SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1938, Page 4

SOUTH ISLAND RAILWAY

EARNINGS FOR PAST YEAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 9. Of the New Zealand total of £7,591,825 earned by the railway services during the financial year, the South Island contributed nearly £3,000,000, the Christchurch district itself contributing largely to the general increase. This was revealed today in a statement made by the Minister of Railways, the Hon D. G. Sullivan, about the financial position of the South Island railways. “As already announced, the gross revenue for the year ended March 31', 1938, amounted to £8,634,186, which is the highest revenue earned in any one year in the history of the railways,” Mr Sullivan said. “Excluding revenue from subsidiary services and miscellaneous revenue items, the purely railway operating earnings amounted to £7,591,825, an increase of £688,221 over that for the preceding year. Of this amount £2,971,501 was earned in the South Island, an increase of £203,066 over the operating revenue for the previous year. In the Christchurch district the operating revenue amotinted to £1,276,219, an increas of £89,093 (7.5 per cent) over that for the previous year.

“Both passenger and goods revenue showed increase and 2,107,208 sheep and pigs were carried, an increase of 232,000. Shipping traffic ex Lyttelton increased by 8000 tons, and Otira tunnel traffic by 43,697 tons.”