The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1499, 30 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1874.

For the cause that Ineks usintanot, for the wroutf that iu-uds re-i.ta.nce, For the future in the distance, And tbs Reod that we can de

The newly-appointed Engineer of Constructed Eailways, Mr F. B. Passmor.e, is proceeding to business with a will. Since his arrival in Auckland, he has been clearing ont the railway employes in a manner that is rather surprising. So far as we can see, the procedure appears to be quite arbitrary, and on no other grounds, save that Mr F. B. Passmore wills it. The latest removal, that of Mr Smith, General Manager, will take most people by surprise. This gentleman is " utterly incompetent," says Mr Passmore, who, we understand, took umbrage at the title held by Mr Smith, remarking that there " could not bo two masters" in the Bail way Department. Mr- Passmore appears to be a young man of considerable amount of belief in his . own ability and importance, and takes evidently a wanton pleasure in asserting his authority and inspiring dread. Some of his dismissals have been cruel, and in one case where a large family once occupying a good social position was entirely dependent on the salary received by one of its members as a railway official, no consideration due to feelings of humanity have had the least influence in preventing the dismissal of a young man against whom not the slightest charge could be laid. The peremptory dismissal of Mr Smith is simply animpertinencefor it is the assumption on the part of Mr Passmore that he knows more of railway business than Mr Smith. Mr Smith had been for about twelve years in very responsible positions in connection with railway traffic ; in fact, he had been selected for the appointment solely on account of his experience, having been almost brought up from boyhood amid the hiss 'of locomotives. But it is not merely those whose position in the railway might seem to come between the wind and his nobility that have come into the way of the new broom. There has it appears been a general reduction of wages, and men are now employed on the line at wages not differing from those of common, unskilled labourers. What will be the result of this ? Mr Passmore probably does not know, if he cares. But those who have had much experience of railways know that low wages must result in an inferior class of employes, and that thia must result in disaster. We do not hesitata to ex--1 press bur belief that the reductions now

proceeding are likely to lead to some frightful catastrophe on the line, nor can we see why hands employed on Auckland railways should be remunerated at a rate so far rj^elow that ruling on lines in the South. We understand that Mr. Lloyd, the gentleman succeeding to Mr. Smith, but who must take the humbler title of traffic "lerk, is to receive the munificent salary of £150 per annum. Is this a salary to give to anyone having charge of the monies received from all the stations, and of interests so large as thoSQ which must repose in the k&nds of such an officer ? Wo reflect iv no way on Mr. Lloyd. We believe he is incapable of yielding to temptation ; but any one with experience of life would tell Mr Passmore that salaries fixed on such a scale are the fruitful source of embezzlement. This salary it appears is a reduction of £35 on that hitherto held by Mr Lloyd, and he is pro. vided with an assistant clerk, a full-grown man, thirty years of age, at the exorbitant salary of £50 s year. If retrsnchment and economy are the qualities on which Mr Passmore desires distinction, why does he not begin with his own salary, which is £700 a-year, we believe, instead of cutting down the starvation wages of poor devils, whose wages afford the barest subsistence to their families, and who yet will have in their hands the safety of the limbs and lives of thousands. The increase in the cost of the season tickets, for which we are also indebtst? to Mr Paasinore's orders, has had the result which any one with sense and any knowledge of Auckland could have predicted. Instead of £40 and £50 a month for monthly tickets which was received when these were first started by Messrs Brogden, these now do not exceed four or five pounds per month. One effect, however, has been wrought, in replacing on the roads the coache3 and 'buses and private vehicles which were withdrawn in favour of the railway. Yet perhaps this will be better for the public, for under the hew regime, with underpaid and overworkul employes, we fancy that railway travelling may possibly prove rather a perilous luxury. Since the opening of the lino about 150,000 persons have been carried, and do accident has occurred. The staff organised by the Messrs. Brogden has fulfilled the expectations that were generally formed from t'le experience of that firm. The result of the changes time will tell. But whatever may be the result, the arbitrary manner in which Mr Passmore has been clearing out the employes, who owe their position to the Messrs Brogden, is utterly indefensible, savouring more of the American system of tyrannical clearing out of oflicers. from the highest to the lowe-st in the State on the ascendancy of a political party, than I ho conservatism of official position to which English communities are accustomed.