D.—2.

XLVI

Flood-lighting has been installed in the following station yards : Palmerston North ; Auckland (additional). One hundred and thirteen houses have been equipped with electric lighting this year. In connection with electrical equipment, the following is the position : Number of houses electrically lighted, 2,174 ; number of stations electrically lighted, 278 ; number of substations, 10 ; total capacity of substations, 9,745 kv.a. ; number of station-yards flood-lighted, 13. A considerable amount of investigation work has been carried out in connection with the railway electrification, and tentative schemes have been prepared. Expenditure. —The capital expenditure for the year is as follows : Signals and interlocking, block-working, and level-crossing warning-alarms, £77,530 16s. 4d. ; communications, £6,854 os. 3d.; railway electrification, £28,597 12s. Bd. ; electric power, work, and lighting, £28,754 18s. 3d. Maintenance expenditure for the year was £141,573 12s. lid. Of this amount £21,347 Os. 7d. was renewals charges for writing off the original value of apparatus and systems which were displaced by more modern appliances ; £2,649 12s. 9d. was for betterments, leaving a net total for direct maintenance of £117,576 19s. 7d. STORES. Mr. E. J. Guiness, Comptroller of Stores, reports as follows : — The value of stores, material, and plant (purchased under Railway vote) on hand at the 31st March, 1930, at the various stores depots and sawmills amounted to £1,033,310 15s. 10d., as against £1,065,114 17s. 3d. on 31st March, 1929. The whole of the stock is in good order, has been systematically inspected, and is value for the amount stated.