SAMUEL VAILE ON RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 18

SAMUEL VAILE ON RAILWAYS.

Mr Vaile thus unburdens his soul in a late issue of the New Zealand Herald : — TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —One of our fellow-citizens who takes a very deep interest in the railway reform movement sent a copy of my pamphlet on "Railways and Social Conditions" to a friend of his in Europe, and asked him to know what he thought of the proposals it contained. His reply is so thoroughly characteristic of the railway official mind, that I think it will interest your readers, and I have therefore obtained permission to publish it. The writer for many years controlled and managed Baron Hirsch's Turkish railways, but of course did not receive his railway training in that country, but from the important position he held there it is evidenjb he was considered a first-class man. This is what he says:—" I do not think much of the zone system, and less of the stage system. In railway matters there is no rule, and it is quite impossible to establish general principles how to work them. Everything depends upon local circumstances. What will do in one country will not do in other. One thing is certain, it is quite impossible to find a system to satisfy the public, and as to myself I have given it up years ago to consider the conveniences, of the public, for one can never give them satisfaction. Whether a railway is the property of a company or of the Government the only object of the manager is _to make it pay, and to obtain traffic which pays. If the public is not satisfied with tariff fares or accommodation, the only thing for it to do is not to make use of it. This is the principle which I have adopted in the railways I managed, and 1 educated my, nervous system to endure newspaper articles, protests, interpellations, &c. All the rest is bosh. The proof that my point of view is the only true one is the case of the German Government, which obtained from Parliament something like£2oo,ooo,ooo sterling credits in order to purchase all the German railways, and in asking the credit Government promised to reduce considerably rates for goods and passengers. They obtained the money, bought all the railways, but they never reduced any of the rates. The only difference is that the newspapers cry now against the administrators of the Government, whilst before they cried out against the directors of the companies/' How exactly this reproduces what our late Commissioners have repeatedly said, and there is little chance of railway officials ever saying anything else until the public compels them. It will be noticed that the gentleman quoted above says that it is impossible to reduce railway working to a system. Again, I ask, why is this more impossible with the railway service than it was with the postal service? And I reply, simply because of the opposition of those interested in maintaining the present "abominable no-system of railway."—l am, &c, Samuel Vaile; Auckland, 4th February, 1895.