THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

Colonist, Volume XLI, Issue 9143, 12 April 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

J (' Colonist,' March 31st) i j-For the financial "year which closej r \ to-day the Railway Department esti- » mates there will be a surplus oi J £90,000. It will be remembered \ that last session the Government j asked for and obtained authority to [ raise £200,000 for providing addi--5 tional locomotives and rolling stock k to meet growing requirements, largely i necessitated by the opening of additional miles of railway, and to ; provide machinery and appliances for \ the railway workshops. This sum of £200,0.0 has, of course, had to be added to the capital account, which has also b?en increased by a further sum of £162,000, we are informed, and by £270,000, the cost of 87 miles of railway that have now been added to the working railways of the Oolony. Thus the capital on wbich interest should be earned has been j increased by £682,000, to yield three per ceut interest on which requires £18,960 a year. For the current year the revenue was estimated at £1,275,000, and the expenditure, including the cost of repairing damages j caused by floods in the North Island was estimated at £810,000. The anticipated revenue was thus set down at £12,000 below the actual recfipts of 1896-7, but' the expenditure was put down at £38,258 more than in the year 1

' 1896-97. According to the estimates prepared last October, the railway revenue should have exceeded the expenditure by £405,000, but the approximate estimate prepared by the Department a few days ago shows that a surplus of £90,000 may ba looked for, and it is also stated that the expenditure on tbe maintenance of the line 3 has been much larger than the amount voted. Up to the 31st March, 1891, the railways had co3t the Colony £14,230,000, and from that date till the end of March, 1897, an additional £234.500 was sunk in the railways. It now appears that during the year thai is just closing, the capital account has been added to fey £622,001* so that the total oapital value now amounts to £15,096,500. Thus, had only ihe framed estimates been realised, the exce3S of receipts over expenditure "would have been sufficient to have provided for three per cent interest on the total capital value of *fae railways; but, with a surplus over the estimate, the position is still better.

The results indicated are decidedly gratifying, but we are convinced tbat further successes may yet be achieved, and will be if Mr Cadinan is given sufficient power. Some, at all events, of our railways are expensively conducted, and it is worth considering whether some of the lines should be worked after the fashion of tram lines, with less expensive staffs, with greater regard to the requirements of the people, and a less costly system of accounts. A judicious cutting down of expenses would render the railways of the Colony still more profitable, and our hope is that attention will be devoted to the securing of still better results ; but it must be acknowledged that, under present management, the success is highly gratifying.