THE TRAMWAY FIGURES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6494, 14 April 1908, Page 5

THE TRAMWAY FIGURES

IS LOVELY? NOT ENOUGH PROFIT, PRIVATE OWNERSHIP WOULD EXTRACT MORE. A prominent Wellington business man, casually referring, in tho course of conversation with a “ New Zealand Times ** reporter to the recently-pub-lished balance-sheet of tho city tramways, said that ho had carefully examined the and ho was distinctly disappointed with the result. The profit was particularly unsatisfactory in view of the large increase in the traffic returns. w lt seems to me,” ho said, “that there must bo mlsmanogemtnt somewhere, oar else tho rates charged are too krw, when the profit realised out of a revenue of £125,000 is only slightly over £SOOO. We uro told that atn ample sum has boon provided for d‘oprecration, but, admitting this, if tho mres had boon controlled by a public company I believe a much greater profit would have been made. It occurs to mo that it is just possible that Under the mnnicrpalisatfon of these ptrbßo services w© are not getting the host results from our employees, and it behoves the Corporation to strenuously resist any attempts that may be made by tho employees to dominate the Ckranoi}. It must be cramembered that tho tramways awl other services under the of this Corporation are in therr experimental stage, and tho way rn which these services are handled will alone justify the Corporation in assuming further responsibilities of tho same kind.

* Compared vrit h tho rwmlts of the tramways in Auckland, which are run by a public company, X maintain that our results are poor in tho extreme, 111 Auckland, in addition to providing for hrtorest, depreciation, and a handsome dividend to shareholders, a large amount was paid over to the municipality as their quota of tho profits.”