P.—2

XVII

The variations of traffic in the different districts were approximately as follows:— Auckland District. —Revenue, £760.342 : increase, £89,557. Passengers increased by 341,647. The principal increases were at Auckland (69,000), Avondale (37.000), Henderson (33.000), and Taumarunui (32,000). Season tickets increased by over 8,000. Parcels increased by nearly 33,000, the largest increase being at Auckland. Live-stock traffic shows a slight falling-off. Timber increased by 12,000,000 ft,, grain 13,000 tons, merchandise 11,400 tons, and minerals 23,000 tons. The increase of grain and merchandise tonnage was mainly at Auckland and Onehunga. The increase of minerals was in local coal and road-metal. Wanganui District. —Revenue, £409,551 ; increase, £28,078. Passengers show an increase of 44,000, principally at the larger stations. Parcels increased by nearly 8,000, distributed generally throughout the district. In live-stock there was a considerable increase in cattle, but a very large decrease (118,000) in sheep. There were increases in firewood, timber (9.000.000 ft.), grain, and merchandise, in wool and minerals. There was an increase of 1,377 tons in butter and cheese shipped at New Plymouth and Patea. Wellington District.— Revenue, £707,717 ; increase. £17.732. Passengers show an increase of 82,000. Season tickets show an increase of 4.012. Parcels increased nearly 8,000. There was a shrinkage of 160,000 in the sheep traffic. Goods traffic also declined. Timber decreased by 3,000,000 ft., and merchandise by 8,000 tons. The decrease in timber is due to failure of local supplies, and in merchandise to the falling-off in frozen-meat traffic. Picton Section. Revenue, £29,126 ; increase, £2,106. Increases occurred in passengers, parcels, Arc. timber, merchandise, and minerals, but there was a considerable decrease in sheep. Nelson Section. Revenue, £25,026 ; increase, £184. There, were slight increases in merchandise and minerals, but almost all other classes of traffic declined. Westport Section. Revenue, tl 18.053: increase, £1,604. The principal increases are 1,000 tons of firewood, and 10.000 tons of coal. Passengers decreased slightly. Westland Section. Revenue, £151,202 : increase, £8,081. There was a small decrease in passenger traffic. Parcels and live-stock increased slightly. The principal features of the goods traffic are an increase of 29,000 tons of timber, and a decrease of 22,000 terns of minerals. The mineral traffic was affected by the stoppage of work at two of the local mines. South Island Main Line and Branches. Revenue, £1,411,837 ; increase, £28,509. The principal items were : — Number. Number. Passengers .. .. .. .. 4.708,410; increase. 179,048 Season tickets .. .. 81,537: „ 3,023 Parcels, &c. .. .. .. 619,727 „ 22,053 Live-stock .. .. .. .. .. 2,748,086 ; decrease 157,057 Tons. Tons. Goods 2,247,870; „ 33,218 The revenue per mile of railway rose from £1,037 2s. 6d. last year to £1,043 ss. for the year under review, but per train-mile remained the same as last year—viz., Bs. 9Jd. Christchurch District. —Revenue, £614,929 ; decrease, £3,166. There was an increase of 70,000 in passengers, the chief contributing stations being Lyttelton, 13,000, and Christchurch, 19,000. Parcels also increased. Cattle increased slightly but there was a shrinkage of 139,000 in sheep, and 7,000 in pigs. There were also shrinkages of 52,000 tons of grain and 19,000 tons of coal. Dunedin District. —Revenue, £454,654 ; increase, £3,448. There was an increase of 40,000 passengers. Parcels also showed a large increase. Live-stock showed a shrinkage of 2,000 cattle and 168,000 sheep. Chaff, wool, merchandise, and minerals increased, but grain decreased by 13,000 tons.