OUR RAILWAYS: GOVERNMENT REPLY TO THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9144, 28 August 1888, Page 6

OUR RAILWAYS: GOVERNMENT REPLY TO THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The Government have sent their reply to the Chamber of Commerce. It is the first of the stock reply that will now be given to every request and to every complaint about our railways. The one reply will be, " It is the Commissioners' affair ; let them see to it." • And who appointed these Commissioners, and to whom are they responsible ? If the men who have so mismanaged our railways in the past do not appoint themselves, they will appoint their friends. This matter virtually lies in their hands. As to responsibility, they have no real responsibility at all. Their powers are practically unlimited, and they can delegate those powers to very inferior subordinates. While Great Britain, Continental Europe, and America have for many years past, been earnestly seeking for some means of curbing the power of railway owners as regards the imposition of differential rates, the wretched Act which was rushed through at

the close of last session, expressly confers on these unknown men the power to impose differential rates at their pleasure, and that too without the slightest check of any sort or kind. I venture to say that if the colony, and Auckland in particular, only knew what is hanging over it in the bringing into force of this Act they would rise as one man, and demand its instant repeal; and I do hope that even at this late hour a strong effort will be made, both in and out of Parliament, to bring about that very desirable event.— am, etc., Samuel Vaile. Auckland, August 25, 1888.