Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1923. THE RAILWAYS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2647, 16 May 1923, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1923. THE RAILWAYS.

The railway returns published last week have given the "New Zealand Herald" another opportunity of raking the adminstration of the Railway Department fore and aft. For the third year, (says the "Herald") the New Zealand railways as a whole have failed to earn the policy rate of interest on capital expenditure. There have been successive deficits of £124,000, £1,021,000 and £249,000. Yet in this period the volume of traffic has been the heaviest in the history of the system. In 1920-21, both passenger and goods traffic reached record figures, and though the former has declined, goods traffic has continued to expand to a new record in the year just closed. During 1920-21, the number of tickets sold to passengers was 15,315,640; in the following year there was a serious contraction to 14,262,440, and the returns for 192223 show a further fall, of only 5830, to 14,256,610. No earlier year shows higher figures than those for the two periods of heavy deficits. On the other hand, the sale of season tickets has grown, with only one check five years ago, to the maximum last year of 485,681, an increase for the year of 12,816. On the goods side, the carriage of livestock reached the maximum of 7,915,419 head in 1921-22, last year's return being less by 253,726. But traffic in other goods has increased, last year's figure, 6,234,807 tons, being the highest yet achieved. In the absence of any statistical association of quantity and distance, direct comparison might be misleading if there had been any substantial increase in the proportion of short-dis-tance traffic. The only check is the return of gross revenue, and this confirms the view that the department's difficulties are not due to lack of public patronage or to competition of other forms of transport. In 192021, the receipts were £6,905,531; last year's revenue was less than this record by only £180,729, a figure that nrobably represents very little more than the cost of various freight concessions. Large a,s the. traffic Iras been, it cannot be disputed that it would have been larger and more profitable had the department more closely studied public requirements| and encouraged the use of the railways instead of multiplying inconveniences and curtailing services below the standard of necessity. In time, economies resulting from external influences may restore the department's solvency, but efficiency in the sense of active fostering of traffic and intelligent provision for the satisfaction of the public can be achieved only by a reorganisation of the policy and methods of the department Any hope of reform by the Board of Management has been disappointed. The Board has been unable to escape from the traditions and routine in which its members were trained, and the, change in management methods is shown to have been a change in name only. Thus the problem of railway management still remains to be solved.