THE INCREASED RAILWAY RATES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1019, 12 November 1917, Page 4

THE INCREASED RAILWAY RATES

Tin; Railway Department is presenting the public with a very unwelcome Christmas box in its reported determination to increase the railway passenger and goods rates by another ten per cent. It is true the National Government is primarily responsible, and that the Minister of Finance has declared that any increased expenditure incurred by the Department must be made good by the public. The Government having granted the lower paid married railway servants an extra war bonus, involving an expenditure of £58,000 during the months of the present financial year, in which it is to be paid, and of £175,000 for the full period of twelve months, the Department is out after additional revenue to cover the extra charge on its revenue. But last year the railways showed a percentage of profit to the capital invested of 5.30 per cent., the net profit on the working of the open lines being £.1,873,946, which was nearly a quarter of a million in excess of the profit made during 1915-16. The estimated revenue for the current financial year is £4,200,000, as against £4,800,000 last year. That moans a decreased revenue of £600,000, but against this the working expenses ought to show a considerable reduction a.s a result of the fewer trains and the large number of hands that have been released for war duty. No count of such reduced expenditure has, however, been taken in the estimates, which, indeed, place the outlay (and this is the remarkable tiling about the business) on very considerably reduced train services and a greatly diminished staff, at £'2,943,500, as against £2,926,864 in H) 16-17. To that sum has now to be added the £58,000 required to meet the extra war bonus for the four or five months of the year in which it is being paid, so that, on paper, the expenditure, as estimated, will be over three millions. The Department in framing the estimates apparently took a very conservative view of the whole business, and wo shall be greatly surprised if it is not found, when the next Budget is tabled, that the actual expenditure has fallen very much l>elow the estimate. But, he this as it may, it does not seem to us that the public, which is now asked to foot the bill for the increased payments to tho railway servants, is receiving a fair deal in the transaction. Ten per cent, on the estimated railway revenue of £4,200.000 would moan increased payments in fares and freights of £420,000 for the twelve months,' or of £140.000 for the four months of the financial vear during which the extra impost will have to he met by the public. Sir Joseph Ward's estimate of the sum required for the extra war bonus is £175,000 for the twelve months and £58,000 for the four months. The ten per cent, charge, : therefore, would mean that the public would have to pay £2 10s for every additional £1 paid to the railway work- .' ei's. which, as we have said, is scarcoly a fair thing. And, if the new rates come into operation next month, a.s it ! is stated they will, the additional re- < striction entailed upon holiday travel- 1 line is bound to causo serious dissatis- ! faction.