COST OF TRANSPORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21349, 25 November 1932, Page 13

COST OF TRANSPORT

BURDEN ON COUNTRY

NEED FOR CO-ORDINATION

SCOPE OF MOTOR TRAFFIC

[BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Thursday

The urgency of securing co-ordination of facilities as n means of reducing transport costs is emphasised in the annual report of the, Transport Department, presented to Parliament this afternoon. The opinion is expressed that the present high level of national transport costs constitutes a serfous handicap to economic

recovery. "The outstanding feature in the field of transport to-day is the dangerously high proportion percentage of national land transport costs to national production," slates the report. "This high proportion is partly symptomatic of the fall in the prices for primary products, but is also a sharp reminder of the wasteful duplication and triplication which has taken place in the provision of various transport facilities. Although the transport problem is one of the Dominion's greatest internal economic problems, application of measures to secure co-ordination should result in the level of costs being forced downwards in comparatively short time. Fewer Motor Vehicles "The shrinkage in the. volume of passenger and commodity traffic during the year has resulted in a keener struggle for the diminished volume available by the motor, rail, and coastal shipping services. The average number of motor vehicles on the road during the year wasf 2 per cent below the number for the previous year, and the importations of petrol decreased from 64,000,000 gallons to 60,000,000 gallons, indicating a generally lower level of activity in tho industry.

"As between the different classes of motor vehicles, it is significant that the number of trucks shows a gain of 4 per cent, while passenger vehicles (cars, omnibuses and motor-cycles) have fallen off by 3 per cent. In the field of rail and coastal shipping services substantial declines were recorded. The tonnage of freight handled by coastal shipping showed a drop of 20 per cent, while the railway freight and ordinary passenger business fell away by lb per cent and 11 per cent respectively. "The intensified competition has resulted in severe rate-cutting in many districts, but, broadly speaking, the lack of co-ordination of services stands in the way of a permanent and substantial reduction of transport charges, at a time when* a reduction is urgently wanted." Passengers by Motor

It is shown in the report that the motor vehicle now dominates the passenger traffle, while the railways peforin the bulk of the goods transportation. According to the figures given, the motor vehicle accounts for no less than 71 per cent of the total passenger miles, against 17 per cent for the railways and 11 per cent for tramways, while the freight tonmiles are split up in the following pro-portions:-—-Railways 45 per cent, coastai slopping 35 per cent, and motor-trucks 20 per cent. Expressed per head of population, the passenger miles show approximately 1.650 miles per person per annum, while the freight ton-miles show approximately 600 per person per annum.

"Even in the relatively prosperous year of 1928-29 the estimated national land transport costs represented no loss than £56.22 out of every £IOO of the estimated value of national production, as com par cd with £29.59 in 1913-14." adds the report. "Over-capitalisation in transport, and the shrinkage in the value of national production in 1930-31 due to the decline in the prices of primary products, are the principal causes for national land tiansport costs representing no less than £45.23 out of every £IOO of the national volume of production in that year. "This increase immediately directs attention to the far-reaching changes that have taken place in the whole field of transport in the Dominion, and the marked relative disproportion that now exists between transport costs and the annual value of national production. Jn so far as the additional costs represent definite gains in the conquest of time and space in the transportation of human beings and commodities, they must be regarded as j>art of the fair cost of progress, but in so far as they arc the result of wasteful duplication or triplication of facilities they represent a serious and unnecessary obstacle to economic development."