AS BUSINESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20959, 24 February 1930, Page 10

AS BUSINESS.

N.S.W, STATE RAILWAYS. " FLOAT OWN LOANS. (From Odb Own Correspondent.) t +i j SYDNEY, February 13. {« ln .v. e d ? y ? when every State is finding it almost impossible to raise all the mnlL m 2v ey for H 3 immediate requirements, the proposal that the New South Vvaleg railways should be run as a separate business undertaking, with power to arrange its own finance, just as any ordinary business would do, has aroused keen interest throughout Australia. At last the people seem to be waking up to the extreme danger of. political management and control—and is it any wonder seeing the tremendous burden which this has placed upon the people ot the Commonwealth. • The suggestion is not actually a new one, but when it was made in times of great prosperity it attracted little interest. Politicians knew that they, must mse a great deal of their voting strength if they were not able to promise a railway here and a railway there, without having to give a thought to its chance of showing a" profit when it was working. And what, politician would willingly forego the chance of turning a sod for k new railway, and of attending the banquet which followed, and of listening to all the flattery from the local lights? There are sods turifed in many towns in New South Wales where there are no railways, and where there never will be any railways unless a great chafige comes over the country. Now the idea is that the manager should he the manager in reality, just as much as if he were manager of a private concern. He would be expected to make the railways pay, and to do all that was necessary to that end. He would be expected to face the irate settlers, and not to give away an inch of ground unless it was good business to do so. But, ne would also have to raise his own funds, and not go cap in hand to the State Treasury as he does to-day. Not that the manager would object to that .cry much. He would at least know where he stood, and-he does not know that today. The manager of the New South Wales railways was never in a worse position than he is to-day. now that loan moneys have been so drastically cut. It is admitted that in order to carry out the scheme which has been .proposed there would have to be a drastic writingdown of capital. No man—no super man. —could make the railways pay with their present burden of £120,000,000 capital debt. To give the railways a chance oi being run as a businee, proposition at least £40.000,000 would have to be written off. Once the capital was written down to a commercial basis, however, the railways could issue stock guaranteed by the Government on which interest could be paid. With a reduced capital it would be possible to make the railways pay, and cheaper fares and freights would compensate the general community for the reduction in capital. In the meantime there is likely to be a further curtailment in railway works owing to the serious shortage of loan money.