The Railway Savings.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5030, 11 June 1889, Page 3

The Railway Savings.

Mr Samuel Yaile is a restless critic of the railway management. He could not be content even with the Barings announced to have been made during the past year. In a letter to the Press, under the heading : “ Screwing our Railways: where the screw bites Hardest,” he says:— Last year our Kailway Commissioners, then only plain Messrs Maxwell and Hannay, estimated the railway revenue for the year at £1,040,000. The returns have now been published, and the result shows gross earnings £997,615 only, or £42,385 lees than their estimate, and notwithstanding the great • increase in our export trade onlv £2772 more gross revenue than in *IBB7-8, one of our very worst years. Such figures as these would never do for bran new Commissioners. Something must be done, and so the screw was, applied vigorously, in order to make the net loss appear less, by making what they choose to call “ savings ”in the expenditure. £40,283 has been obtained in this way, and of this amount Auckland has been made to contribute £17,473 from her 247 miles (including Kawakuwa), while 1494 miles in the other parts of the colony provide between them the remaining £22,810. This is how the various turns in the screw came out.

On the Wbangarei-Kamo lino the expenditure has been increased by 15.7 per cent and at Westport by 19.7 per cent. No man knows “ how to pluck the goose ■without making her squeal" so well as the “railway expert” and it will be seen they have plucked judiciously. According to their time-honoured custom, they have taken from where they expected to meet with the least resistance. The percentage of “savings” in working the Auckland lines is 20 per cent., while in Canterbury and Otago but 2 3 per cent., and in Wellington 4.9 per cent., could be saved. This means that everything is being transferred from Auckland as rapidly as possible. If the above figures represent legitimate savings, I ask how it happens that nearly twice the amount could be saved on 257 miles in Auckland than could be saved on a complete system of 1043 miles in the South Island.

Miles. Districts. Amount of Percentage of Screwing. Screwing. 257 Auckland .. £17.473 43.4 97 Napier £3,770 9.3 85 Wellington £2,433 . 6.0 215 Wanganui.. £5,821 14.4 1048 Hurnnui ,. . £9,241 23.9 8 Qrejmouth £3 320 8.2 23 Nelson .. £309 0.7 18 Picton .. £170 0.4