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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18408, 14 May 1920, Page 6

The latest “Abstract of Statistics” shows that during the month of March last 314 men wore employed on railway construction in this island, 187 of whom were engaged on the Otira tunnel undertaking, out of a total of 1759 men employed on railway construction work throughout the Dominion. The pet excuse of the Minister of Public Works for the slow progress which is being made with the vitally important Otira undertaking used to bo the shortage of labour, but this excuse can no longer do duty. In April last when the total working force for the Dominion was smaller by 50 men than that employed in April, the number of men employed at Otira was 201, and the number of men on South Island lines taken in the lump was 318. The percentage of working force allotted to the South Island has thus fallen from 18.6 to 17.8 per cent, while the percentage allotted to Otira has shrunk from 11.7 to 10.6 per cent. The conditions so Far as work in the South Island is concerned are scarcely any better than they were in March 1919, when 17.7 of tho working force was employed in this island, and 9-8 per cent on the Otira tunnel. When it is remembered that the connection by rail of Canterbury and Westland is quite tho most ■nortant undertaking which the Public "Works Department has in hand it becomes more and more abundantly clear that this island is being sacrificed at the bands of a political party which is largely a North Island institution.

The railway traffic returns for the •financial year 1919-20 compare not too favourably with those of the previous year. There was, it is true, the substantial increase of £763*855 in the revenue, due to enlarged business in all directions —in the number of passengers, of live stock and the tonnage of goods carried. But the improvement in revenue was more than absorbed by an increase in expenditure of £796,492, so that the net revenue is smaller. Tn the official statement there will be recorded a net revenue of £1,647,420. wbicb looks fairly attractive; but it must be remembered that out of this (if it is large enough) interest on capital cost has to be provided—and the cost of opened and unopened lines is well over 40 million pounds. Five per cent interest on 40 millions is a considerably larger sum than the net earnings of the railways.