RAILWAYS REVENUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1937, Page 16

RAILWAYS REVENUE

FIGURES WELL UP

LAST FINANCIAL YEAR

(By Telecraph— Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, August 15.

Railway accounts for the financial year ended March 31 have been completed, and show an increase in the gross revenue of nearly £800,000 on the figure for the previous year. The revenue is higher than for any year since 1930. It is expected, also, that the figures for the current year. will exceed the 1936-37 total. The Minister of Railways (the Kon. D. G. Sullivan), in issuing this statement, emphasised the buoyancy of the railway finances. The final results of the year's working, he said, could be taken as a reliable indication and a true reflection of the improved economic conditions in New Zealand. The gross railway revenue for the year ended March 31 was £7,790,651, an increase over the year 1935-36 of £786,335, or 11.23 per cent. The revenue for the year was the highest since 1920 and exceeded 1933 (when the lowest revenue during the slump period was earned) by £1,756,248. The figures for the last eight years are as follows:—1930, £8,279,914; 1931, £7,571,537; 1932, £6,508,948; 1933, £6 043,403; 1934, £6,332,711; 1935, £6,627,928; 1936, £7,004,315; 1937, £7,790,651. But for the infantile paralysis epidemic the revenue for 1937 would have been at least £100,000 greater, Mr. Sullivan said. The estimated gross revenue for the current year was

£8,253,000, an increase of £463,000 over 1937. The latest returns indicated that this estimate would be attained and possibly exceeded. The increase on the first four four-weekly totals was £200,000.