The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1884.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7227, 29 April 1884, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1884.

On Saturday the Premier had two ! audiences —one immense, mixed, and I chaffy ; the other small, select, and respectful. It is not a little singular that he should have met with the same fate at the hands of both. The large audience, we have been told, just as we were told after Mr Rolleston's meeting, was of too rowdy a behaviour for' its decision to be accepted in any way as representative or even suggestive of public opinion. But of the small audience, we are referring to the deputation from the Chamber of Commerce and other bodies, we have not been told anything. Yet the Premier failed to convince the members of the deputation just as he failed to convince the meeting in the Queen's Theatre. No doubt he, like his friends, has his own ideas of the behaviour of that meeting. During some part of the war of words that he went through there, he said that he did not know very well the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative in New Zealand. When the meeting closed he had the opportunity, if the spirit was willing, of enlightenment on that point. The meeting showed" very clearly that Liberals in New Zealand do not attack the platforms of their opponents with organised bodies, just as completely as a former meeting *in this city showed that Conservatives in New Zealand do resort to brutal displays of physical power. At one point the meeting, it is

true, refused to allow the Premier tc CO on with his speech. But it is equally true that lie brought that interruption on himself. It was the one slip in an otherwise well fought defence, and it was a slip thai, nearly proved fatal to the Premiers hopes of wide spiead verbatim reports of what is virtually his manifesto. The deputation did not refuse to hear the Premier at any time, but they argued so stoutly with him that they . carried victory with them out of his presence. The whole political situation (or what tho Premier chose to consider as the whole political situation), including the railway question, was before the large meeting. As the railway question alone was between the Premier and tho deputation, naturally the Premier went more fully into that question with the deputation than he did with the meeting. What he said about the recent raising of the rates calls for no particular treatment here, as we have already dealt with it. The deputation held their own on the subject, and more. As for the Premier, his treatment of the details of railway management was evidently the treatment of one who is unfamiliar with the subject. The mention of differential rating found him of undecided mind; the effect of the tariff on various industries presented him with an unexplored region. In a hazy kind of way, he expressed his desire to believe in the superior cost of carrying grain, in spite of all the facts and figures to the contrary. But it is by surveying the whole railway case that we are enabled to see the fatal results of the Cramming to which he had subjected himself before starting on his travels. The Premier said that only two things pay on railways generally, all the rest being carried at a loss ; the two being some special line of goods and suburban passenger traffic, where there are large cities. Here in Canterbury, he added, we have no suburban traffic, and no special paying line of goods ; therefore, our railways do not pay. Now, the published figures show that the Canterbury railways pay, and we know- that grain is the special line of goods that brings in the money. The Premier is evidently not at home on the subject of railway management. Neither is he very clear about railway reform, except that he would like to get away from political pressure. A Board has been recommended, with a manager. A Board can on the one hand be freed from political pressure, and on the other can be kept within limits by Statute, so as to avoid arbitrary and sudden increases of tariff. A manager who understands the business of railway management is badly wanted here as elsewhere. The royal road to a manager is to pay him well. But this the Premier regards as a fatal objection. It will cost money! The only conclusion possible is that Government have not studied the subject with any earnestness, or approach to thoroughness. And it is the most important question of the day. The remarks made by the Premier, both to the deputation and to the public meeting, on the details of railway management and railway reform, ought to be the death knell of the political system of management. ! What the Premier said at the public meeting about the Colonial ownership of the railways requires careful attention. It was very suggestive. The original understanding for the railway system was that there should be a trunk line from Auckland to the Bluff. The proposed railway for joining the East and West Coasts of this Island is not, he said also, a portion of the trunk system; it is a railway whose construction must be put off very indefinitely. The. trunk lines will have to be made first. That is the Ministerial position. Now a special million, to be raised in a certain contingency, has been provided for completing the Northern Trunk, and the choice between the alternative routes, it is now evident, will soon be made. But where is the Southern Trunk line ? The West Coast line being out of the Ministerial programme, the East Coast route has suddenly been thrown into prominence by the Premier's remarks. If the private company, then, does not make the West Coast line, that line must, according to the present determination of Ministers, wait till a million has been thrown either over the cliffs beyond Kaikoura, or scattered in the Waiau Gorge. This is one reason why further borrowing must be carried on in "reasonable amounts." It is a policy which should add strength to the not uncertain sound given forth by the Colonial voice in criticism of the Government.