The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATION The Evening News, Morning News. and Echo. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1893.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 241, 11 October 1893, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATION The Evening News, Morning News. and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1893.

fffir£fli9-.«auM tiat lacks osiußta.oa, For the wronr that nood3 resistance, For tSa futuro in tho dutanos, A__;__ good that ■_<> cau do.

Those deluded persons who believe that we have only to place our railway management outside the pale of Parliamentary criticism and control in order to secure efficiency and prevent abuses, will find some returns which have lately been laid before the Vie"

torian Legislature very instructive reading. Victoria worked the system of management by a non-political Board of Commissioners under the mos 1 favourable circumstances. The Chair- ' man, Mr Speight, is a man of acknowi ledged ability, who held a first-class position among the leading railway experts of Great Britain. He was engaged at a salary of ,£4,000 a year, and in conjunction with his two fellow Commissioners, was placed in a position which should have secured rfaim against pressure of any sort, political or otherwise. Whether the Commissioners were so or not may be pretty well estimated frc_- these returns, which disclose the extraordinary manner in which the free pass system was abused during their reign. The returns show that in a single year, 1891, no fewer than 55,000 persons travelled over the Victorian lines without paying, of whom 10,000 consisted of persons outside the department. The Free Pass Board, which investigated this matter, in its report, describes the system of issuing passes to persons outside the department as "very lax," especially in the case of distinguished visitors. "The elastic term," to quote the report, " 'distinguished'visitors has been stretched to cover numbers of persons who have had little or no claim to travel at the expense of the taxpayer. In many instances the visitors were ' influential' rather than 'distinguished.' It was never intended that visitors travelling through the colony for pleasure and profit should be accorded privileges which are not enjoyed by industrious citizens, who are' the real proprietors cf the railways."

"A special return," remarks the "Melbourne Age," "has been comoiled of passes granted to persons who were members of the late and

present Commissioners' households.) This was deemed necessary owing to the fact that a certain number of passes were allowed by the Government to each Commissioner per annum, and there was reason to believe that the; issues had been in excess of the allotment. The return has been found by test to be incorrect, erring on tbe side of understatement. From it, however, it appears that in the eight years, from 1884 to 1892 inclusive, 221 passes were issued to Mr Speight's household and 133 t0 Mr Ford's. The families of Commissioners Agg and Greene, during the same years, had 103 passes, in the proportion of 13 to Commissioner Agg and 90 to Commissioner Greene. From the details which are published elsewhere, however, it will be noticed that such headings appear as' Greene, Mrs and three children;' 'Commissioners Speight and Greene's families;' 'Family of R. Speight, Chairman;' ' Ford, Mrs, and three daughters,' These groups are all counted, as a rule, as one pass in the return; but if each member of the family were counted it would probably be found that, instead of providing for 221 passes for his family, Mr Speight had nearer 400; whilst Mr Ford's and Mr Greene's passes would approximate to 250 and 200 each. This would necessarily alter the averages most materially. As far as the train mileage accomplished on these passes is concerned, a result could only be obtained by algehra, as many of them were from station to station for a month, and some for longer periods. 'Station to station' means that one may live on the railways and travel north, south, east and west in luxurious ease from morning until night, regarding the paying public and their restricted touring with cynical contempt, and reading the weekly reports of the deficiency in the railway finances in the same spirit as one would peruse the comic papers.

" During the year and a-half of the present Commissioners' reign, Mr Francis's family have had 4 passes, Mr Kibble's sister 3, Mr Murray's family 3, and Mr Rennick's son 1, the averages being too small altogether for comparison with the passes issued to their families by the old Commissioners. It should be noted that these figures do not include any privilege to the Commissioners or exCommissioners themselves, as each ot those family men have gold passes, which are a charm to convey themselves free everywhere within Victoria's boundaries for ever aud a day."

An analysis of the passes issued to the Chairman's family yields the following results:—" R. Speight, jun.," n ; '•R. Speight, jun., and Mr Milner," i; "Mr Speight, jun.," 17; "Howard Speight," 12; "Howard Speight and Another," 1; "J.Speight," 12; "T. Speight," 12; "Messrs Speight," 1; " Chairman's Son and Friend," 1; "Speight, Mr or Miss," 1; "The Misses Speight," 65 \ " Miss Speight," 22; "Miss 11. Speight," 1; "Miss M. Speight," 1; "Miss A. Speight," 2; "Miss S. Speight," 1; "Miss Speight and Friend," 1; " Miss Speight and Another," 1; " Miss Speight and Miss Freeman," 1; " Chairman's Daughter," 7 ; "Miss Speight and Mr Milner," 1; " Family of R. Speight, Chairman," 39 ; " Commissioners Speight and Greene's Families," 1 ; " Chairman's Nephew," 4; " Relative of Mr Speight," 1; " Chairman's Friend," 1 ; " Member of Chairman's Household," 1; " Chairman's Son-in-law," station to station, three weeks, 1 j " Ex-chairman's Family," 1. Total, 221.

Now, startling as these disclosures may appear when boldly stated in print, they are only what might reasonably be expected from such a system as the one under which the Commissioners derive their official existence. If Parliament divests itself completely of its proper functions as the rigid subervisor of public expenditure and hands over public property lo any set of men—no matter how able or how good —to work their own sweet will with, it is inevitable that these men will, sooner or later, use their power to the advantage of themselves and their friends. That is only human nature, and Railway Commissioners are dominated by it like other mortals. We do not get rid of patronage under such a system, we merely change the personality of _ the individuals who exercise it. In stifling Parliamentary criticism, we are simply acting as the ostrich does when it buries its head in the sand and conceives that it has rendered itseif secure against its enemies.

Of course political patronage is no better, and may be even worse, because subject perhaps lo less solicitation and pressure, than patronage by Commissioners. It has, however, the advantage of criticism by a vigorous Parliamentary Opposition. It by no means follows either that political influence is got rid of under Commissioners' management. The disclosures in Victoria, on the contrary, shew exactly the reverse. The Railway Commissioners may exercise very considerable influence on the side of the party tbey favour, and who give them support in Parliament. Mr Speight, ex-Chairman of the Victorian Commissioners, complains very bitterly of the political pressure constantly exercised by Ministers upon him, and the investigation of this free pass system has proved that the Premier of the day played no unimportant part in it.

The proposal made by Mr Seddon last session embodied the happiest Conceivable compromise between the two systems, for it secured all the advantages that may be derived from the non-political administration of experts, with full responsibility to Parliament. The Legislative Council, by rejecting it, have inflicted upon the colony a very grievous wrong.