FINANCE OF RAILWAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 May 1928, Page 6

FINANCE OF RAILWAYS

MR. HOLLANDS CRITCISM PREMIER S ■’MISLEADING” FIGURES j CHANGE IN ACCOUNTING URGED. B.v Telegraph.—Press Association. 'Vestport, May 17. In a statement to the Press to-day Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, expressed the opinion that a change was necessary in the railways system of accounting if the public were to be permitted to have a. clear knowledge of the financial results of the yearly operations of the Railway Department. It was agreed, of Course, that whatever losses were made by any department must in the end be borne by the Consolidated Fund, but that was no reason why such losses should not be clearly stated. The figures furnished by Mr. Coates at Paparoa were likely to be wholly misleading to the genera! public. On the surface Mr. Coates’ statement showed a deficit of £293.479, whereas the actual loss was £783,047. The smaller amount proclaimed by Mr. Coates was arrived at by taking £489,568 from the Consolidated Fund and passing It throueJi the railways account, as if it was net revenue. This was done under the previsions of the amending legislation of 1925.

Mr. Holland points out that, in 1926, a deficit of £338.518 was transformed into a surplus of £21,022,’by transferring £359,540 from the Consolidated Fund and calling it railway revenue, while in 1927 an actual loss of £544.880 was made to appear to the casual observer a deficit of only £99.659, by similarly transferring £445.221 and treating it as railway revenue.