies in expenditure—economies which cannot be ' extended indefinitely, however, because there is a downward as well as an upward limit to expenditure on a transport service that aims at safety first. Such is the purport of the monthly message published in the June '' Bailways Magazine" by the General Manager," Mr. P. ■G. Eoussell, who states:— • , "Despite the generally depressed condition of .industry and trade, the Department .is still able to show a steady improvement in its net revenue position. How long this can continue will depend largely upon the general course followed by the external trade of the Dominion, and in this respect the outcome Nof the Ottawa Conference is of considerable moment to the railways of this country. The improvement referred to above has been effected_ partly by a lower-fare policy, but chiefly by very heavy economies in expenditure, amounting to nearly one and two-third million pounds in the *past eighteen months. This source ■ cannot be tapped indefinitely. There is an irreducible minimum in the cost of railway operating as the essential factors of safety and efficiency have to be steadfastly maintained. Substantial net gains may be looked for, however, if a trade revival, sets in, for the railways are now ready-to carry a substantially augmented passenger and freight traffic without adding materially to the cost of operating. Herico the possibility of improved Empire markets ..for New Zealand's primary products appears to be the main present hope for further improvement in the railway position here." As a-result of the operation of the Transport Act) "the -passenger situation is. becoming better stabilised. . . Freight traffic, however, is a difficult problem: at present owing to competitive conditions under which .the railways as ,'common carriers', .are at a disadvantage. with" road '■ competitors who, while giving no general 'common carrier', service, aro eagerly ■catering ; for: parcels" of traffic which look. tempting—easyito handle, available:in ;bulk. lots, etc.—^and- which the railways'' depend, upon .to balance,those other classes of traffic-^-difficult to handle, capable of paying-only, a low freight,, available I only in smal].;, lotSj they carry aspart'of their transport service to the;■: Dominion; This uneconomic competition: 'rocks -the boat,' cuts across the^lines of-any scientific adjustment in'ra'tesj-and is not in the best interests of ,tiie.people as a whole.", The highJ standard; ;of courtesy, and service offered.by,-the-staff is meeting with public approval. .