SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what was the railway revenue 1078 of the Transvaal for the years 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907, respectively.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe financial returns of the Inter Colonial Council do not show Transvaal railway revenues separately. The total nett receipts of the Central South African Railways were: 1903–4, £1,617,000; 1904–5, £1,760,000; 1905–6, £914,000; 1906–7, £551,000. The figure given for 1906–7 is approximate, and in comparing that year and 1905–6 with previous years, allowance must be made for the fact that by a change in book-keeping expenditure, amounting to rather more than £700,000, being interest and sinking fund on that portion of the Guaranteed Loan of £35,000,000, which was devoted to distinctively railway services, was taken into account as a railway liability before the figure for nett receipts was arrived at.