SOME RAILWAY FIGURES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6089, 22 December 1906, Page 10

SOME RAILWAY FIGURES

FIRST AND SECOND-CLASS. Quite an interesting commentary on llOw New Zealanders iravei is coutaine-ii in some figures compiled, from tiie j.New Zealand Railway Department returns. From these it is apparent that the tendency amongst railway passengers in the colony is ail in the direcuon of drifting from first to second cia.s. This is no doubt duo to the more comfortable fitting up of latter-class accommodation on trains than was formerly tho case. On the assumption chat districts whoso travelling xiopulaliou most favours the hr. t-ciuds are tile more prone to going in for luxuries the palm tor luxunou-ness must be given to Picton, so far ae the year ending March 31st lust was concerned. There, of course, the passengers "book through/'' joint steamer and train tickets being procurable, persons travelling saloon in the on .< being entitled to iirst-clas.s accommodation on tho ocher. The proportion of first-class passengers on tho Picton lino is one first-class for every secondclass passengers. Evidently one cannot judge of the habits of a district (as to whether it is luxurious or not) by tho nature of its chief industry and the .tatas of the individual, for Whangarei, a coa) district, its population comprising many miners, used tho second highest number of finsr-class tickets according to tho figures before us. Thus, for every fi.st-clnss passenger on tho Whangarei line there are only four who travel •second-class. Passengers on the Wel-lingtou-Napier-Nciv Plymouth line come third, the proportion being one firstclass for every 33 second-class passengers. The llurumii-Bluf? lino proportion i : - one first-class to every five (approximately) second.. To go to the opposite extreme, on- the Westport service", another coal-mining district, about thirtysix and a half people travel second-class for every ono who goes first-class. Other districts show tho following proportionr : —Gisborne and Kawakawa, one firstclass for every eight and a half secondclass; Westland, on© to nine and a quarter; Auckland, one to ten; Raihu. one to twelve and a half; Nelson, ono to thirteen and a half. The figures for the whole of the railways in the colony are one first-class passenger for every five and one-third second-class pasrengore.