TOWN EDITION. Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1881. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 122, 22 November 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1881.

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Everyone recognises that great credit ia due to.the New Zealand railway authorities for the economical management by which they have succeeded in practioally reducing the working expenses by 8 per cent, for the whole colony, and. by 16 per cent, on the Wellington line. Retrenchment was absolutely necessary, and it has been carried out firmly, impartially, and in the main judiciously. Such being the case, it is a pity they could not " let well alone," but must needs spoil it by attempting too mnoh. There is a distinct difference between proper economy and pernicious cheeseparing. It is, of coui'3e, a very laudable thing to bring dowri the working expenses, but even this may be carried too far. ' 16 ia possible to reduce the working expenses to ni L— by stopping all traffic If it be conceded that this is undesirable, then the question becomes simply one of degree. The railways have to earn money &b well as to save it, and the saving is of little value if effected at the expense of the earnings. It is, of courae, desirable per se to save a shilling in expenditure, but if that is achieved at the cost of two shillings in revenue the economy- is of a more than doubtful nature. Yet this ia the rock on which the railway authorities seem determined to rush The ail-important thing for a railway to obtain is traffic. To secure this it must -be attracted by moderate charges, reasonable celerity of transit, a convenient arrangement of the timetable, and a reliable permanence on the part of the latter. We do not purpose on thia occasion to deal wth the first- of these points — the tariff— which is in itself a complicated and elaborate question. But we have a good deal to say about the othcra, as applicable to the Wellington-Masterton railway. At .first sight it would appear that they are indisputable. ••» It happens, however, that considerable difference of opinion exists on the snbject between the< travelling public and the* railway authorities. The former say almost unanimously that they were fairly satisfied with tho timetable which had been in force ever since the line was open through to MBsterton on the Ist November, 1880— just over a year— except, perhaps, that the time of transit to Wairarapa was tedious to a needless extent, as proved by the fact that flnring the last Christmas holidays the trains frequently ran in from an hour to an hour an<J a quarter less time, stopping at all stations. The railway authorities, however^ assert tbafc'tbe train service was too liberal, and for reasons of retrenchment ought to be reduced. "Accordingly the oat-trains on five days in the week have been reduced by one to Lower Hntt, and by one from that place to Upper Hutt; the in-traina by one from Upper to Lower Hutt. These are the only .trains .abolished, yet in effecting the abolition every single train in the time-table ~ has been altered iv an irritating and unnecessary way. r Under the old system there were four afternoon trains as far as Lower Hntt suitable to take out 'business men after officehours to their suburban homes, viz., at 3 30, 420, -fi.lo, and 6 10, all very convenient times. Now there are only two -4 30 and 6.5, so that those persons who cannot ldave their offices be'ore 4.30 most wait ¦ about until past 6 before they can go home. ; '1 his is not the way to encourage that suburban settlement of townspeople which is always the most profitable factor in the experience of evsry railway having its terminus in a large busiuess centre. In addition to the obvious icconvenience of this alteration, there is the further drawback that all these changes are unsettling and vexatious. People who are desirous of residing a little way out of town, in order to enjoy a moro salubrious atmosphere and less heavy rates, hesitate to take the step, because they never-koow when, they may be left high and dry" as regards their means of transit to and from town. For if they cannot get into town before their business hours and out again after business hours ihere might as well be no railway at all, co far as they are concerned. Judicions and jjar-sighted management would recognise tfeis, and teke especial <;are to encourage

