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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 11 (June 1, 1930)

Social Aspect Of Workers' Tickets

Social Aspect Of Workers' Tickets.

There were some rates which were not intended to give even the community a financial return, but were held to be justified on other grounds. For instance, there were the workers' weekly tickets under which the Railways carried people for distances up to 10 miles for about 2 ½d. A 12-trip workers' ticket in certain areas costs only 2s. a week, which would enable a worker to make six trips in and out. If a bus owner were asked if he could produce transport at that rate he would not be long in giving an answer. The return to the railways was not remunerative, but would anyone dare to say that these tickets should be abolished? He did not think anyone would have the temerity. What was the justification for those fares? It could not be stated in terms of money figures, but everybody knew that the social service rendered by those tickets made it worth while for the community to pay something to secure the social benefit resulting from the prevention of slums and slum conditions.—Mr. H. H. Sterling.

“Loss”—A Misleading Word.

This was an illustration of his statement that while the expenditure was wholly shown in the railway expenditure account the benefits of the expenditure and efforts of the railway men, from the General Manager downwards, were not reflected in the revenue account. He believed that he had probably said enough to bring home to his hearers, as business men, his point and to illustrate the fallacy of saying that the difference between revenue and expenditure in the railway account was the measure of what was (quite erroneously) termed the “loss” on the railways.

Nevertheless, he was not going to say that the difference was a figure that should not improve, or that they should salve their consciences by saying “Sterling says it is for social service or some other thing.” He recognised that that figure had to be kept within the bounds of what the community could reasonably afford; and how was that to be done?

The New Transport Problem.

In order to get the answer to the question in its proper setting it was necessary to look into the transport problem, and the conditions in the transport industry, many of which were not peculiar to New Zealand, but were universal, because there was not a railway concern in the world to-day that had not felt the pressure of the new conditions in exactly the same way as the New Zealand Railways had. In the old days, before the advent of the road motor vehicle, the railways had what might be termed a quasi - monopoly. They could in those days give unpayable services and readily recoup themselves. Sometimes there would be objections from the people who were going to be asked to pay a little extra in order to make the accounts balance, but in the final analysis they had to pay.

In time a new element was introduced, an element which enabled the people to say: “We are not going to pay this; and if you do not remove it we are going somewhere else,” and in these and other ways arose disturbances of the public mind which have led to an inadequate analysis of the position.

Low and High Rate Goods.

Especially in New Zealand, a careful analysis of the position was necessary in order to determine the soundness or otherwise of the railways. “As our railways are a developmental as well as a revenue earning institution we have page break
Prize-Winner Among New Zealand Station Gardens. (Rly. Publicity photo.) (1) The Rakaia station garden, South Canterbury, which was awarded the Challenge Cup trophy in the recent station garden competition. This garden is noted for its wealth of roses, about 150 assorted varieties of which were planted by Mr. H. MacDougall, for some years stationmaster at Rakaia—now retired on superannuation. No less enthusiastic in devotion to the garden is the present stationmaster (Mr. D. Finlay, inset 2) and his staff, who have worked successfully in furthering Mr. MacDougall's pioneer work. (3) The invercargill-Christchurch Express passing over the Rakaia Bridge (1 ½miles), New Zealand's longest railway bridge.

Prize-Winner Among New Zealand Station Gardens.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
(1) The Rakaia station garden, South Canterbury, which was awarded the Challenge Cup trophy in the recent station garden competition. This garden is noted for its wealth of roses, about 150 assorted varieties of which were planted by Mr. H. MacDougall, for some years stationmaster at Rakaia—now retired on superannuation. No less enthusiastic in devotion to the garden is the present stationmaster (Mr. D. Finlay, inset 2) and his staff, who have worked successfully in furthering Mr. MacDougall's pioneer work. (3) The invercargill-Christchurch Express passing over the Rakaia Bridge (1 ½miles), New Zealand's longest railway bridge.

page 17 had to face more concessions from that point of view than other railways not situated as ours,” Mr. Sterling continued. “We had, however, up to the time when the competition entered, been able to keep the position fairly well in hand by reason of the incidents I have mentioned, that on the goods that were able to carry the higher rates we were able to recoup ourselves so as to come reasonably near squaring the ledger. However, with the advent of competition and that feelingof dissatisfaction regarding the distribution of the burden of the developmental or non-commercial rates, a tendency has grown up, and is becoming most marked, for the person requiring transport to transfer his higher rate goods to the competitive form of transport while leaving his lower rate goods with the railways.”

What To Do?

The inevitable result had been that the railways, through no fault in the management whatever, but solely due to the altered conditions, could not square the ledger by the means that were previously adopted. What then was the position that had to be faced? The people had either to face that difference between the revenue and expenditure account and say they could afford to pay that as a community for the benefits the country was receiving from the railways, and pay it, or else they could not afford to pay it or they were not going to pay it. Very frequently the latter course had been adopted inferentially by the people concerned complaining about the financial position of the railways, saying that they were not going to pay and something had to be done.

Not in Favour of Status Quo.

Well then, what was going to be done? One course at once suggested itself, and that was to restore the status quo. Well, that appealed to him as not being quite possible. He was not, as a Railway Manager, so blind to the changes that had taken place within the transport industry as not to recognise at once that the road vehicle had come into the industry and was capable of serving a useful purpose, and that it was here to stay. He believed, however, that much might be done by the community to bring the motor transport section of the industry to a position of greater economic usefulness to the community. He did not propose to pursue that further at the moment because he had dealt with it in his last Annual Report.