FUNDS DISAPPEAR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16201, 26 November 1926, Page 7

FUNDS DISAPPEAR

RAILWAY CONTINGENCIES (Special to the Herald.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Under the policy inaugurated last year of making financial provision for various contingencies in the same manner as would be done by a businea concern the Railway Department established a special fund to meet the losses caused by washouts and other accidents, but it is clear that the recent floods all over the Dominion have caused expenditure which will absolutely wipe out the funds then set aside.

The lieju financial statement of the Department showed that £31,505 had been transferred to the fund thereby created, and that rolling stock absorbed £7.100 of the amount, leaving a balance of £24,205. No estimates are available of the cost of restoring the bridges and permanent way in Canterbury and the West Coast, but a prediction that the cost will be in the vicinity of double the amount in the special fund for the whole of the Dominion may not bo beside the mark. Throughout, the service the administrative officers seem imbued with an enthusiasm and determination to build up returns and make the railways pay dividends. The recent, floods have placed a distinct handicap against, any immediate realisation of that hope.