MR. McELWAIN AND OUR RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 3

MR. McELWAIN AND OUR RAILWAYS.

TO THE EDITOR.

itAA ktj tuuoitaui in pi upuoat uu ay terms. They did not name £45,000, nor any other sum. As all the correspondence has been published, Mr. McElwain has no excuse for the mis-statement he makes. I have never had the smallest ambition to be a " railway manager," and would not accept such a position on any terms whatever. Want of knowledge of the question at) issue prevents Mr. McElwain being able to distinguish between "railway managers" and the directors of the policy which should govern those managers in carrying out their duties. In England and America the policy is arranged by various Boards of Directors, which are composed mainly of commercial and financial men. Here the policy ought to be directed by the Government, and. it is because they have handed this important portion of the business over to " railway managers" and railway engineers that we are in the present trouble. This evil the Government now proposes to make permanent, by handing our railways over bodily to some irresponsible manager or sub-manager. The rest of Mr. McElwain'a letter being merely misrepresentation and abuse, it is not necessary that I should waste time in reply.—l am, &c., Samuel Vaxle. Auckland, 6th September, 1888.