Railway Traffic and Agriculture in New Zealand

T nHAT the New Zealand economy is based upon agriculture' is evidenced by the fact that agricultural products normally contribute between 60 and 70 per cent of the total value of national production, and also by the fact that products of pastoral farming alone usually constitute more than nine-tenths of the value of the dominion's exports. It is, therefore, only natural that the New Zealand railway system2 should be intimately related to the country's agricultural activity. Indeed, a large part of the railnet was built, either in response to the needs of farming, or in order to encourage agricultural development. Today, rail traffic provides a useful means of assessing the flows of farm products and farm supplies in New Zealand, and the nature of this traffic is a reflection of the character of agriculture in various parts of the dominion. The interrelationship between the railways and agriculture is made closer by the dominance of railways in New Zealand's internal freight transportation. In the years since the end of the Second World War, New Zealand's railways have carried approximately five times the tonnage handled by coastal shipping. Highway competition is severely restricted by law. In areas where rail service is available, trucks are generally limited to hauls of 30 miles or less. Exception is made in the case of fat lambs, which are permitted truck journeys of as much as 50 miles in competition with train service. As a result of these statutory provisions, trucks rarely haul goods for distances of more than 30 miles, and railways seldom carry freight over shorter distances. Considering the importance of agriculture in New Zealand, and the close relationships between farming and the New Zealand Railways, it is not surprising that haulage of agricultural products and supplies amounted to more than a third of all net ton-miles of freight transportation service rendered by the railways during the period covered by this study. Detailed traffic data are not available for all agricultural commodities and supplies, and this analysis is necessarily limited to traffic in the most important types of agricultural products and supplies hauled by the railways: livestock, dairy products, wool, frozen meat, wheat, agricultural lime, timber, fuels, fertilizer, and miscellaneous manufactured goods. This study is based largely on traffic data compiled by the railways for I In New Zealand, a distinction is made between agricultural and pastoral activity. The term agriculture is used in this paper in its broad and generally accepted sense. 2 The railway system here considered is the New Zealand Government Railways, which make up practically the entire railnet of New Zealand. In addition, there are a few short, private lines which feed timber, coal, and other bulky goods into the government system

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Archaeology · Business · Economics · Geography · Urban and Freight Transport Logistics

• Conflicting Images of the Great Wall in Cultural Heritage Tourism

  Jieyun Feng, Yanan Li et al.•Critical Arts•2017

  Añadir item

• Redirections in Transport Geography

  Open Access•Peter J Rimmer•Progress in Human Geography•1978

  Añadir item

• Concepts and Methods in Commodity Flow Analysis

  Robert H T Smith•Economic Geography•1970

  Añadir item