31. An example of how traffic can disappear almost overnight was provided in May of this year, when reports were received that certain salt fish traffic was no longer being dispatched to Chinese Section Stations from Taipo Market in British leased territory. It was discovered that this fish traffic was being smuggled via the fishing village of Sha Tau Kok. The Customs authorities were immediately notified, and within three weeks the traffic had returned.
32. Local passenger receipts shrunk from $495,041.37 to $414,974.74 or 16.17%. The decrease was caused by the unexpected closure of the Shum Chun Casino on September 1st, consequent on the abolition of gambling in Kwang Tung Province. Traffic from this source had been stimulated considerably, just one month prior to the stoppage, by the opening of a large modern dance hall. Visitors to the Casino have contributed considerable revenue to the Railway, and the Chart on page 3 displays in graphical form the rapid growth, the subsequent decline, and the estimated value of this traffic during the past six years. Receipts reached their apex during the twelve-monthly period, May 1933 to April 1934, when they exceeded $400,000, or $1,100 a day.
33. The following figures disclose the marked influence of the Casino on the net revenue of the Railway, and the large drop in receipts which will be sustained now that its activities have ceased:
Year Estimated receipts from Casino Traffic Receipts from Casino Traffic as a Percentage of Net Operating Revenue 1931 $86,000 57.3 1932 $150,000 45.0 1933 $367,000 51.6 1934 $346,000 43.7 1935 $226,000 45.1 1936 $153,000+ 33.6 + Eight months' earnings only.34. Local goods traffic suffered a further decline from $16,286.42 to $13,842.98. Losses are explained, firstly by the more extensive use by New Territory farmers of the country markets, due to their inability to sell their produce at sufficient remunerative rates in the town market at Yau Ma Tei; secondly, by the almost complete cessation of traffic from the Lo Wu Brickworks; and thirdly by the completion of works in the New Territories for which certain building materials were carried in 1935.