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10. Receptacles in transit, including those to and from British and Foreign Men-of-War, numbered 163,888 as against 146,126 in 1936 - an increase of 17,762.
11. Registered Articles and Parcels. - The number of registered articles handled amounted to 886,262 as compared with 660,866 in 1936 - an increase of 225,396.
12. The figures for insured letters were 12,268 and 12,540 respectively, a decrease of 272.
13. Parcels, ordinary and insured, which were dealt with reached a total of 188,626 as against 164,482 in 1936 - an increase of 24,144.
14. The Railway may be said to have experienced the most eventful year in its history. Abnormal occurrences, in chronological order, were a disastrous fire on the up through fast train in January resulting in the death of 84 persons; a major derailment of the same train twelve days later; record passenger traffic during the Ching Ming festival in April and the Coronation celebrations in May; linking-up of the Canton-Hankow and the Canton-Kowloon Railways in August; the subsequent introduction of a working agreement for through goods traffic between Kowloon and Hankow; use of all available space on the Railway Reclamation at Kowloon for storing cargo originally destined for Shanghai but diverted to Hong Kong owing to Sino-Japanese hostilities; intensive damage to track and the total suspension of traffic for 10 days caused by a record typhoon in September; and lastly, the intensive bombing of the Chinese Section of the line from October to December which caused dislocation of traffic, damage to rolling stock and the ultimate cancellation of the through morning and mid-day passenger trains.
15. Receipts and net operating revenue were $1,331,468.73 and $436,935.30 respectively, as against $1,245,469.16 and $454,733.00 the previous year. Since revenue was reduced by $198,000 due to the loss of both Shum Chun Casino traffic and foreign express train haulage, and expenditure was increased by more than $118,000 through the two causes mentioned in the following paragraph, the results can be considered as being very satisfactory.
16. Operating expenditure was $894,533.43 compared with $790,736.16 in 1936. The increase is due to heavy repair work necessitated by the disastrous typhoon, which cost the Railway $80,883.12, and also to the higher price of coal. The operating ratio declined from 63.49% to 67.18% due to these causes.
17. The track on both sections was well maintained, although continued bombing caused serious delays to traffic for the last 2 months of the year.