The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1917. EFFICIENCY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9622, 30 March 1917, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1917. EFFICIENCY

“Salus Populi.” It is the motto of the statesman, the inspiration of, the publicist, the test of merit in the servant of the State. Heedless to say after that, how its comprehensiveness caused the appointment of the Royal Commission which lias just reported on the efficiency of the rolling-stock of the Now Zealand railways. It is the modern development of the ancient principle of responsibility. In the days of old, 1 when the statesman wished to change iha order of things in any particular as by law established, ho had to put a rope round Jiis neck before he made the proposal. And in those days the safety guaranteed by the laws was a far more limited thing than the safety which they‘guarantee to-day. Then it was a ease only of wars and interstate relations, and the general provision of internal freedom, things which entered into what used to be known as “high politics,” things mysterious, lofty, not to bo approached by anyone not possessing a university degree. Now the State has come down from the mountain of high politics. It dwells in the valley of the shadow of tho public health, the public transport, the public food, and very soon it threatens to be of the public everything. How much greater, therefore, tho need for bearing aloft the inspiring badge of “Salas Populi”! The safety of the nation now includes not only the life of the citizen, but his comfort. It is a guarantee not only of his freedom, but of his health, his transport, his food. The State runs railways here. The safety of the people who use the railways has become a law of statesmanship. The Government of tho day is tho custodian of this extended principle. It hlls tho role of tho ancient friends of change, who did no work under pain of death. There is this radical difference, that the rulers are not judged beforehand, but by results. If, after the lapse of time, they are found to have changed things, or not to have changed them, the change, or the want of it, being the cause of evil, they must stand forth for punishment. The inquiry is by tho expensive road of Royal Commission, which is, of course-, loss expensive than legal procedure---the cost of which is the mockery ot justice and the banc of civilisation; but, for all that, very costly indeed. How there is a country behind ready to bleed to any extent. Tho Royal' Commission, therefore, is like a horse in a livery stable, ready to come forth at any moment to do his journey on the hard, high road of inquiry, ai> the bidding of all and sundry. Whoever comes along with a cry of grievance,, the cry reaches the stable, and, no matter whether it is the cry of the King, who is filled .with guiding information by his faithful and capable servants, or the shriek of an empiric, who takes held of intangible rumours on authority which absolutely breaks down like a Jericho wall at the first sound of a wind instrument, the horse is saddled and comes forth. He travels over the land in company with tho nine parts of speech, which extend themselves to tho ninth fold of their power and nerve, and the country bleeds metaphorical oats and chaff. But “Sains Fopuli” is preserved, under the buckler of truth. , This Railway Commission was called forth by the cry of a representative of the people, who had heard things from men "behind the scones, or was supposed to have hoard them ; at any rate, gave himself the air of one who had heard much and knew more. The j horse Royal Commission trotted out

at once affording to custom, started cm its -tunl with tl.c nine parts of speech and all tile leading responsible railway officials. It was currently reported to have examinee every bolt and bar and culvert in the service of ’‘Sales Populi to have tested every bridge and every nut and every spring. (-specially every spring. The country bled. maintained nobly throughout the role of “bleeding countiy.” But the result was worth tl.i! money. The accuser behind the scenes was not found, though a mass oi supposed accusers in one way or another slipped through the meshes or the net which the horse dragged oyer the whole face of the railway service. Tt was found that no one outside the limited circle "or the railway exports It new the. difference between one kind of spring and another kind of spring, and that 'someone of this crowd of ignorance at large had frightened the travelling public by mistaking the honk by which a wagon is dragged for t'ne axle which enables a wagon to bo carried by its wheels. The report of the Commission virtually declares that there was no more cause for alarm in the whole business than that. The verdict is plain enough. It is “Mare's N'est”; never a finer specimen of that most contemptible genus of political mollusca- Democracy has been proved ready and willing to set the country bleeding to make inquiry into a mare’s nest. All the King’s horses and all the King's men have gone, a’-l round the King’s country, and all through the King's railways, in pursuit of a mare's nest.

It looked uncommonly like a marc’s nest from the first. But what of that? There arc worse aspects than even marcs’ nests present. For example, the bureaucratic practice of hanging everybody who says a word against anything, and burying his remains under an epitaph eulogising the duty of standing by the servants of the State, The proper name for that is suppression. And if there is suppression, what chance is there for “Sales Populi?’’ Without a doubt, then, it. is right to have inquiry always open, above-board, expensive if need be. ft is the only safeguard for “Sains Populi,’’ and tho country ought to be proud to be a bleeding country. It is the bleeding which prevents deterioration through neglect and other causes. The health of the State machines is worth the money, for tho health' is “Sains Populi.” Without 1 this liability ever open for inquiry, there would bo deterioration and disaster eventual, j Tho Commission has found and branded a mare’s nest. In other words, it has found that tho railway management is efficient. It has-fhown that “Sajus Populi” is protected, and, therefore, that the public pocket is fairly safeguarded, too. In a word, it has been worth while.