RAILWAY DEBIT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19896, 25 March 1939, Page 5

RAILWAY DEBIT

MOUNTING N.Z. COSTS UP TO £lO6 TO EARN £IOO MR. HAMILTON CRITICAL "SCANDALOUS STATE" (Per Press Association.) - > • ROTORUA, this day. "For every £IOO earned by the New Zealand railways under the Labour Government for the financial year to date, it has cost £lO3 9s to get it. In 1935 it cost £B7 to earn £IOO. For years now the Labour Government, with political control of the railways, has produced a position which is little short of scandalous," said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, in ah interview on his arrival at Rotorua yesterday. Mr. Hamilton next week will carry out a tour of the Bay of Plenty district. "Everybody knows the political quotation about fooling some or all of the people, some for nil of the time," he said. "I ■ the, popple to -.jrnake .no mistake aVbuF'the 'spoon-feeding' they arc 'receiving to-day on propaganda. Only the rosy side of the picture is ever presented. Since the people have to find the money, they are ultimately going to demand the whole truth" and when they hear it Labour's trusteeship will be indicted. New Records Claimed "The Minister of Railways, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, yesterday issued a statement, a feature of which was a claim for new records in railway revenue over a given short period and an expression of satisfaction that his recent similar statement had been found reasonably accurate. "That Mr. Sullivan published these figures is not surprising. They are aimed to show that there is a great evidence of trade prosperity and improved domestic finances, but then s'omeone has to support Labour's policy of carrying water in time of drought in a can that is leaking at the bottom. "Facts which the people are more likely to understand arid which they are entitled to be told are as follows: In 1935, it cost £B7 to earn £IOO on the railways; in 1936 it cost £BB 10s to earn £100; in 1937, it cost £92 to earn £100; in f 938, it needed £96 to earn £IOO and, for the first nine months of the present year it has taken £lO3 10s to earn £100." Quest for Scapegoat Was it any wonder that the Government looked everywhere for a scapegoat on which to blame the fruits of its policy? asked Mr. Hamilton. Statements like those to which he had referred were being made to make bad fruit look like good to the people. The figures he had quoted were not the worst. When the Government introduced the increase of 10 per cent in fares and freights in December last, It had jiist discovered that for the year up to that time it had cost just over £lO6 to earn every £IOO. That meant that the railways were hot paying, working expenses, • they were not paying interest on the £56,000,000 capital outlay for construction and the public was being compelled to pay 6.19 per cent for the privilege of control by a Labour Minister. Higher Rates to Travellers Mr. Hamilton claimed that Mr. Sullivan was overlooking the fact that many of the smaller and commoner costs involved in railway travel had increased by as much as 33 1-3 per cent and 50 per cent when the price of a sandwich was increased by a penny and when the price of a cup of tea was increased by a penny and . so- dn. Considerable increases in costs in the aggregate were being imposed upon customers. "The public, I believe, realises this scandalous state of affairs, but its united protest hag yet to have its full effect," concluded Mr. Hamilton. "When it does, in the phraseology of Labour propaganda, the running shoe wili be on the other foot."