The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 819, 27 November 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1878.

We have received a complaint from Papakaio, which demonstrates conclusively that the arrangements for railway goods traffic between Oamaru and that place are far from perfect. Messrs. Bailie and Humphrey, the other day, forwarded a number of bags of sugar to Mr. Duoald Sjiaw, storekeeper, at Papakaio. They were delivered at the station, Oamaru, and the consignors procured a receipt for them from the Railway Department. On the arrival of the train containing the sugar at Papakaio, Mr. Shaw was present, and ""was asked by the guard, who apparently had no way bill, whether he expected anything by the train ? This resulted in tiie procuring of the sugar forwarded by Messrs. HVmphrkv and Batltk minus one bag of the value of L 3 Pis. Mr. Sn.vw states that he immediately entered the quantity received in a receiving-book, according to his usual custom, not being aware at the time that there was one bag short, as he had not received the invoice. On receipt of the invoice, in which he was charged with a bag more than he had received, lie wrote to Messrs. Bailik and Humi'Hrey, apprising them of what he then believed was their omission, but what he was afterwards informed was caused by the Railway Department. Mr. Suaw now looks to Messrs. Bailik and Humphrey to make good the loss, and Messrs. Bailik and Humpiikky, feeling that they have a claim upon the Railway Department, wrote to the department with the object of obtaining satisfaction, and received the following reply : "Oamaru, November lf>, IS7S. "Memo, for Messrs, Bailie and Humphrey, Oamaru.

" In reply to your claim for L 3 13s, value of one mat sugar said to have been short delivered at Papakaio on 2Sth September, I beg to state that we have made every enquiry, but cannot trace the missing mat. " The guard who was acting on the Maerewhemia branch has left the department, but he has made no remark on waybill, so that the supposition is that the full quantity consigned was delivered on the Papakaio platform.

" As goods consigned to platform stations are carried at 'owners' risk,' I have to decline to recognise the claim. " (For D.S.M.) T. W. Bivebner." If the guard had a waybill, why did he not produce it, and obtain Mr. Shaw's acknowledgment of the receipt of the bags? If this had been done, the source of the error would have been at once discovered, and perhaps loss, discontent, and difficulty would not have arisen. Mistakes will, of course, happen anywhere and in all departments of life ; but there are cases in which they are the result of mere carelessness, of which somebody connected with the railway appears to have been guilty in the present ease. No blame can be attached to Messrs. B,ui.n-:nml Humphrey, for it seems that they did everything in their power to prevent blundering, and so did Mr. Shaw. The' Railway Department is, therefore, obviously at fault. Kule-of-thumb conduct on the part of railway employes is unpardonable. When the regulations of the department are so stringent as expressed in the words "goods consigned to platform stations are carried at 'owners' risk,'" the details of the department should be attended to with the greatest possible amount of system. In the present case a parcel given into the charge of the Railway Department is said to have gone adrift, and the Railway Department has nothing to show that it has not been the cause of the loss. The plea that the department cannot trace the missing ! mat because the guard has left the service and has made no remark on the waybill, will not pass muster anywhere but in the precincts of the railway'offiees. There should be no necessity to resort to the vague and unsatisfactory'regions of "supposition;"' it is particularly wrong to do so when people's money is at stake. Railway officials can suppose as much as they please so lung as they are prepared to pay the cost of the errors arising therefrom ; but when blunderiii'_'. brought about by a system of "supposing," causes loss to those who pay to have a certain service performed efficiently, railway officials have no right to shelter themselves behind the cast-iron- rules of tl.e'.r department. The rcp : y to Messrs. BAii.il'. and ilr.\irin:i:v would be quite brusque enough under circumstances of neglect on the part of that tirm : but when it is considered that, even if the loss cannot bo proved to have been caused by the Railway Department, the department cannot prove to the contrary, _ because one of its officers, for whose acts it is responsible, failed to observe one of the commonest rules of the Department—that of obtaining the signature of the recipient of the bags to the waybill, if he had one—it is palpably in fault,'and it would have been much wiser to have paid the value of the missing bag, and thus settled the matter. The remark in the reply to Messrs, Bailie AND Humphrey's letter that "goods consigned to platform stations are carried at owners' risk, suggests to our mind the necessity of superseding the primitive Papa_knio platform by a goods shed and station, and the meagre siding accommodation by a useful loop line. The present arrangement may have been quite good enough when first adopted, but business has grown since then, and calls for something more satisfactory. Goods that arrive at Papakaio are now thrown out of the trucks pell-mell, and are exposed to the summer's sun, winter's rain, and the per euliarities of people who are addicted to serious misapprehension as to what belongs to them and what belongs to other people, for unfortunately there are such in the world. The t ; me has arrived when the Government should give Papakaio additional facilities for landing and storing goods, more especially as tho present arrangement seems to be a prolific cause of mistakes. Next season there will be the" produce of about 4000 acres in addition to the amount sent to Oamaru last year to come by way of Papakaio, and, unless the railway authorities awaken to a sense of the fact that Papakaio and other parts of the Oamaru district will require additional railway facilities, at least in proportion to the extra amount of traffic that they will be called upon to perform, we shall see next grain season a repetition of the difficulties, losses, and dissatisfaction that characterised last season, and the deepening of the furrows in the brows of our head railway officials. If tho Government refuses to grant the station, goods shed and siding for Papakaio and places similarly situated, they should, at least, take a share of the respoii: sibility attaching to the rough and ready slipshod system which obtains in such places and which frequently entails loss. No receipt for goods is ever given at Papakaio and other platform stations by the railwayauthorities. What a commentary upon the efficiency of the system which has been inaugurated by the department at such placCß. ________________