The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 381, 13 July 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1877.

The conduct of the railway oiL"c'-a;s towards Mr. Sctherlaxp, a member of the Waitaki County Council, while travelling homewards by way of Duntroon after last meeting, calls for some explanation, apology, and, indeed, all possible reparation at the hands of the railway authorities who are responsible for its occurrence. We are not now laying the blame on the shoulders of anyone i.i paitieular connected with the railway department at Oamaru ; but we write in the expectation that our remarks will be taken to heart by the person to whom Mr. Sctueiilaxd is indebted for the unnecessary insult that Las been oti'eivd to him and to every member of the Waitaki County Council. The case is a very hard one. Mr. Sutheklaxu resides SO miles from Oamaru, and comes to town once a month,

with praiseworthy regularity, for no other purpose than to attend to his County Council duties. He travels 50 miles on horseback, and in order to save time and unnecessary expense, lie takes the train at Duntroon for Oamaru. Of course, the same programme is observed on his return journey. The whole trip

necessitates Mr. Sutherland's absence from homo fur about 13 days ; so that nearly one-half of every month, besides a considerable sum for hotel expenses, he devotes to the execution of the duties of his public position. Xor is Mr. Scthkrt and by any means the only County Councillor who sacritices considerable time and money in the service of the public. The Government, apparently recognising the hardship that would be sutiered by members of County Councils living at a distance from any place of meeting, granted free passes to enable nit nib era to attend such meetings and return home. "v\ e have been shown one of these, which states that the grantee is to be accorded the privilege of travelling froni any station to arnj station irilhln the county ivhcn travelling to and from- county ■meetings. The language in which the above is couched is so exceedingly simple that it could be understood by the junior of the

junior class in any one of our schools. The sentence italicised by us was printed in legible characters at the foot of the pass presented by Mr. Sutherland to the Station-master at Awamoko, and subsequently shown to Mr. Smith, to whom Mr. Sutherland applied to redress his wrongs ; and yet, marvellous though it may appear to our readers, the application was in vain. By what sj-steni of reasoning the railway authorities will be able to clear themselves of a stigma which, it must be as apparent as noonday, attaches to them in reference to this matter, would puzzle anyone gifted with even the ordinary capacity for wriggling out of a difficulty to understand ; but we would not wonder if the responsibility of the stupid transaction were shifted from the shoulders of one to the other in such a manner a-j to render it perfectly impossible to discover the real culprit. We trust that 3lr. S":tji, for Lis own s::!;e, will satifacturiiy explain and arrange t'.e cause of complaint that the Wait ah i County Councillors, and Mr. Sutherland in particular, have been necessitated to make, in order to prevent a recurrence of the insulting conduct to which one of its members was unfairly subjected. To

question the genuiness of a gentleman's pass i 3 to tacitly charge liim with fraud, and we can sympathise with Mr. Sutherland when endeavouring to knock sense into the head of a stubborn and obstructive railway official, surrounded by an admiring crowd.