The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 11 (June 1, 1930)
“Making The Railways Pay.”
“Making The Railways Pay.”
In New Zealand there was another fact that they had to keep in mind when they were making use of the words “Making the Railways Pay.” The whole difficulty in viewing the railway situation was the interpretation of that term. It might mean making them pay as an abstract commercial proposition or it might mean as a community investment. The difference was vital to a clear conception of the railway position. If the railways were to be made an abstract proposition all consideration of social and developmental benefits from the scheme of railway rates had to be taken away.
If the railways were viewed as a community investment, giving returns to the community of various kinds, some financial and some in the direction of development, or sound service in some other direction, it had to be admitted that the railways did very adequately pay. He mentioned that both on the passenger and goods side the management was guided by a desire to give adequate service to make it worth people's while to use their own railways, but he felt that while there was a responsibility on them as workers of the railways there was a reciprocal responsibility on the part of the people as shareholders and potential users of the railways.—Mr. H. H. Sterling.
No one could stand up at any particular moment and say there was nothing further to be done on the expenditure side. The efforts to secure reduction of expenditure and greater measure of economy were not static in their nature but dynamic.
Economical Working.
As the railways stood to-day there was no opportunity being missed for their economical working so far as the matter might come within the control of the management, and economies were constantly being effected. He made that last qualification advisedly because there were some matters outside the control of the management, some of them inherent in a State institution, others arising from other sources. He did not hesitate to say, as General Manager, that on the expenditure side no opportunity was being omitted to keep the expenditure down as far as they were able to do, and he did so with a full sense of his responsibility.
Increasing the Revenue.
Scenic Pictures On The New Zealand Railways.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The Manganui-o-te-ao Viaduct (height 112ft.) on the beautiful central section of the North Island Main Trunk Line, shewing Mt. Ruapehu (9,175ft.) in the background.
The Private Motor Car.
The trouble on the passenger side was not so much commercial competition as the competiton of the private motor car, which was in a sense non-commercial. It probably was very rarely indeed that the question as to whether a person was going to travel by private motor car or railway was determined by the financial considerations involved. Day by day people were travelling by their motor cars and they did not give one single thought to the question as to whether they could not do it more cheaply by rail. Circumstances of convenience entered into it, of course, and all too often—he was afraid — circumstances of vanity.
Out for the Goods.
On the goods side, the Department was adopting business methods. It was going out with a message to the public, a message of service, a message that was backed by truth and sincerity, and a message that had, he believed, the honest will-to-do of the 19,000 employees of the Department. The result was that he felt himself on sound ground in saying that on the goods side also the Department had gone out to get the business with a very large amount of success.