The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY. MAY 27, 1914. THE EXPRESS DISASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 125, 27 May 1914, Page 4

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

WEDNESDAY. MAY 27, 1914. THE EXPRESS DISASTER.

For th* cause that lack* assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance. And the good that we eon do.

The cauen, of the disaster this morning to the inward .bound .-xprese will form the subject no doubt ~f a search-

:/lff inquiry, ajjd therefore we do not propose to <iieciu* this phase of the question. .With the tablet system in foreo on our Now Zealand railway* srn-.h a collusion ac that Ibrtwoen the exprests and the goods train in Llinoreticallv impoaeiblfi. There have been several orcaßiom* when this B a,mc lexnriwa has ■been diekl up, eojne'timea for uver an hour, while, a sleepy official has been roused out to hand ovrvr the tablet which had to be delivered farther down the lin-e t>efore a train bound in the opposite direction orruld .start on a eec tion to which tiro abrtenoe of the tablet acted as an effective lock. The head-on collision, except in the. case of shunting in a station, is, as we have BaiU, regarded as with thiij ejßtem. Partly no doiilit because of the adoption of the tablet, partly because of the intelligem'n aud application to duty of the men who etaff our national railways, and possiuly, too, in a mvasure on acconnt of the 6low epeed

ol our trams, accidemts .if a nature have boon few and fa-r between. In thi* respect the record of the Department, whon compared, rfor instance, to that, of our near neighbours, Victoria ami New South Wales, is an eaviable one. Serious in Ureal Britain, especially during the pact twelve .months, have brought 'very -much to the front the subject of methods of mini-mui-injr ihc. rrskts of railway travelling. Some of thy moro reci-nt -accidents. notably i-hat at wh-en sixteen people lost their lives, were attended by the most heart-rending circumbianco*. Tlrc train in thie ea*so caught on frre. ajid many of the unfortunates pinned in the wrecked carriajres wore incinerated. As an outcome, of isoaro" of TYad-e. inquiries, and thf dir;----i liwsion that hae followed, it would seem probable t-hat the adoption of all etee] cars and o.leclrio lighting will become more gnmral. The latter, which formerly involved about oi<rht horse-power per co;i;'h ami a cost of £45 annually, can. il. ic l assorted, now \>o main"tain*xi for £7 per annum and driven by 1.3 horee-'powcr. Thie would make it a practicable form of for all trains. The risk of lire whr-rc jjae lighting is omployed ic. in fho case of accident, enonmously cjre*to.r llian where cl-ectricity m the illuminant. The allstoel car. while il is jiot at all jrenexal

in Kngand. is now fjuitc common on tire railway syetcme of thn U*nit<Hi states. We take occasion to mention these mattens at this juncture -bncausr H. is at such a time that, public albenthm io foc.ussed on the question. With th<> speeding up of our trains Ihe risk of accide.Tit vriill inevitably increase, and in nerw construction of rolling rtock for the railways thy Depa.rt.ment should be urged to atkipt the. latest nrethodß, and include the most modern applian<-«= to reduce the dunger to life and limb from euch accidents as that tiie morning. There is Just one. more point in connection with this morning's unfortunate disaster that wants, emphasising now. Quite, apart from any action that the Department may see fit to take, the Government s.hould order a full public inquiry. On the occasion of the collision at New Lynn, curiously enough, twelve months ago to-morrow, a Departmental inquiry was at once held, but only after some considerable agitation and public pressure was a Parliamentary investigation conceded. In Great Britain the Board of Trade publicly fully investigates such accidents. There is absolutely no reason why the same course should not be adopted here, and in the absence of a responsible body analogous to the British Board of Trade, Cabinet should authorise, a. Magisterial inquiry. The lessons to be. learned from the disaster this morning are. no doubt, primarily of value to those responsible for running onr trains, but they are by no means devoid of significance or value to the general public, and we hope that there will he immediate recognition of 1 this fact by the Department,