SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8388, 11 January 1889, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAMS.

(From oca own Correspondent.) Wellington, January 10. The railway returns for the first 36 weeks of the current financial year are now complete The revenue for that period amouuted to £651,707, as against £661,861 for the corresponding period of 1888, and the workiug expenses absorbed £444,076 (or 68 per cent.) of the revenue, as against £480,758 (or nearly 73 per cent.) last year. Tho gross receipts have therefore fallen oft" by £10,094, but the expenses have been reduced by no less than £36,632, notwithstanding that 25 more miles were worked, consequently the net profit shows an improvement to the extent of £26,588 over last year The receipts have increased slightly on the Whangarei and Westport lines, but have decreased on all the others. Tho working expenses have increased on the Kawakawa, Whangarei, and Westport lines, but have decreased on all the rest. The details of the 36 weeks' traffic show * p &t}'%t' 22? PassouSer» travelled, a decrease ot 261,404; that there was a diminution iv the number of parcels, tzc, and live stock carried out an increase of no less than 108,383 tons iv gooda traffic. The effects of the holiday traffic at Christmas aud New Year could not, of course, be lelt in these returns, which extended only to the Bth December.

THE PALMERSON-WOODVILLE RAILWAY.

A large number of tenders have boon received For the Ashurst section of the PaluierstouWoodville railway. The prices are considered very satisfactory, one or two of the tenders being below the departmental estimates This section runs from the Terrace End Junction in the suburbs of Palmerston North to within a short distance of the Pohangana river, mill when it is let the whole of the line from Palmerston to Woodville will bo under contract. THE OTAGO CENTRAL. I understand that the length of the Ofcago Central hue now under contract or open for tender will absorb the whole sum voted by the house last session. The Otago Central and the Palmerston-Woocville lines are in fact the only Government railway works in progress. THE POST OFFICE. The restoration of the General Post Office is now being proceeded with at a more satisfactory rate. Ihe contract requires the completion of the work early m May next, and the Public Works department are satisfied that it will be done within the time. Dr Lemon's rooms will be ready for occupation in a few weeks, when he will move in at once. THE VACANT JUDGESHIP. I am positively assured that no definite steps have yet been decided upon by the Cabinet with regard to the judgeship, and at any rate that no appointment has yet been made. The latest rumour here to-day (and it seems to rest on very decent authority) is that Mr Martin Chapman, son of the lato Mr Justice Chapman, and the senior partner in the Wellington firm of Chapman and Fitzgerald, is to bo the man I give this as more gossip; but the report finds credence in many well-informed quarters, and it seems generally agreed thai such an appointment would be a very satisfactory one. I hear, on authority which appears to me unquestionable, that the offer of the judgeship was most certaiuly, although indirectly, made to bit- Robert Stout and Mr F IX Chapman (Duncdin), Mr George Harper (Christchurch), and Mr A. D. Bell (Wellington), but that each was unablo to accept it owing to business engagements and to the inferiority of the income which it would have afforded, but for which same reason it is understood that Mr Hesketh, of Auckland, would almost certainly have been the new judgn. This difficulty in obtaining a lawyer of standing for such a position threatens to be a serious affair, seeing that three other judgships must in the natural course of events become vacant at no very distant date, either by retirement or otherwise.

FOUR THOUSAND PHYSICIANS. The abovs number of medical men haye, over their own (signatures, most emphatically oon» firmed the popular verdict long since rendered in favour of Wolfe's Schnapps.