RAILWAY RETURNS.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 102, 2 May 1898, Page 6

RAILWAY RETURNS.

The following is the comparative official railway return of expenditure for the last two years which has been supplied to us from the Department : — 189G-97. 1897-98. Increase. £ £ £ Maintenance 301,881 827.987 26,00G Locomotivo 256.3158 274,033 18,265 Traffic .. 213,913 232,640 18,733 Management 39.072 41,0G2 1,990 Deducting from these figures the amount of credit recoveries, £22,280 in 189G-97, and £19,137 in 1597-98, the total amount expended in 1896-97 is left at £789,054, and during the past year it was £857,191, a total increased expenditure of £68.137 for the year ended 31st March, 1898. The actual revenue for the year exceeded the estimated revenue by £101,008, the estimate being £1,275,000. The actual expenditure (£857,191) exceeded the estimate by 5&35,064. Thus, the surplus revenue of £101,008 was earned at au expenditure of £35,064. These figures refer only to the ordinary working expense vote. The increase in the net revenue taken from the railways this year will be about Is per cent more than that of last year, despite extra expenses that have been entailed. This will make the amount this year £3 4s lOd, or about 3^- per cent. The percentages for the last 10 years have been :—: — 1888, £2 Gs ; 1889, £2 12s ; 1890, £2 19s sd; 1891, £2 18s lid; 1892, £2 15s 9d; 1893, £3 Is; 1894, £2 17s ; 1595, £2 14s Gd ; 1896, £2 16s j 1897, £3 3s lOd ; 1898, £3 4s lOd. . It must, however, he kept in view that these profits are shown regardless of the £200,000 voted by Parliament v 'the greater part of which should have been debited to the working account, in which case the profit shown would largely disappear.