Position Much Improved.

Speaking on 26th May, before a deputation from the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce, the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. A. Veitch, said the financial position of the Department was very much better than the general public believed, and if the economic state of the country returned to normal it would be found that the economies effected in the Department would place the Railways in a very sound position.

Mr. Veitch referred to the really live interest railwayman were taking in solving the problems of the Railways. He said that since June last, when he took over control of the Department, economies had been instituted at the rate of £1,000.000 a year. They would not show more than half a million, but the answer to that was that some had only been in operation for a few months.

“When we get a full year, even if more economies are not made, and they will be, we will show a reduction of £1,000,000 in our costs,” he said.

The reduction in railway revenue was considerable, Mr. Veitch stated, but it could not be expected that the country would always be in the hollow of the slump, and if the economies were kept up when trade returned to normal the losses on the railways would be reduced to £300,000 instead of £1,300,000.

Mr. J. Gilkison: Does that allow for interest?

Mr. Veitch: Yes. So you see that though the figures look bad, there is nothing bad about them. We only need continued rigid economy and the Railways will be in splendid condition.

Motor competition had only stopped railway expansion, he said, and had not reduced the railway business. Before the slump the Railways were increasing slightly.

Stationmasters, Mr. Veitch concluded, would be expected to come into much closer contact with the business world. The idea was to make every stationmaster a commercial officer.