D.—2,

XXV

General Charges. 1928-29. 1927-28. Increase. £250,221 £248,921 £1,300. Under this heading are included charges for Head Office, Appeal Board, Chief Accountant's Branch, Divisional Superintendents, and superannuation subsidies. The variation does not call for any special comment. TRAFFIC. The following are the leading features of the traffic in the various districts in comparison with the previous year : — Kaihu Section. —Revenue, £7,158 ; increase, £496. Passengers decreased 1,331 ; parcels, &c., increased £81 ; sheep decreased 399 ; timber decreased 57 tons ; all other goods increased 415 toDS. Gisborne Section.—Revenue, £36,601 ; increase, £2,562. Passengers increased 3,891 ; parcels, luggage, &c., increased £166 ; cattle increased 66, and sheep decreased 8,378 ; timber increased 132 tons, and all other goods increased 1,130 tons. North Island Main Line and Branches. —Revenue, £4,421,986 ; increase, £100,785. The principal items of traffic were : Passengers, 4,826,844 ; decrease, 191,636. Season tickets, 480,421 ; increase, 16,483. Parcels, luggage, and mails —revenue £241,009; increase, £1,342. Live-stock, 5,343,070; increase, 229,357. Goods tonnage, 3,155,752 ; increase, 131,728 tons. Timber decreased 27,621 tons ; all other goods increased 159,349 tons. The revenue per mile of railway decreased from £3,289 9s. Id. to £3,202 Bs. 5d., and decreased per train-mile from 13s. 4d. to 13s. 2d. The variations in the individual districts were approximately as follows : — Northern District. —Revenue, £2,125,834; increase, £66,029. Passengers decreased 54,190; season tickets increased 5,633 ; parcels, luggage, &c., increased £4,569 ; cattle increased 91,343, and sheep 126,658 ; timber decreased 18,923 tons, and all other goods increased 86,376 tons. Middle District.—Revenue, £500,082; decrease, £6,991. Passengers decreased 13,246, and season tickets increased 241 ; parcels, luggage, &c., decreased £615 : cattle increased 4,479, and sheep decreased 12,762 ; timber decreased 9,464 tons, and all other goods increased 8,991 tons. Western District. —Revenue, £491,582; increase, £8,204. Passengers decreased 11,023, and season tickets increased 61 ; parcels and luggage decreased £1,556 ; cattle increased 51,460, and sheep decreased 21,575 ; timber increased 1,765 tons, and all other goods increased 27,225 tons. Southern District. —Revenue, £1,304,488; increase, £33,543. Passengers decreased 113,177, but season tickets increased 10,548 ; parcels and luggage decreased £1,056 ; cattle increased 26,218, and sheep decreased 36,464; timber decreased 999 tons, and all other goods increased 36,757 tons. Picton Section. —Revenue, £37,516 ; decrease, £334. Passengers increased 601, and season tickets decreased 291 ; cattle decreased 118, and sheep increased 24,202 ; timber decreased 466 tons, and all other goods 3,629 tons. Nelson Section. —Revenue, £24,753 ; increase, £3,315. Passengers decreased 3,792, and season tickets increased 24 ; cattle increased 568, and sheep 8,829 ; timber increased 10 tons, and all other goods 922 tons. Westport Section. —Revenue, £134,746 ; decrease, £3,011. Passengers decreased 7,660, and season tickets 153 ; parcels, luggage, &c., decreased £74; cattle increased 66, sheep decreased 909 ; timber increased 1,060 tons ; all other goods decreased 16,575 tons. South, Island Main Line and Branches.—Revenue, £2,862,105 ; increase, £77,207. The principal items of traffic were ; Passengers, 3,944,353 ; decrease, 26,353. Season tickets, 173,650; increase, 7,395. Parcels, luggage, and mails —revenue, £128,486 ; decrease, £3,452. Live-stock, 4,634,221 ; increase, 307,023. Timber, 260,969 tons ; increase, 24,410. All other goods, 2,879,950 tons ; increase, 91,841 tons. The revenue per mile of railway increased from £1,721 4s. to £1,759 10s. Id., and increased from 13s. 9d. per train-mile to 14s. The variations of traffic in the individual districts were approximately as follows : — Northern District. —Revenue, £1,271,901 ; increase, £60,562. Passengers decreased 2,214, and season tickets increased 1,138; parcels, luggage, &c., decreased £491 ; cattle increased 707, and sheep decreased 2,365 ; timber increased 31,039 tons, and all other goods increased 67,141 tons. Middle District.-—Revenue, £991,305 ; increase, £126,001. Passengers increased 69,531, and season tickets 6,239 ; parcels, luggage, &c., increased £1,712 ; cattle increased 7,545, and sheep increased 349,159 ; timber increased 16,162 tons ; all other goods increased 145,913 tons. Southern District. —Revenue, £598,899 ; decrease, £109,356. Passengers decreased 93,670, and season tickets increased 18 ; parcels, luggage, &c., decreased £4,673 ; cattle decreased 7,686, and sheep 40,337 ; timber decreased 22,791 tons, and all other goods decreased 121,213 tons. The general decrease in the Southern (or Invercargill) District was caused through the reallocation of districts. Balclutha and Catlins River Branch figures, which were formerly included in the Southern District, are included in the Middle (or Dunedin) District. Lake Wakatipu Steamer. —Revenue, £10,941 ; increase £1,056. Passengers increased 2,116 ; sheep decreased 2,717 ; timber increased 295 tons ; all other goods increased 599 tons. TRANSPORTATION. The total revenue train-miieage was 11,113,482 miles, as compared with 10,838,594 miles for the previous year, an increase of 274,888 miles. Of the total train-mileage 4,833,991 were passenger-miles and 6,279,491 were goods-miles, an increase of 189,086 and 85,802 respectively over the figures for the previous year. This additional mileage is due principally to the train services provided on the new lines taken over during the past year, and also to additional services run to cope with heavy seasonal traffic.

iy—D. 2.