NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2244, 16 July 1908, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

THE MINISTER'S ANNUAL STATEMENT. [Si’eoial to “Times/!] WELLINGTON, July 14. Tho results of tho part two years working of tho New Si .d railways is summarised thus: Total earnings lor tho year 1908, £2,761,938, year 1907, £2',621,600. Total expenditure £1,949,759 and £1,812,482. Net profit on working £812,179, and £812,118. Seventeen miles 29 chains 0 f extensions were oponed during the year. The net revenue, £812,179, the Minister states, is equal to a return ’of 3.33 per cent on the capital invested in the open lines, and 3.01 per cent on the capital £26,785,140, invented, in open and unopened linos. -The ;t cost of working the Kawakawa section, exceeded the earnings by £912, anti the Kaihu section lias also been worked at a loss of £463. The number of train miles run during the year was 7,051,274, being an increase of 295,820. The total number of ordinary passengers carried was 9.756,710, an increase of 155,930 over the.previous year. This is very gratifying, as tho returns for the previous year showed the phenomenal increase of 774,404 passengers over 1906, consisting largely of traffic of a non-recur-ring character, which was induced by tho New Zealand International Exhibition. iSeason tickets issued, numbered 185,174, an increase-of 19,670. The number of wbrkers, twelve-trip tickets, was 43,961, and of workers weekly tickets available on suburban lines, 101,190. These tickets, I am pleased to say. continue to maintain their popularity, and their regular use, by a large body of the community, is. a practical testimony of tho appreciation by the workers, of tho advantages to ho derived by living in healthy surroundings, away from the crowded city areas, and of being enabled to travel to and from their work, at -a- nominal cost. Holiday excursion tickets numbered 732,135, being a decrease of 124,277. When compared with the previous year this, however, is accounted for by the fact that this -class of ticket was issued to Christchurch during the whole currency of the Exhibition. .School, factory, and friendly societies’ excursion tickets numbered 113,080, an increase of 17,416. The number of school, factory and friendly societies’ excursions run during the year in the principal districts was: —Auckland 27, Wanganui 60, Wellington-N-apier 42, Christchurch 141, Dunedin 95, Invercargill 39. The coaching and goods traffic show large increases under each of the respective heads that the traffic is grouped, sheep, wool and grain excepted. In coaching tho increases have been : parcels 7,636, horses 653, carriages 389, dogs 5,655, and in live stock and, goods traffic: cattle 17,720 head, pigs 10,765; chaff, lime etc., 1,451 tons; firewood. 918 tons; timber 49,057 tons; merchandise 4.5,248 tons; minerals 184,467 tons. The decrease in tho wool traffic is 7,568 tons; grain 31,138 tons, -and sheep 67,901 head, and the net increase in the gross tonnage was 246,000 tons. The decrease in sheep traffic is due entirely to t-lie heavy movement of sheep that took place during the previous year, owing to drought, and although, therefore, tho sheep traffic for the year under review compared unfavorably with that for 1907, it is never-tlie-lees greater by some 700,000 head than tho traffic of any other year, when normal conditions have prevailed. The average number of men employed during the year was 12,338 against 10,858 tho previous year, an increase of 1,480. Tho amounts charged to duplication of lines during the year wore : —Wcllington-Hutt duplication works £38,830; New Hutt road and purchaso of land for same, £7,391; Aucklaiid-Penroso duplication works £54,302; Addington-Rolleston duplication works £11,031; Dunedin-Mos-giel duplication and deviation of line £74,720, In his concluding remarks and forecast, the Minister explains that the increased cost of maintenance is very largely due to the policy of betterment that has been followed during the past lew years, under which the pioneer main lines of the Dominion, originally designed and equipped for dealing, with a small business by - trains run at low speeds, have becTi gradually converted into standard lines, capable of meeting the requirements of the ever expanding traffic, and the demands that have arisen for fast passengqr services between the important business centres of the Dominion. The lines are in excellent condition and. in view of tho important functions they perform in tho development of settlement and tlio commerce of the Dominion, it is essential that the present high standard bo maintained. The Minister states that in view of tho large economies that can bo effected in the cost* of operating the railways of the Dominion if the gradients were flattened and the alignment improved, thus enabling increased loads t 0 be hauled, 'arrangements are to bo made to obtain the data necessary to formulate a scheme for dealing with the matter in a practical and comprehensive manner. It is proposed to . extend the issue of fifty-trip family, and fifty-trip single commutation tickets, to a distance up to 20 miles, and to-issue workers’ weekly tickets under the Ufjaial conditions to stations between -Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt, and to extend the Wellington suburban area to the Upper Hutt. It is also purposed, during the next summer session, to make an experimental issue of week-end tickets, to and from the-various weekend resorts served:by the railway and, in the event of the result being satisfactory, to further extend the issue as circumstances warrant. Air. HallJoncs estimates the revenue for the year ending the 31st March, 1909 at £2,83-4.000, and the expenditure at £2,020,000.

EDUCATION BOARD ELECTION. TN accordance witli Section 17 of JL “Tlio Education Act, 1904,” and its amendments, it as hereby notified that the number of duly nominated candidates being equal to tlio number of persons to be elected the following are declared duly elected members of the Education Board of tho District of Hawke’s Bay: To represent tho North Ward— MORGAN, WILLIAM To represent tho Middle Ward— RUSSELL, WILLIAM RUSSELL It is further notified that on MONDAY, 27th JULY, 1908, an Election will he held to fill one vacancy on the Education Board of the District of Hawke’s Bay, one member being required to represent tho South Ward. The following are tlio full names of the duly nominated candidates: ECOLES, JOHN CHARLES EIUCKSEN, OLE The poll will, close at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, of the day of the Election. Voting papers can bo obtained from the Chairman of each qualified School Committee of the South Ward, and must he either delivered to the Returning Officer at tlio Board’s office not later than the above-men-tioned time, or posted to the Returning Officer in a closed envelope, marked outside “Voting Paper,” and bearing the post mark of a day not being later than- the day of the election, and reaching the Returning Officer before tlio close of the 10th day of August, 1908. _ , Dated -at Napier this 7tlx day of July, 1908. ' G. CRAWSHAW, • Returning Officer.