RAILWAY WORKING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 98, 25 March 1939, Page 11

RAILWAY WORKING

MR HAMILTON CRITICAL. HIGHER OPERATING COSTS. Per Press Association. ROTORUA, March 24. “For every £IOO earned by the New Zealand railways under the Labour Government for the financial year to date it has cost £lO3 9s to get it. In 1935 it cost £B7 to earn £IOO. For years now the Labour Government with political control of the railways has produced a position which is little short of scandalous,” said the Leader of the Opposition (Hon. A. Hamilton) in an interview on his arrival at Rotorua to-day. Mr Hamilton next week will carry out a tour of the Bay of Plenty district. “Everybody knows the political quotation about fooling some or all of the people some or all of tho time,” Air Hamilton added. “I want people to make no mistake about the spoonfeeding they arc receiving to-day. In propaganda only the rosy side of tho picture is ever presented. Since the people have to find tho money, they are ultimately going to demand the whole truth, and when they, hear it Labour’s trusteeship will be indicted. “Mr Sullivan yesterday issued a statement, a feature of which was a. claim for new records in railway revenue over a given short period and an expression of satisfaction that his recent similar statement had been found reasonably accurate. That Air Sullivan published these figures is not surprising. They are aimed to show that there is greater evidence of trade prosperity and improved domestic finances, but then someone lias to support Labour’s policy of carrying water in timo of drought in a can that is leaking at tile bottom. “The facts people are more likely to understand and which they are entitled to be told are as follow: In 1935 it cost £B7 to earn £IOO on tho railways. In J 936 it cost £BB 10s to earn £IOO. In 1937 tho cost was £92, in 193 S it was £9O, and for the first nine months of the present year it has taken £lO3 10s to earn £100.” MEETING THE COST. Was it any wonder that tho Government locked everywhere for a scapegoat on which to blame the fruits of its policy ; J continued Air Hamilton. Statements like those to which lie had referred were being made to make bad fruit look like good to the people. Tho figures he had quoted wore not the worst. When tho Government introduced the increase of 10 per cent in fares and freights in December last it had just discovered that for a year up to that timo it had cost just more than £lO6 j,o earn every £IOO. That meant that the railways were not paying working expenses. They were not paying interest on the £56.000,000 capital outlay for the construction, and tho public was being compelled lo pay 6.19 per cent for the privilege of control by a. Labour Minister. Air Hamilton claimed that Mr Sullivan was overlooking the fact that many of tho smaller and commoner costs involved in railway travel had increased by as much, as 33 1-3 per cent and 50 per cont. When the price of a sandwich was increased by a penny, and when the price of a cup of tea, was increased by a penny and so on, considerable increases in costs in tho aggregate were being imposed upon customers. “Tho public, I believe, realises the scandalous state of affairs, but its united protest has yet to have its full effect,” concluded Mr Hamilton. “When it does, in the phraseology of Labour propaganda, tho running shoe will be on tho other foot.”