THE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERSHIP.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3, 4 January 1889, Page 2

THE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERSHIP.

As we anticipated would be the case, Ministers are anything but obliged to the Agent-Gonsral for having misundorstood the spirit of his instructions so far as to really find a suitable expert to fill the position of Chief Commissioner of the Railway Board. It was the very last thing they wished him to do, and they are now there* fore exceedingly annoyed at his obtuseness in not reading between the lines of his in' I structions, instead of carrvlng out their . ostensible meaning. His inconvenient zeal ( has put the Government in a quandary, and the utmost ingemtity of Ministers is no* being taxed to find a plausible pretext for objecting to the expert recommended by the Agent- General and the eminent railway authorities associated with him in the task of selection. The whole pack of colonial aspirants to the position, from amateur : experts of a literary turn, upwards, are of course only too glad to aid Ministers in this i task by suggestions, innuendoes, and sneers. We may be quite sure Sir F. Di^on Bell would not have recommended anyone ' but a perfootly qualified man for the ; position, and in making the recommendation he has had the benefit of the advice of two of the most competent men in England to form an opinion of tho capabilities of a railway manager. It is absurd for Ministers here, who know nothing of either the subject or tho man, to pretend that they can form an independent opinion worth a straw as overriding the Agent-General's recommendation, and the carping or derogatory critioisms of journalistic theorists or professional experts who wonld like the position themselves, are not worth the slightest consideration. It has, however, all along been evident to those who have been able to look behind the scenos that the Government do not want an English expert, and that they do want to constitute a kind of sham Board, which shall provide certain of their pets with comfortable billets. We shall, therefore, be surprised if the expert recommended by the Agent-General, however great hia qualifications may bo, is appointed. The only element of doubt is whether, when the full Cabinet assembles, Ministers will have the courage of their opinions, and in this matter of the the Riilway Board, as in that of the Supreme Court judgeship, venture to flout public opinion in order to perpetrate a job.