RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 17791, 13 October 1921, Page 2

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

i» *\ I»i•> -i JL AJ Lj •■’ -'• ■ to Trrp. kwtot:. Sir.—'Void- criticism of tlii? department in 10-iiigbfs issue is to tho point. Circumstances seem to be forcing tv belated review of lhe gross mismanagement which has characterised tho" defiant and autocratic administration of Ibis branch of tha Public S'prvico. Tn spite of lavish salaries and (he multiplication of highly-paid officers, the department has been going hack in efficient service to tin l public over since we lost the services of a. commercial! v-t rained Minister of Railways. It is quite-impossible to got any common sense nut of these officiate, whose judgment and reason reminds one of topsy-tm-veydom. They argue and reason upside-down, and what, would be proof to any man of ordinary business perception is to them a reason to" tho contrary. Take, for instance, tho Mosgiel-Outram Railway, and consider the method of operation. Approximately there is understood to ho £500.000 invested in the Mosgiel-Dunedin duplication, and about £50.000 in the On tram branch line. Instead of coupling up this branch to feed tbs main line and foster kaffir by running the trains into tho home station, it is operated in such a manner that the public cannot use it. There would bo no extra running cost by acceding to this _offive peated public request; but there would he an increased revenue of approximately £2.000 a year. The department’s stock typewritten reply (alwavs on bond) to requests for the ' alteration, which would enormously increase the revenue increasing Tunning cost, is that after getting statistics the department finds that the revenue received docs not warrant any further expenditure in this direction. In other words, the department by mismanage merit drives away the custom, then says that, because it does not get it it will not adopt a policy that will bring in the business. Under' private ownership this alteration would have been made in lino with tho finish of tho duplication as a matter of self-interest and good business policy. Instead of which wo have to go cap in hand through our politicians, pleading ridiculous argument-- about hardship to"workers and other silly reasons, when the sole question is the deportment's stupidity, mismanagement, and blindness to facts that could safely ho left to the decision of any man of ordinary intelligence and business perception. A clean swoop of all Urn upper highly-paid officials and tho substitution of men of business training is tho only cure. I am satisfied the present officiate cannot bo improved. Tljo.v have grown up in tho red-tape, lopsided system, and they 'dominate every Minister of Railways, because he is never a business roan, and ho hides his own incapacity under “my responsible officers. The Kamo,-as played, suits both, and we pav!“ Oh, yes. we pay handsomely tor what we don’t got.—l am, etc., Business ManagementOctober 11.