An Obstructive Department.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15916, 1 June 1917, Page 6

An Obstructive Department.

Tho answer of tho Minister of Railways 'to the deputation that waited upon him i yesterday to show why an evening train j should bo run regularly between | Christchurch and Lvttelton, is exceedingly unsatisfactory. The Minister I appears to havo contented himself with telling tho deputation some general facts which everybody knows and understands, and offering occasional evening trains under conditions which will improve tho present situation by very little. Tho Department will run evening trains only for the carriage of waterside and other workers on ships; theso workers will be carried only for the. working of transports or ships containing Government cargo or coal; and tho trains will in any case bo run only on an order from the Minister of Munitions. This arrangement, of course, will in only a small measure repair tho damage to efficiency resulting from a railway service that treats as of no account the general necessity for hand-ling-all shipping with the utmost despatch, and wo hope that a further attempt will bo made to induce Mr Herries to understand that he should tak"> the matter out of the hands of tho obstinate and obstructive officials of his Department. Everyone knows why the Department has had to curtail tho train services, and everyone approves of the policy of curtailment. But it is ridiculous to pretend that the hamperinc of shipping operations at Lyttelton for tho sake of setting free for military service a possible half-dozen of railway employees is a duty imposed .upon tho Government by the requirements of national efficiency. The Railway Department has persuaded tho Minister that this monstrous absurdity is good policy, and apparently the Department's opinion is considered more important than the opinion of the Efficiency Board, ' who. in tho Dorsons of it* "Wxq_ J<W-

guson and Mr Frostick. supported tho deputation's request. Tho fact that a grudging concossion, surrounded by hampering conditions, has been made, proves that even Lhc Department cannot so far fly in tho faco of common-sense as to say that the timo-table drawn up cannot in any circumstances be departed from. And that concession destroys the Department's case. No doubt Mr Hcrries was told by his ofßcials that unless the concession made were surrounded by obstructive conditions, and tho trains made inaccessible to any but -waterside workers, there would be loul demands from other parts for a restoration of the old suburban service. We can hardly think of a poorer reason for his attitude. Surely -wo should be able to expect that a Minister will not be deterred from granting a just demand by his fear of exposing himself to the' duty of resisting unjust ones. Tho particular service requested by the deputation is a necessary one, and if the machinery which would meet the shipping and trade requirements could profitably do other business at the same time it would bo folly to exclude that business just for tho sake of excluding it. If another part of tho country demanded a night suburban scrvice, and could sho>v no such fundamental necessity for it as can be shewn in our own case, surely the Minister could say "No," and safely rest his ca-so on the reasonableness of his negative.

Wo aro not entirely convinced that tlio -Department's attitude, which the Minister apparently feci* himself bound to support, is the result purely of obstinacy and stupidity. It is not inconceivable that there is behind it the ill-humour of ruffled officialdom. Departments forced by public opinion, o? by Ministerial conscientiousness, to mako a change in their habits and their arrangements, have before now been known to apply the new orders in such a way as, by creating needless ar.noyance, to persuade the Government and the public to revert to the old conditions. The Railway Department has not a reputation, wo think, for bciug pleasantly freo from the characteristic weaknesses of Government Departments. At any rate, tho attitude it has recommended to the Minister is exactly the attitude of a Department which, jolted out of its routine, communed with itself something after this fashion: "Very -well, "we cannot any longer resist this de'•'turbance of our routine. You shall '' have your rcduced services, and wo

" may Jefc you have somo of our " men. But we shall mako you sorry " that you interfered with us. Wo "shall make tho now arrange aicntsas " inconvenient as wo can." As wo have said, wo hope that tho Minister's reply will not be accapted as final, and that another application will bo made to him to consider tho points we have hero discussed.