41. An Empire Fair was held on May 24th and lasted until May 27th. A special train was run from Canton bringing important Chinese Officials for the official luncheon, and the Railway exhibited an Express Locomotive and a 65-ton break-down crane. These exhibits were flood-lighted at night and presented a pleasing spectacle.
42. The two European Traffic Inspectors were retired during the year, and replaced by one new appointment and the promotion of a Chinese station master. The total collections of excess fares amounted to $11,537.75.
GOODS TRAFFIC.
43. The revenue from through goods traffic, whilst an improvement over the previous year, was still far from satisfactory, and the lack of uniformity in the Customs duty chargeable at Kowloon when compared with Canton was one very important factor. Traffic which had every promise of becoming regular suddenly disappeared and was found to have gone by steamer as the duty charges were lighter.
Strenuous efforts were made to encourage through goods traffic, and some progress was noticeable, whilst the running of a Fast Goods train from Canton commencing in September stimulated enquiries.
The following figures indicate the unbalanced flow of goods traffic:
1933 1932 Through Goods (Up) $36,410.40 Through Goods (Down) $11,379.17 Total Through and Joint Sectional Goods (Up) $83,681.95 $73,980.26 Total Through and Joint Sectional Goods (Down) $29,198.97 $16,234.8144. Whilst there was a falling off of $676.30 in the Local receipts compared with the previous year, this was entirely attributable to further inroads into the revenue by road motor competition, but partially to poor trading.