suburban settlement to the utmost possible extent, the snbnrban traffic always being the best-paying part of a railway a work. Then again, the milk-trada is one which makes considerable traffic on lines running to large towns, and this promised to develop to a substantial extent on our railway, but it stands a chance of being fatally nipped in the bud by the new arrangements made for the Upper Hutt train-service. The discontinuance of the 11.10and6.10p m. out, and^ of the 2 p.m. in, muat seriously inconvenience the Upper Hutt people, and will in the end prove the reverse of trne. economy. Lastly, the Wairarapa people have good reason to grumble. Hitherto they could start moderately early, come into town, have three hours and ten minutes in town, and reach their homes by about 8 pm. But now they have to start 20 minutes earlier, and although it is true they are allowed an hour longer in town, it is purchased at the cost of not getting home again until 9.15 p.m , while 40 minutes' longer time is taken on the double journey than formerly. The later hour of departure was quite unnecesFary. Most Wairarapa people, when they come into town, stay over the night at least, and everybody was quite satisfied to leave on tha return journey at 3 30, which enabled them to reach their homes in comfortable time, instead of uncomfortably late. The fact is that tha hour's delay in starting the afternoon out-train to Wairarapa was not arranged for tha convenience of the Wairarapa people, but simply to get rid of one train to Lower Hutt. This is the way in which the travelling public are sacrificed to official cheeseparing. Lastly, we have to , protest very strongly against the further protraction of the transit time,' already shown .to be unnecessarily long. During the last I Christmas and New Year's holidays several trains were timed to run from Wellington to j Masterton and vice versa, stopping at all 1 stations, in 3J hours, and 3 hours and 20 minutes respectively. The trains were heavy, and there wa3 come unavoidable delay at wayside stations and crosßing-places, yet they accomplished the journey easily - within the prescribed time, without running at any excessive speed. But now the time to and from Wellington and Masterton ia I increased from 4J hours to 4 hours "50-min-ute?, or an hour and a half longer than necessary, and proportionately in the case of other stations. All this dreary time has to be usele.-sly spent by the unhappy travelers in the uncomfortable carriages. The trains have to wait idly at stations to make up the superfluous time allowed. If any unavoidable delay should make a train late, the time lost is not allowed to be made up, under severe penalties on the driver. The results of this Procrustean rule are t ometimes very ridiculeu3, althongh most aggravating also. A passenger by the evening introin on Saturday informs us that it left Petoni 10 minutes late, yet although half an hour was allowed for the cix miles to town (12 miles an hour !), the train was compelled to be also 10 minutes late in town, otherwise the driver would have been fined. The absurdity was the more marked, inasmuch as the train immediately preceding was allowed 10 minutes less time for the Bame distance, stopping at two stations, while the later train had not to stop anywhereenroute. This shows the singular inconsistency and want of system which obtains in framing the time-tables. A great fuss has been made in some quarters about the speed hitherto being " too high." It seems to us thia is a mere bugbear. Much of the nonsense talked and written about the speed on onr railways is basedon a complete misconception of terms. We have not space to-day to enterintothis partof the question, with which we shall deal on another occasion, but we may Bay briefly that it is utterly incorrect to assert, as eomo do, that onr railways were constructed for a " maximum speed of 15 miles an honr." On ihe contrary, we are prepared to prove, on official authority, that the lightest class of railway used on onr main lines (rails 40ibs to the yard) was intended for a speed of 25 miles an hour, with engines weighing 3 tons on each wheel. It was the average speed that was to be 15 miles an honr on the light Tails, and, as it happens, mote than three-fonrths of the mileage on the Wellington line is laid with heavier rails, on which any reasonable speed might be rnn with safety. The question of economy we shall investigate on 'a future day * V

Mr. Bryce's telegrams to-day pohvey no fresh intelligence regarding Native matters beyond that which appears in our telegraphic columns. ' \ A meeting of tho Executive Council was held at Government House to-day, at noon, his" Excellency the Governor presiding, and tha Hon. Messrs. iJollaston,' Johnston, and Oliver ; being . present The business consisted ohiefly in settling various technical matters in regard to various County Council elections, which under the Aot require to be dealt with by,the Governor in Council. Mr. G. Fisher addresses the' ratepayer^ at "the Schoolroom, Donald M'Lean-street, Newtown, this evening. His Worship the Mayor and several City Councillors visited the Hutt yesterday, when the former Ihe ceremony of driving the first pile of the new waterworks bridge, j- The party subsequently adjourned to the office of the ; contractors, where a