The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1501, 2 December 1874, Page 2

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

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1874.

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As with the progress of public works the Government will soon be the great carrying company of the Colony, it will be interesting to* know in what relations legally it will stand towards its customers, the public. In tbe course of nature, and with the best of conduct, it is possible that accidents may some time or another occur on our railways, and men will lose their arms and legs and women will lose their husbands. If such occurred through tbe negligence of a private company the proprietors would of course be responsible for damages, and the widow would be awarded as much pecuniary solace as a jury of practical men would deem sufficient, and the maimed man would have his legs and arms assessed, and the company must pay the cost. But how will it be as the law now stands, should maiming or death occur through lack of diligence on the Government 1 railways. What will the widow, what will tbe orphan, what will the mangled victim of reckless driving or negligence receive ? Nothing. Ah actionfordamagescannotbe brought against the Government. There is no p ecu. niary responsibility whatever attaching to the Government or its officers, and that which is regarded as the great safeguard of the public against the greed and tbe recklessness of private railway companies and steamboat proprietors, is, in tbe case of our great railway monopoly, entirely removed. By law, no action whatever can be brought against the Government, unless — strange condition — the Government itself is a consenting party, and first grants permission. We know how such a bar to action would operate as between private litigants, and we may feel quite confident that if a collision or other casualty incident to railway travelling occur, and some scores of people are killed or wounded the Governor will not voluntarily open the door for lawyers and legal processes. The state of things now existent in New Zealand has been also existent in the sister colonies, and is the remnant of a system in which tbe welfare of the people was of leas account than the unruffled comfort of the Governing circle. In some of the colonies, to ou r knowledge, and in others we believe, this most inequitable rule has been abolished ; and if New Zealand, which, in the Ballot > Imprisonment for Debt Abolition, Marriage with Deceased Wife's Sister, and other sociopolitical reforms, hangs in the rear of colonies is to be regarded as deserving the position to which she aspires, the sooner this barbarous and tyranical law is altered the better for her fame. If the Government is to have the monopoly of our inland carriage, —and the extension of our railway system pjnoqs m 9ins ualN —sl lW o^issooon ft— accept the responsibilities attaching to all other carrying companies. And if through the negligence of its servants damage is done to a citizen, it should not be necessary for

lim or his widow or his orphan to come miug like a helpless suppliant, pleading that ;he Governor will permit an appeal to tho egal courts of the colony for redress. "][_ o existing condition of affairs r s0 an omalou* and so un&i: that we ', AUOy j w are aware of lkX) existence ; and we trust that public attention being directed to it will lead to the removal of what is nothing less than a disgrace to the administration of our laws.