THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1882.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6296, 21 January 1882, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1882.

Dun int: the last few days Mr. Hannay has been in Auckland on business in connection with the Railway Department. His visit on this occasion is evidently for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon the management of the railways in this district. Though nothing has yet leaked out in respect to the result of his inquiries, the investigation is not made one whit too soon. For some time past the railway management in this part of the colony has been decidedly capable of improvement. Of course it is not our place to say how the management is defective, but that it is so the recent holidays amply testified. The blame by some is put wholly upon the railway authorities at Wellington, in tying up the hands of the district managers in such a manner that it is impossible to deviate in the slightest degree from a hard and fast cast-iron rule. If so, the deplorable results witnessed at Ellerslie recently are not to be wondered at. If district managers are incapable of discharging their duties without such rigidity of rules, they are unfitted for the trust reposed in them ; and if any general manager expects that the best administrative qualities of any district manager will be developed or utilised by such a system, lie will certainly be doomed to disappointment. Where liberty of

action does not exist, it-is not to be expected that responsibility for failure can be fixed. In the South, much larger numbers of passengers were carried on the railways during the New Year and Christmas holidays than in Auckland, and no such hitches occurred there as took place here. It has been suggested that a double line of rails should be laid down between Auckland and Ellerslie, and the Chamber of Commerce at its recent meeting made a recommendation to that effect. The work would be an expensive one on account of the tunnel through the Domain and the long embankment across Mechanics' Bay, but if a double line is absolutely necessary for the safe and successful working of the line, of course the money for that purpose must be forthcoming. There are no doubt difficulties connected with the management of the railways here owing to the badly situated station, but these must be overcome, if the line is intended to be a profitable one. "With a continuance of such want of mean 3 to an end, as was witnessed the other week at Ellerslie, at Newmarket, ifcc., the public will cease to frequent the railway, and seek their pleasure on days of freedom from toil by water and other means of locomotion that will not bring them into connection with the railway management. Another argument, and perhaps the most powerful, for increasing the plant here and other accommodation, is the fact that the traffic, both on the Auckland and Waikato and Auckland and Helensville lines, is rapidly and steadily increasing.

The trial of Guiteau for the murder of President Garfield was commenced in the beginning of November last, and yet in this case, in which there is no obscurity in the facts, we are only now arrived at the speech for the defence. Surely the people of America are now tired of the trial, which must have become simply a nuisance to them, as it has become a matter of surprise and disgust to everybody else. The trial seems as if it had been drawn out and prolonged for the mere purpose of affording amusement for the public, and material to fill the columns of the newspapers. It has been conducted in a most remarkable manner. The Americans like to make a theatrical exhibition of everything, and the wretched man Guiteau has fallen into the humour in the most convenient fashion. Every word he has uttered in the cell has been recorded and discussed. He has evidently enjoyed the celebrity he has attained, and probably has been for several month? past the most highly gratified man in America. By the manner in which the trial has been conducted, and the style in which Guiteau has been made into a hero, the American people are holding out powerful inducements to all those (and they are many) who are afflicted with the diseased vanity which drove Guiteau to the commission of the crime, to shoot at future Presidents. The manner in which Guiteau is allowed to abuse and scold the witnesses, the questions he is permitted to ask, the style in which he is allowed to pose as a patriot, make of his trial something of which any honest American must feel sick and ashamed. Not a tithe of the evidence adduced has anything to do with the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. For instance, the cablegram we print to-day, states that Mr. Scoville, the counsel for accused, " ascribes the crime to the outcome of political rancour, and asserts that General Grant, Mr. Conkling, and President Arthur are morally responsible for the deed." Such an excuse for murder would hardly be urged anywhere but in America. The politicians rtamed would have been guilty of a crime, if they had urged that President Garfield should be assassinated, but even if they had done that, the fact could not have been urged as even a palliation for anyone who fired the fatal shot. But these men were only politically opposed to Garfield. That there should have been days spent in hearing evidence on one side or the other to prove that, but for some mistake of the doctors in regard to the course of the bullet, Garfield's life might have been saved, seems most absurd, and almost compels to the inference that the trial is drawn out for the amusement of the roughs. The spectacle of Guiteau handling and inspecting a piece of the backbone of the late President, whom ho had murdered, has struck the world as being remarkable, but it seems to have been taken in Court as a matter of course. There is no doubt that Guiteau inflicted the wound which proved mortal. The facts admit of brief proof, and the only point left was, whether Guiteau was accountable for his actions. And yet the Americans have contrived to find three months' sensational reading out of i scandals, insane tirades, and irrelevant evidence which have been dragged into the trial.