RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1361, 4 October 1886, Page 3

RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

The peculiar and inexplicable sys’em on which the railways of the colony are conducted, has been the cause of much grumbling and much sarcasm at the expense of the Department. But neither grumbling nor sarcasm has had any effect upon Mr Maxwell, the General Manager. The “ Autocrat who rules our Railways,” as he has been called, issues his mandates from his office in Wellington, and from these there is no appeal It will be remembered that Mr Richardson, the Minister fot Public Works, nearly two years ago promised a railway crossing at Cameron street, and gave good grounds for the assumption that another at Moore street would also be granted. But there seems no more likelihood of our getting these crossings now than when the Minister was interviewed on the subject. We had good cause for hoping otherwise, and in fact, throughout the colony hope was felt, when Mr Richardson assumed office that the power of the “ Autocrat ” would be curtailed, and that the railways would be conducted on such a basis that tl e public would receive the benefit, but that confidence proves to have been wholly misplaced, for the expected reforms have never been carried in'o effect. All who have been unfortunate enough to be compelled to travel by one of the ordinary trains on the Canterbury lines will have a lively recollection of the ordeal, and, perhaps, it may be intiresiing to them to learn what Mr Richardson, shortly before he became Minister for Public Woiks, thought regarding this matter. Speaking of the then railway management, for which he took his predecessor in the charge of the portfolio of Public Works severely to task, he referred to the mixed trains running between Christchurch and Timaru in the following terms; —“ Those who have had the misfortune of travelling by these trains will agree with me that it is about the most curious and agonising torture that one could possibly endure 1 in travelling by rail N> w the way in which the running of these trains is managed is not likely to be attended with anything like economy, but absolutely the reverse.” The “curious and agonising torture” still continues, and is likely to continue for an inde'inite period, and the way in which the running of the trains is managed does not appear yet to be attended with anything like economy. The Timani Herald, in an article on this subject some days ago exactly describes the condition of affairs, when it says ; —“ The ‘ mixed ’ Christchurch-Timaru trains crawl along at the same wheel--1 barrow pace, and have continued so to 1 crawl during the two years in which 1 Mr Richardson has been at the head of the Department. One of them , leaves Timaru at half-past seven , o’clock in the morning, and arrives at Christchurch at half past two in the afternoon. The other leaves Christ--1 church at a quarter-past one in the afternoon, and reaches Timaru at ten 1 minutes past eight in the evening. 1 They stop everywhere—even wheie there is nothing to shunt or nothing to drop or take up. They stop to kill [ time. They must stop, or they would i get to the journey’s end in advance of the time-table. The engine-drivers

have a hard life of it in devising means to was'.e the hours. It is a deadly business and a part of that system which Mr Richardson was pledged to reform —a part which he went through as most curious and agonising torture when in opposition, but which he has elung to so pertinaciously since he has been in office.* Mr Richardson is indeed the worrt kind of sinner, for he sins against knowledge, and is condemned out of his own mouth. It will besa ! d, ‘‘Let there be a change then in the Ministry, and we shall have all this remedied.” We are not so sure of that, for the result of changes in the past has been absolutely “ nil,” for Ministries may come and Ministries may go, but the mismanagement seems to go on for ever. Indeed, we have begun to think that it is very doubtful whether the railways of the colony will ever be managed as they ought so long as the present system of control is adhered 10, the lessons of experience pointing to the necessity of a complete and radical remodelling of the whole Department. — Mail.