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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (June 1, 1929.)

General Manager's Message

page 10

General Manager's Message

Service Aspects of the New Zealand Railways.

Evidence is not lacking of the need for fuller understanding by the public regarding the service which the railways render them, both as a seller of transportation, and as a buyer of New Zealand commodities. The test of figures is always enlightening, and on this point it is interesting to record that over £6,25,000 was the sum spent by the Railways Department last year on the wages of employees and on the purchase of commodities in New Zealand. The wages account for the year was £4,884,136, and the amount spent on New Zealand produce and manufactures was £1,345,360.

These figures go to prove definitely that every section of the community in New Zealand is interested in the national transport business. Some review of the matter, as it affects the two principal sections—those engaged in primary production and those employed in the business of secondary industry—is therefore appropriate.

Primary Industry.

The great interest that is being taken by the farmers in the special excursions arranged to enable them to travel as representatives of the farming community to various producing and manufacturing districts of New Zealand presents an opportunity for stating the case to the primary producers.

The fact that these excursions are run is tangible evidence of our desire to meet the farmers in the matter of railway passenger facilities with a view to increasing their opportunity of taking advantage of cheap travel on the railway. The remarkable success which is attending our efforts has shown that what we are doing for the farmers is being appreciated, and holding, as I firmly do, that the true test of our success is service as well as profit, this is a source of great satisfaction to us.

We desire to bring home to the farmers the fact that while the railway is helping, and continues to do what it can to help, the farming community to an advantageous use of the railway system of the country, there is a definite responsibility on the part of the farming community to give the railway such support as will make it a thriving institution and so put it in a position to cater more and more adequately for the needs of the people. Almost invariably the railways that have been built in this country (apart from those in the very early days when the system was being constructed between the main cities) have been page 11 for the direct benefit of the rural population. They (the rural people) have generally been the people who have agitated for the building of the railways.

There is, therefore, a definite responsibility on them to make the railways a success in fact, and so justify the statement of those who advocated their construction that they were a justifiable proposition. The railways are only worth the use that is made of them, and unless people use them our lines cannot possibly be a success from any point of view, financial or otherwise. Our outlook is not bounded by the financial return alone, although of course it is our object to do the best possible from this point of view—but we desire also to give a service to the public that will be satisfactory to them. It is largely on this second principle that the farmers' excursions are based.

Secondary Industries.

With almost £5,000,000 spent annually in the wages of railway employees, it is clear that those engaged in secondary industries are definitely gainers by the assured spending power of railway employees. It is to their direct interest, in view of the fact that the railways are an essential industry, to give adequate support to the railways in the way of placing their freight business with the national concern in preference to passing it over, as some of them do at times, to uneconomically operating, and unessential competitors.

A Double Responsibility.

The responsibility for making a success of the railways does not rest with the railway people only. The responsibility is much wider than that. Certainly the railway people have to give service, and give that service at the lowest possible cost. That is what we are endeavouring to do, and, as the figures show, with success. But the collective responsibility for the success of the railways embodies more than this. The best efforts of the railway people in the direction indicated will be inadequate to make the railways as opportunity may offer. All too often we have traffic diverted from the railway on the most trivial grounds. For an advantage that even the smallest consideration would show to be but temporary, if not wholly evanescent, people will sometimes divert their traffic from the national institution. Such action will have its undoubted reaction. Uneconomic services cannot be permanent, and the net result must be that ultimately, through the weakening of national and more permanent institutions such as the railways, definite loss to the community will result, which the community must ultimately make up.

General Manager

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Modern Signalling Installations Automatic Colour Light Signals, No: 10 Tunnel, Christchurch-Greymouth Line, South Island, New Zealand.

Modern Signalling Installations
Automatic Colour Light Signals, No: 10 Tunnel, Christchurch-Greymouth Line, South Island, New Zealand.