THE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS AND THE MARITIME COUNCIL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8744, 12 August 1890, Page 2

THE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS AND THE MARITIME COUNCIL.

Wellington, Monday. The Railway Commissioner" have forwarded the following reply to the Maritime Council, dated to-day : — "To Mr J. A. Millar, secretary of the Maritime Council. Sir,— l am desired by the Rail- * way Commissioners to acknowledge yonr letter to them of thesthinstant,in wbich yon Invite them to evade the statute law - by refusing to carry goods for. Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs because of the dispute between that firm and'the Typographical Association, which. yon state has not yet been settled to the satisfaction of that body and the Maritime Council. The committee recognise that they are, as you describe them, the pablio trnstees of the people's railways, and as such they could not deprive ony ono of the people from the common right of using those railways. You might with as much reason ask the Post and Telegraph Departments and Courts bf Justice to close their doors on Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, or on whoever else refused to obey yon, as to.ask that they shonld be debarred from using the railways. If the public service of the colony could be used for partisan purposes, and* to crush individuals, there would be an end to personal liberty, and in its place a reign of terror instead of that of seourity and peace, which hitherto has been deemed the greatest privilege of every law-abiding subject of the British Empire. You have raised the question, not of capital and labor,_ or the rights of majorities and minorities, but the much more serious qnestion as to whether the laws and the liberties of the people are to be overridden at will by aselr-constituted and irresponsible body ; in short, whether society is to be governed by Lynch law. or constitutional law. The Commissioners think it proper to point out to you what appears to them the real meaning of yoar proposals, and that you are entirely mistaken in thinking the public services conld be other than Impartial, or take sides and become allies in any dispute whatever. You state as certain that the railway servants will refuse duty if called on toi handle Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs' goods, and you assert that if suspension or dismissal should follow there will te a stoppage of the railway services from Auckland to the Bluff. The effect of so extensive a strike, shonld it come to pass, will be a serious check to the trade of the colony, and entail privations on many' families ; and much as the Commissioners deplore these consequences, they will not seek to avert them Tiy a violation of the law of the land in refusing to carry any person's goods. (Signed) E. G. Pilcher, Secretary to the Commissioners."