D.—2

10

ACCOUNT No. 3. Public Woeks Fund, Vote No. 89, 1894-95. £ s . a. Additions to open lines 40,000 0 0 Expenditure to 31st December, 1894 19,276 2 0 Balance for works authorised or in progress .. 20,723 18 0 A. O Fife, Accountant.

Alteeations made in Scale of Chabges by Eailway Commissionebs from 28th January to 31st December, 1894. Faces for workmen have been reduced by the introduction of workmen's commutation (twelvetrip) tickets. School season-tickets are now issued on any date, and are available for three months from date of issue. Eeduced rates were also granted to students over nineteen years of age attending Universities and Colleges. Eeduction in fare has been made for pleasure parties of not less than twenty travelling second class. The sectional system for charging passengers, parcels, and goods on the Whangarei Section has been adopted. Skim-milk returning from factories is conveyed free of charge. The regulation stating that grain in bags weighing over 2401b5. will be charged rate and an eighth has been removed. The ordinary rate is now charged. The charge for small lots of timber has been reduced. Drovers and their dogs travelling with not less than three trucks of live-stock are now granted a return pass for themselves and their dogs. The charge for small lots of bones, bone-dust, manure, &c, has been reduced. Poultry-coops and pens for use at poultry shows are now returned free of charge to the sending station. The period during which threshing-machines going to country stations for use there may be returned to the original sending station at half-rates has been extended to two months. The rate on logs from bush stations to sawmills on the Napier-Taranaki Section has been reduced. The maximum rate on butter and cheese from stations on the Napier-Taranaki Section to Wellington has been reduced. The rate on rimu timber to Wellington, and the rates on timber to Lower Hutt, Petone, &c, have been reduced. The rates on timber on the Greymouth-Hokitika Section have been reduced. The rates on wool from Springfield and Whitecliffs Branches to Christchurch and Lyttelton, from Fairlie Branch to Timaru, from Hakateramea and Kurow to Oamaru, and from Hyde to Port Chalmers and Dunedin, have been reduced. The rates on timber from sawmills in Southland to Dunedin, Orari, and intermediate stations, have been reduced. The rates on rough stone and stone piles on the Hurunui-Bluff Section have been reduced. The rates on A, B, C, and D Class goods from Oamaru to Dunedin have been reduced. The rates on A and B Class goods from Dunedin to Milton, Balclutha, Waitahuna, and Lawrence have been reduced. The rates on mining plant, sheep-feeding boxes, logwood, plants, shrubs, oilcake (New-Zealand-made) sheeting for covering frozen mutton and for fellmongeries, and New-Zealand-made wine, have been reduced. The wharfage charges at Westport, Greymouth, and Port Chalmers have been reduced.

APPENDIX B. ANNUAL REPORT OP THE GENERAL MANAGER OP NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS. To the Hon. the Minister for Eailways. N.Z. Government Eailways, Head Office, Sib,— Wellington, 13th June, 1895. I have the honour to report upon the opened railways for the financial year ending 31st March, 1895. At the end of the year there were 1,993 miles of line open, against 1,948 miles in the previous year The capital cost of opened lines has been increased from £15,137,036 to £15,352,613, an increase of £215,577 Interest at the rate of £2 14s. 6d. has been earned o-n the cost of opened lines, as compared with £2 17s. 9d. for the previous year The expenditure has been £732,160, against £735,359 last year. The revenue has been £1,150,851, against £1,172,793 last year. The net revenue has been £418,691, against £437,434 last year Expenditure per cent, of revenue, 63 , 62, as compared with 62-70 last year