D.—l

XII

Railways Improvement Authorization Act, 1914. The expenditure under the Railways Improvement Authorization Act, 1914, amounted to £2,007,617, including the sum of £97,791, proportion of the cost of raising the loan. The works included in this expenditure were new stations and yards, goods-sheds, and terminal facilities at Auckland and Wellington ; duplication, Horotiu-Frankton; new lines, Hutt Valley and AucklandWestfield ; new locomotive-depots at Auckland and Greymouth ; deviations between Ravensbourne and Burke's, at Palmerston North, and Tawa Flat; locomotive workshops and equipment; bridge-strengthening ; electrification of railway between Lyttelton and Christchurch, including electric locomotives ; interlocking, automatic and power signalling, telegraph and telephones, safety appliances, and electric lighting. HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT. The present policy of electric-supply development may be considered as having been actively commenced when work was first started at Lake Coleridge in 1910 on the first of the main Government generating-stations. That station came into operation about the end of 1914, so that the year just completed is the fourteenth year during which Government supply has been in operation. During the past year progress has been well maintained. The annual expenditure was £943,807, increasing the total capital spent on hydro-electric works from £7,523,928 to £8,467,735. A large portion of this —about £2,000,000— is represented by works, mainly at Arapuni, which had not at the end of the year come into operation, but which will gradually come in during the present year.

HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT Graph showing TOTAL CAPITAL INVESTED