STREET TRAVELLING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 104, 20 May 1901, Page 4

STREET TRAVELLING.

Tramways have come so generally into' vise during recent yen rs that very few persons can possess any oileOuate idea oi' their magnitude. Hut judging from i the latest returns issued by the Board of Trade, the authorised capital' of ' companies in the United Kingdom ' amounts to more than £31,000,000, of ; which about two-thirds had been expended by the middle of last year. I The larg ist outlay, of course, was | necessitated by the construction of i lines, which cost nearly «£ 18,000 ; but; Jin addition, £996,000 was spent on ! horses, £314,000 on locomotive engines, and a million and a'-q iarter on cars, j Witn respect to the length of rails available for traffic, it may be added Ithat 1177 miles had been completed—(double and single line services being [ about equal in extent. Turning to the results achieved, the figures deal only with the year ended June HO last. 1 From these it appeal's that the gross receipts weie only a little short of five and a-half million pounds, of which the 1 cost of working absorbed £4,075,000, ,or a profit of £1,370.000. There were ' more than a thousand million pasj sengevs carried during the year, and jthe distance, traversed during the j twelve months by the cars was 108, (000,000 miles When it is added that only 6,410 cars were employed in this wore, and that 37,400 horses and 558 engines were required to supply the motive power, a fairly good idea may be formed as to the frequency with which the various routes were traversed.