REVENUE INCREASE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 43, 18 January 1935, Page 7

REVENUE INCREASE.

EARNINGS BY RAILWAY. EIGHT MONTHS’ PERIOD. ' Jan. 18. The railway revenue from April 1 to December 8 last year increased by £199,471. The total income from all sources was £4,210,840, as compared with £4,011,369 for the corresponding period in 1933. Expenditure, however, also increased by £238,024; the outgoings for the given period totalled £3,534,707, as compared with £3,296,683 for a similar period the previous year. The net revenue was thus £409,159, as against £472,754 for the same months in 1933, the variation being £63,595. An abstract of the railway working account is published in this week’s Gazette. It shows that six out of seven working sections returned increases in revenue, the Pieton line alone being down, to the extent of £1176. The North Island main line and branches earned more than half of the total revenue from the whole system. Their yield amounted to £2,181,258, a gain of £120,668. The South Island main line and branches returned £l,492,055, an increase of £73,896. As regards expenditure, the main trunk and branches in the North Island increased by £143,559, and tlie South Island’s similar lines by £95,824. Revenue from passenger traffic on all lines amounted to £823,211, an increase of £22,491. The number of passengers during the period under review was 12,863,538, an increase of 345,138. Revenue irom the transport of parcels, lugga.ge, mails and goods also showed a substantial increase. Goods alone yielded £2,668,058. a gain of £162,087. total railway operating revenue was £3,757,991, an increase of £201,£SB. There was increased revenue in each instance from the transport of live stock, timber and other goods, not specified. With only slight variations, the business of the Vail ways for the four-weeklv period ended December 8 last, reflected the improvement experienced during the longer period from April 1 to December 8. As regards road motor services, no fewer than 1,976,388 passengers were carried in the Railways Department s buses, the increase being 111,611. Re-r venue increased from £52,479 in the 6ame months of 1933 to £57,414 last year during the corresponding period—a gain of £4935. During the fouiweeks ended December 8, the increase in motor bus passengers was 17,958, compared with the similar period in 1933. Altogether it was a notably better year for tlie railways, with the exception, of course, of the increase in operating expenditure. General charges and superannuation subsidy alone showed decreases. The capital cost of open lines as at March 31 last was £53,909,347, as against £51,480.949 at the end of the previous financial year.