RECORD REVENUE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 22 March 1939, Page 9

RECORD REVENUE

FOUR WEEKS ON RAILWAY. TOTAL OF £918,000. MINISTER GRATIFIED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Mareli 22. “The approximate total of the railway revenue for the last fourweekly period is £918,000,” said Hon. U. G. Sullivan (Minister of Railways) after his arrival with the Premier (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) to-day, “and it constitutes a railway revenue record for any one period, being £78,000 higher than the record revenue for the four-weekly period immediately preceding it. and £114,000 higher than the revenue for the corresponding four weeks of last year.” The Minister added: “On the figures submitted to me I estimate that the net revenue for the period ended March -1 will be £237.000, bringing the net revenue for the 4S weeks of th® current year to £440,000. 1 confidently expect that the total revenue for the year to accord with my recent estimate, namely, £700.000.” Mr Sullivan added that the great expansion in railway revenue for the Dominion during the past quarter was undoubtedly evidence of trade prosperity and improved domestic finances. Comparatively, the position of the railways in England was still unsettled anil a cause of anxiety. Commenting on the Government’s intention to introduce an amended scale of charges for railway transport from May 1 next. Mr Sullivan said that the general effect of the scheme to flatten out the higher rates for general merchandise and simplifv the tariff would be to bring the method of assessing railway freights more closely into line with the practice followed bv road operators.