RAILWAYS REVENUE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 499, 26 October 1909, Page 2

RAILWAYS REVENUE.

The North Island railway lines are, according to the figures in the current number of the Government Gazette, starting out to show their usual ascendancy over the South Island section. The first part of the financialjyear is usually

favourable to the South Island lines, and the Ministerial journal in Christchurch says • the Dominion, has been making a good deal of this fact lately. At the end of the year, however, the earnings of the North Island lines, as we have shown on numerous occasions, completely eclipse the South. For the four-weekly periods ended September 18th, 1908, and 1909, the figures are as follows :

Period. Period

In--1908 1909 crease Southern lines— £ £ £ Net return 15,706 15,865 159 Northern lines —

Net return 20,326 21,144 818 But the relative earning power is best seen from the following table dealing with the latest four-weekly period:—

Miles Net ■ Net return open return, per mile. ££ s d North 1135 21,144 18 12 6 South 1550 15,865 10 4 8 The net return per mile on the Northern lines is thus almost double, for the period under notice, the net return per mile on the Southern lines. It is satisfactory to note that while the gross revenue from the Southern lines has decreased by over £ 2OOO, the gross expenditure upon them has also decreased by over ,£2OOO. The revenue from the Northern lines for the period under notice has increased by over ,£14,000, or 15 per cent. —due, of course, in great part, to the extra receipts from the Manawatu line. The expenditure on the Northern lines increased by over ,£13,000.