The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 3, 1902.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 537, 3 October 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 3, 1902.

VICTORIOUS KYABRAM. Our cablegrams to-day show that a great victory was achieved by the Government of Victoria in their appeal to the constituencies. The famous Kyabram platform, drafted by a le v thoughtful farmers, has ueen adopted by an overwhelming majority, and the result is- that a State that was on the high road to rum ha« turn to the tetter path, and bids fair to truer upon a zenith of prosperity as soon as the eilects of tne sounder policy are experienced. With the combined lorces of the labor party and the civil service arrayed against ii. there seeuud a big prospect of the Government being defeated, but the result has nroved that the people generally are not anything like as careless in such mailers as is •sometimes said to lie the case. An overwhelming majority for ici'orm has been obtained. An idea of the state of tilings that existed under the reckless peacock- Government is conveyed in a statement mane by the present Minister of Railways. That promgate crowd, during its term of olhce, put Hull men on to the railways, at a cost to the country ol AlJOti a day. They employed -Fill extra civil servants at a cost of £2Uti per day. The railways had no need for 'be extra HOP men, and as for the Civil service there were said to be already (IUUU more than requirecL Another lisgraceiui thing was that"about Eiuuu was being lost on the railways through the indiscriminate issue of free passes, notwithstanding that the railways were consistently showing a heavy luss on each year’s working. Another serious charge made in regard to the Victorian railways is that they were allowed to go out of repair io such an extent as to be absolutely dangerous and it is staled that the sum now required to make them safe is L2iHi,IH)U. A deficiency of about half a million has to be faced by the Government for a start, so that it is confronted by a gigantic task. The foregoing facts give an idea of the state 11110 wiiich Victoria had drifted or been driven by the shocking extravagance which led to a combination of farmers and the conception of the Kyabram platform. It may fairly be assumed that the thousands of extra hands put on by the Peacock Government joined with the other members of the civil service and labor party to light for their old billets, and therefore the triumph of the party of reform is the more surprising as it is the more satisfactory.