(Rly. Publicity photos.)

In come masses of figures every day to the Accountancy Branch at the Wellington Railway Station. It takes more than 13,000 square feet of floor space, a staff of 120 (including 60 women and 44 machines) to cope with that invasion. An onlooker may think of the place as a parade ground on which all manner of figures are assembled. They are inspected, drilled, formed into platoons, companies, regiments, divisions, corps. Those figures soon know why they are in the big building, and are quickly moved into the right positions to tell the true story of railway business to the owners, the general public.

Ponder for a few moments on some of the totals for the year ended 31st March: A gross revenue of more than £8,600,000; 13 million train miles; 7 1/2 million tons of goods; 22 1/2 million passengers by rail and 5 1/2 millions by road; £5 1/2 millions in salaries and wages for a staff of more than 22,000; £3 1/2 millions in purchase of stores.

The carrying of II million sheep started a train of thought. If Shakespeare's Macbeth, who murdered sleep and in the dreadful night heard a voice cry “Sleep no more,” had tried counting sheep to induce slumber, a tally of II millions, at the rate of two a second, the round of the clock, would have taken him 58 days, without stopping a moment for a drink or a bite of a pie.

Anybody who is fond of playing with figures, has plenty of scope for the pastime in the huge totals of the railways.