The Matter of Expenditure.

When members of a Chamber of Commerce were considering, as taxpayers, or as shareholders of the railway concern, the question as to whether that deficit should be there or not, they, as business men, said: “Well, if the expenditure were less or the revenue more, that would mean at least that the deficit, to the extent that it is affected by either of these factors, would be lessened.”

They wished to know was the expenditure down where it ought to be and were the railways getting as much business as they ought to get by such methods as it was within the scope of the Department's authority to adopt. He could assure his hearers that the railways were being run as economically as the circumstances permitted. He had gone into this matter at considerable length in his last Annual Statement and he had placed definite costing figures before the public. He gave the statistics of railway operation which were there on record for perusal by anyone who might care to analyse them, and he had made an honest endeavour to give such explanations as would make the significance of the statistics manifest and enable anyone interested to get an intelligent grasp of them. endeavour to give such explanations as would make the significance of the statistics manifest and enable anyone interested to get an intelligent grasp of them.