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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10112, 10 August 1893, Page 4

The Government Railways Bill, as now framed, is a more acceptable measure than that of last year. A Minister of the Crown is still to be President of the Railway Board, but the power of veto formerly proposed is superseded by a deliberative and a casting vote. It will be vain to contend that this will give Ministers absolute control of the railway policy and administration. The control of the policy will rest with Parliament, through a responsible Minister, and the administration will be in the hands of four Commissioners, of whom only one will bo a member of the Cabinet. This certainly cannot be fairly described as reducing the Commissioners to a consultative position. The allegation that the Government intended to abolish the Commissioners and revert to the old system of political control is shown to be utterly baseless. The essence of the Bill is management by Commissioners, which the Conservatives have been upholding as the best form of management. The additional provision for the Minister of Railways to preside over the Board is designed to keep the railway policy in touch with the wishes of Parliament and the people and to restore the Ministerial responsibility. It is an insult to the Commissioners to assume that the presence of a Minister will undermine their integrity and reduce them to a position of subserviency. The Conservatives who will, of course, b© bitterly disappointed by the moderation of the Bill, have already suggested that Parliament should now enact that the present Commissioners shall continue in office. This monstrous proposition to usurp the functions of the new Parliament is thoroughly characteristic of its authors, and proves to what irrational extremes the opponents of reform are prepared to go. The Bill is doubtless susceptible of improvement in some respects, but its leading principle will, we think, meet with the approval of a large majority of the electors.