RAIL MISHAPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 7

RAIL MISHAPS.

N.S.W. PUBLIC ALARM. OPEN INQUIRY WANTED. EI'FECTS OF ECONOMIES. (From Our Own Correspondent.)' SYDNEY, July 25. Since last week the Departmental inquiry into the Bowring railway disaster, at which terrible loss of life was so narrowly averted, has been completed. The committee of investigation has made its report, and that document is now in the Lands of "the Minister in charge." But what Mr. Bruxner will do with it, and more particularly whether he will think it desirable to take the general public into his confidence about it, is entirely a matter for his own discretion. In the meantime, a number of minor accidents, happily unattended with serious consequences, have kept public attention riveted to the railways. It is a curious fact that the numbers of these mishaps vary in different newspapers, for whereas the "Sydney Morning Herald," with its usual cautious moderation, has recorded only eight within a fortnight, last Saturday's "Sun" reported the ninth rail breakage within 13 days, and the "Labour Daily," which always seems able to "go one better" than the "capitalist Press," made out a list of 14 accidents within 14 days. These mishaps were nearly all rail breakages, and it says something for tlio vigilance of the men engaged in watching the permanent way and for efficiency of the service that they were all discovered before any serious harm could result. But the possibility of fatal consequences is quite sufficient to keep the public nerves upon the rack, especially when peoj>le in general arc. carefully prevented from knowing anything about the actual state of affairs.

Department's Attitude. Mr. Hartigan, as Eailway Commissioner, has informed us that, though the Departmental officers are not entirely satisfied with the. condition of the railways, the lines are all for practical purposes safe; and we have also been told that these frequent rail breakages are due to the contraction of the metal at a low temperature, and that they are common all over the world in winter. This may be so, but we want' to know more. A Departmental inquiry seldom, if ever, gets to the bottom of a mystery, and, to paraphrase the "Daily Telegraph," so long as "Damn the public" continues to be the motto of the Eailway Department, so long tho present public agitation and unrest over the condition of tho railways will bo maintained. State of Rolling Stock. In one sense, we know too much already. It cannot be denied that much of the rolling stock is out of repair, that heavy engines are destructive to light rails, and that tho dismissal of about 3000 hands during the past twelve months —to say nothing of the wholesale wages "cuts"—have inevitably militated against the efficiency of tho service'. Mr. E. A. Chapman, secretary of the A.K.U., is not a man who reasonable people care to follow, but when he asserts that there is "something radically wrong" with the system, and that there is "ample justification for a public inquiry," he has public opinion, here solidly behind him.

STATUS REDUCED. NEGLIGENT RAILWAY CHIEFS. (Received 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Tlio Railway Commission has decided to drastically reduce in status the inspecting engineer, tlio resident engineer, and the sub-inspector held to have been guilty of negligence that was responsible for the Bowning accident on July 11.