capital lunch was spread. His Worship proposed " Success to the contractors, Messrs. Bayliss and C 0.," and -in doing so made reference to the progress of the city and the magnitude of the waterworks in progress. Mr. Baylias, in responding to the toast, eaid that the bridge that day commenced was the most important ' section of 'the work 1 , and, therefore, his firm had thought it desirable to have BomeUttle'OeremOnyon'the'p'ccasionl With this end in view he .had invited the Mayor and Councillor's to be present, and he was pleased to find' they had accepted the invitation. If the weather provad favourable, he hoped the work would be completed within contract time. Several other toasts having been honored the party refarned to town. 1 he. bridges (for there are twp)fcrosa both branches of the Hutt river -near the racecourse, leaving what ia known as Gear's Islands between The one nearest the racecourse will bo 816 feet lontf, composed of 11 spans of 56 feet centrus, and 8 spans of 25 feet, centres. The other bridge will consist of 7 spans of 56 feet, 4 spans of 25 feet 1 , and 3 spans of 22 feet; total, 552 feet. * Both will be constructed of wood with iron truafe' rods. The piers will be of 7 piles, 14 feet x 14 feet. The stringers will be in pairs, each .striag piece being 56 feet long, in one piecs, trussed with two ttto-inoh iron rods. The^ 'Water pipes will be laid. between the strjn"g ; pieees and over^ the pipes, f a ( foot-path 5 feet wide will be erected The contract for the work was signed on the 26th May la^t, and 'the bridges are to be completed within fifteen months of that date.- j ' j r ••> - r . ; ¦; A Bpecial.meeting of. -the City Council was held yesterday evening to consider the question of the To Aro Considerable discussion took place, but nothing definite was arrived' "at. » It was deofdedfto adjourn the meeting until the plans, showing all the details of the various sections, were ready. A short time ago a ohild of Mr. and Mrs. Barber, of Petoni, was killed by a kick from a horse. The parents subsequently went on a visit South tor tHo benefit of 'theirlhealtlD, taking with them; a ehyd,. six months old> but we_ learn that the latter- died,a day or two ag"o. r ~ r This }s another, exemplification of the saying that misfortunes "neveij come singly/ Q.'b6 parents; who arewell knownin the Hntt district, and town,- will have the sympathy 6f a large number of friends and acquaintances in their double bereavement, , A yonng.man named Louis Levy met .with a" nasty atcident yesterday in 'his "fatner's shop, in Lambton-Quay. He lost his balance while engaged dressing the window, and in an effort^o. save himself from falling put his « arm through the glass of the' sliding win-, dow. ,The ; result was., that, his wrist was< badly ciifcj and a small artery was severed. ' Levy-;cv,a9.taken»to, Mr^Mee's .chemist shop, ' where' the wound' was temporarily dressed, ' and thence' to D-. Gra*ce, who had mnch' trouble in stopping TheTuemprrhage. ,_, „ ' Mr. Wisemsti, who ; was instrumentfil^m getting tip the entertainment in aidiofrtbe Mount View Asylum, c requests genjtlemen who have gold tickets: to eend.rthe dmbunt realised to Messrs. B^iker Bros. Mr*. VVieel- j man is unwell at- present, but hopes to get out a statements accounts in- eight ,oc : ten) days. ' - . ! The Wellington City Banes paraded at tfiei Drill Shed last night under command of j Captain -Crowe, and aftt-r drill elected six! new memb«rs,J ]Mt. W % H.. Levin was elected! an honorary member. -'^The prizes presented i byltfessrs.- J. King and. J. Monteith >vill be I again competed for on Saturday nexfe. ! ¦ " Thejreturn of one. juvenile volunteer from the Front was the occasion of a pleasing iitUe oeremony yesterday. Sub-Lieutenant Diver, of tbe Naval Brigade, who is a pupil at Mr. Gamruel'B sohool ? returned therej ye3terday morning "to resume hia studies.] Ihe Principal, in the presence of the whole; school, addressed some well-chose a "wrdsi to the young sub-lieutenant, complimenting' him on the pluck and spirit he had displayed 1 in volunteering for active service, and congratulating him on his safe return. A n&lfhul day was then '-given to the school .-in 3 honour of the occasion. It is needless to,' add that Sub- Lieutenant Diver was heartily; cheered by his Bohoolfellowa. . " j 1 he regular weekly session of the Pioneer Lodge was held last evening at the Good Templars' Hall, there being a very good' attendance of visitors and members. Bro.t Bead announced that Bro. Hicks had been* elected District Deputy for tha next year,' and that Bros. Perry and £. J. .Johnson had been elected to represent this district at the 1 annual session ot the Grand Lodge, to ta held at Invercargill next month. ¦ It was decided to pay the St. John's Lodge a fraternal visit next Friday. - Next Monday will be a floral meeting, each member to bring towers.