ONE FOR VAILE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9188, 18 October 1888, Page 6

ONE FOR VAILE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,l have heard again and again the J objection raised against Mr. Vaile being allowed to interfere with railway management, that he has had no practical experience. Such an objection is best answered by the story of some who, without previous experience, have been signally successful as business men, There are those among us who knew personally Wilson, the Hawick hatter, before he was sent out to Calcutta to investigate and arrange the financial affairs of British India after the mutiny. He was the only man that could be thought of as likely to grapple successfully with the confusion into which the Company's affairs had lapsed, and he died at his post. Many of us can even remember the time when the name of Joseph Hume, who had long served in the East Indies as a surgeon, was a bugbear to every incompetent or delinquent official or contractor that handled British revenue. We can also remember when the Railway Times, in a leading . article, stated that in about twenty years from date the Caledonian Railway would probably be able to pay on preference shares A per cent. A lawyer (well known to me when I was a boy for his kindness) got to be a director; and as the look-out for the shareholders was about as black as could be, he was apEointed manager for twelve months to give im a chance of practically testing his plans. The lowest passenger fare that had then been charged for the 44 miles between Edinburgh and Glasgow was 3s 8d thirdclass—and as few trains as possible were run with carriages for passengers at that rate. He reduced the fare to Is 6d, then to Is, and at last to 6d, running crowded trains sometimes hourly. By law he was prevented from receiving salary or honorarium ; but at the year's end he received plate to the value of over £600 from the shareholders, who, to their surprise, had got a dividend.— am, &c., A. G.