Canadian National Railways.

The annual report of the Canadian national Railways shows that their net earnings for 1926 totalled 48,225,000 dollars. These figures represent an increase of 44 per cent. Over the figures for 1925.

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“Our Beautiful Island.”

Mr. W. Helms, a recent visitor to New Zealand from Sweden, has written to Mr. E. P. Moir (Acting Secretary to the Railway Board) thanking him for the assistance rendered in making his stay in this country so pleasant. On his return to Copenhagen Mr. Helms gave a private lecture (illustrated with lantern slides) on what he describes as our “beautiful islands.”

Referring to his audience, Mr. Helms continues, “I showed them your interesting North Island with its thermal wonders, and the south Island so full of beauties; Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, Waitomo Caves, Mt. Cook and region, Paradise and Christchurch; the Wanganui River and Mt. Egmont in the North, and Milford sound in the South. Never had they seen such beautiful photos, illustrating such beautiful country; that was the verdict.”

A Good Transport Performance.

The memorable schools demonstrations in connection with the Royal visit owed much of their success to the arrangements made by the Department in the conveyance of many thousands of children from the country districts to the cities. The number of children brought in by rail for the Christchurch demonstration was 6,667. Of this number 1,016 entrained at stations between Lyttelton and Christchurch, 2,825 north of Christchurch, 699 south of Christchurch, 1,419 on the southbridge and Little River lines, and 708 on the Midland line.

The special trains arrived right up to schedule time, the children being all assembled at the show grounds at addington before 10:30 a.m. After the demonstration no less than 15,000 children were conveyed by rail in one hour from the Show Ground to Christchurch. As every child carried a coloured flag and every flag was held out of a carriage window, one of the most effective—although impromptu—decorative displays was seen when each successive trainload pulled out, flanked along both sides of its whole length by the gaily fluttering flags of the children. The country children were returned to their homes in the afternoon in special carriages attached to the ordinary trains. Despite the heavy demands made on the traffic and locomotive branches no hitch of any kind occurred in the transport arrangements.

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Railway “Family” Tickets.

The “family” concession ticket issuable upon the New Zealand Railways, has, so far as we can discover, no counterpart on any other railway or transport system. It represents a genuine effort to reduce the handicap of large families when travelling. Inaugurated under the recently revised Tariff, it has proved a decided boon, in all parts of the Dominion, to those able to take advantage of it.

The “Ashburton guardian” quotes the following striking example of the working of the family concession ticket scheme. “This occurred in Ashburton the other day, when a woman and nine children traveled to Christchurch (53 miles) and back for 34 shillings, the amount of three ordinary fares. Such is the scope of the scheme that the father of the family could have traveled with then without any further expense. Had it been excursion time the tickets would have cost 24 shillings only.”