RAILWAY TRAFFIC

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 502, 8 April 1933, Page 4

RAILWAY TRAFFIC

ROTORUA RETURNS MORE JOUiRNEYS COMPLETED BUT DECREASE IN REYENUE OUTWARD GOODS HEAYIER Returns of railway pissenger and jgoods traffic handled at Rotorua during the twelve months fi;om April 1 193-2 to March 31, 1933 disclose that' revenue has shown (a. fairly general deerease although ih most Classes of : traffic the number of p&ssengers and goods handled has heen well maintained ahd in miahy cases an increase . reCorded. The actual number of passengers handled during the pfiriod is not disclosed by the returns prepared at the Rotorua station, but a large increase _ on the previous year's figures is showii in the number of journeys completed, the figures at March 31, 1933 being 22,464 as against 17,542 for the previous year, an iiicrea.se of 4922. The revenue in this class however, shows a deerease, accounted for hy the. fact that with a smaller public spending power shorter journeys have been made. Returns of outward goods traffic show a fairly igener'al increase, th'e extent of these increases being cattle 518, sheep 5755 and timber 174 tons. Posts carried from the station decreased to a large extent while outward parcel returns showed a large increase owing mainly to the heavy traffic of cream to the Waikato Dairy Company factories. Private Competition While the outward returns cah be ■ considered as fairly satisfa'ctory, ufider the existing conditions of -trade inward traffic was not as encouraging and here the full effect of competition with road transport services and careful and restricted purchasing by businessmen is well illustrated. The competition of other transport services in handling; such articles as manures and grocery lines seriously affeeted the revenue in inward ordinary goods and here a heavy deerease oceurred in comparison with' previous years. The necessity for businessmen to purchase stores in smaller quaiitities also had a detrimental effect in that such smaller quantities could be more easily handled by private services than the larger consignments of former years. While the number of sheep received into the station was 2971 greater than the previous year, cattle returns declined by 835. Last year the returns in this class were bolstered up hy large importations of cattle for native farms hut now that the farms have been stocked traffic in this section has naturally dropped.