RAILWAY EARNINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19677, 1 July 1927, Page 13

RAILWAY EARNINGS.

RECOVERY IN MAY PERIOD.

PROFITS HIGHER BY £36,000.

GAIN MAINLY IN NORTH ISLAND. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] WELLINGTON, Thursday. -

A working profit of £150,743 is shown by the Railway Department's accounts for the four weeks ended May 28. For the corresponding period last year the profits were £94,519. As the working profits for the first period of the new financial year showed a decline of £91,144 —mainly owing to the April, 1926, return having had the benefit of traffic in connection with the Dunedin exhibition — the gain in May ol £36,224 is more than counterbalanced. The result for the two periods is a decline in working profits of £54,921.

i The gross earnings for the month were £642,805 and the expenses £512,062 —the former showing an increase of £50,885 and the latter an increase of £14,661. Of the former £343,505 were derived from the North Island railways, £255,172 from the South Island railways and £44,127 from miscellaneous services. The corresponding expenditures were £264,728, £220,350 and £26,983.

The bulk of the additional working profits has been derived from the North Island. Operating revenue has increased by £19,224 and expenses are lower by £1430, the net result being an increase in operating profit by £20,654 to £7B*7i?7. The South Island railways show an increase in receipts by £22,672 but working expenses are higher by £11,715, profit's having increased by £10,957 to £34,822. The excess of receipts from miscellaneous services was £17,144, an increase of £4611.

For the period of 58 days to May 28 working profits have been £291,006, as against £345,927 for the corresponding period of 59 days last year. This year's total comprises £165,359 from the North Island railways, a decrease of £21,473; £86,800' from the South Island railways, a decrease of £29,072; and £38,347 from miscellaneous services, a decrease of £4374.