RAILWAY YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1938, Page 8

RAILWAY YEAR

RECORD BUSINESS

MINISTER'S REPORT

VALUE TO COUNTRY

The year ended March 31, 1938, proved a record one for New Zealand railways, revenue, goods carried, and passengers all showing an increase. The gross earnings for the year were £8,634,186 • and the expenditure totalled £8,001,389, an increase of £1,114,596 over the previous year, the main items of increase being ior maintenance and new rolling stock, both locomotive and transport The net revenue j was £632,797, being £30,495 higher lhan the Budget estimate. "More business has been done by the railways during the past twelve months than in any previous year in the history of the Dominion," stated the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in his report to Parliament today. "This fact is attested not only by the record gross revenue earned, but also by the record total of 561,000,000 goods net ton miles. There was an increase over the previous year of 1,205,784 passenger journeys by train, and 890,023 additional passengers were conveyed by railway road services as compared with the $ear ended March 31, 1937. The internal activities of the Department have been equally impressive. Never previously have the railway workshops been so fully engaged, their total staff now; standing at approximately 6000, and in no other year have so many major improvements been introduced into the working railways. "The revenue for the year was £8,634,186, the highest amount yet earned by the Department in any financial year, representing ah increase of £843,535, or 10.83 per cent., over fhe gross earnings of the previous year and £1,629,870, or 23.26 per cent more than the earnings for the year ended March 31, 1936. This increase of 23.26 per cent, in the gross revenue of the railways during the two years of the present Administration is a remarkable proof of the earning-capacity of the railways when trading and the conditions of the country generally are favourable for their operation, particularly as there have been no increases in the rates for passengers or goods during this two-year period. Bearing this in mind, it may reasonably be claimed that in the past two years the New Zealand railways have come well out of the doldrums into the fair tradewind of present-day conditions, and that the Government's policy has been the power which has helped them to achieve these results. TRUE EARNINGS. "The gross earnings for the year— namely, £8,634,186—are the true earnings of the Department, no device having been adopted to swell the gross revenue. This should be remembered when comparison is made with, say, the financial years ended March 31, 1926, 1927, 1928, arid 1929, when the railways were provided with subsidies from the Consolidated Fund amounting to £359,540 in 1926, £445,221 itt 1927, £489,568 in 1928, and £490,735 m 1929, which amounts were included in the gross revenue of the respective years, and the net revenue return increased correspondingly. The expenditure for the year totalled £8,001,389, an increase of £1,114,596 upon the previous years figures. The main items of this increase are additional expenditure upon maintenance, rolling stock, and locomotive and traffic transportation, which together accounted for £905,163 of this amount. ... "It should be noted how large a proportion of railway expenditureamounting now to 12s 6d in^the pound —is used in the payment of wages to a staff of approximately 23,000, and that a further Is lOd in the pound is, spent entirely in New Zealand for | coal, and a large proportion of the 2s 5d in the pound for stores and material 'is also spent in New Zealand. The cash expenditure, after allowing for depreciation, etc., amounted to approximately £7,000,000, of wmch £6,250,000 was spent entirely in New Zealand. These figures indicate the tremendously FrnpStant place the railways occupy as an industry in the economic life of the nation." ~