Watched Service Grow.

He had seen the railway service grow from a small thing to a big one. When he had joined in 1891 the total revenue was a little over £1,000,000, and the annual expenditure £706,000. Last year the revenue was £8,000,000 and the expenditure £7,000,000. Then there were 1869 miles of track; now there were 3399 miles. The expenditure on maintenance in 1891–92 was £245,000; in 1930 it was £1,800,000. In the early ‘nineties things were bad, and they had to get down to bedrock and use scraps of metal and odds and ends of paint. The present times were similar, but the railways would win out.

It was true that the standard of track maintenance in New Zealand was very high, but that was largely due to the intelligence and education possessed by the men. He had seen the railway bridge problems transferred from the timber to the steel age. New Zealand had now fifty-four miles of bridges of all descriptions, and a good deal of solid work had been necessary in connection with the unavoidable reconstruction programme being carried out. The railways, with the completion of the Tawa Flat job, would have over thirty miles of tunnels. He would feel severing his connection with the department.

Presenting Mr. Widdop with a lamp stand and shade and a travelling rug on behalf of the staff, Mr. Sterling wished Mr. and Mrs. Widdop many happy years of retirement.

Thanking them, Mr. Widdop said that he looked on Mrs. Widdop as a railwayman as well, as she was a daughter of Mr. W. M. Hannay, one of the early Railway Commissioners.