ROAD MOTOR TRANSPORT

Evening Star, Issue 22471, 16 October 1936, Page 1

ROAD MOTOR TRANSPORT

IMPROVEMENT UNDER LICENSING £40,060 LOSS TURNED TO £65,000 PROFIT [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 15. A heavy scaling down of capitalisation and improved profits in the road motor transport industry last year are disclosed in the annual report of the Transport Department. The most noteworthy tea* ire of the traffic and operating figures js the much-improved rate of profit for the services generally. The estimated loss for 1931-32 (immediately prior to the Act coming into operation) was about £-10,000, and dnrir.g the following three years the profits were £5,159, £38,246, £65,393 respectively. The profits for the North Island only during 1935-36 were £57,3-15, as against £36,362 for tho previous year. If this rate of increase is maintained in Hie South Island. The total profits for New Zealand will he approximately £103,000 for the year ended Alarch 31, 1936. The report also shows Jiow high capitalisation has been reduced. The figures indicate a substantial scaling down of the overcapitalisation that previously existed in the industry. If the South Island figures are assessed at the same rate of reduction as for the North Island, the New Zealand total of capital employed is now approximately £727,000, representing just under 54 per cent, of the figure of 1932-33, or 48 per cent, of that estimated for the year immediately prior to the licensing system coming into operation. Elaborate statistical data in tho report conclude with the suggestion that by forecasting the population and the increasing use of the motor vehicle per unit of population, based upon present trends, it is possible to gain an approximate idea of the future growth .of traffic. As a conservative estimate it has been calculated that by 1945 the traffic on the roads of New Zealand will have increased by at least 30 per cent, since 1935.