MR. CONYERS' REPLY TO THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 6 July 1880, Page 2

MR. CONYERS' REPLY TO THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

The following is the concluding portion ( of Mr. Cohyers' letter replying to that part of the Civil Service Commission's report dealing with the Railway Department : I have now answered in detail the charges brought against my personal character and my administration of the Middle Island Railways Department in the report. That the Commissioners should censure the arrangements of the system |or pass sweeping condemnation upon matters inquired into toosuperficially to properly understand them, is not so" much to be wondered at, but what excuse can be offered for their attempting to charge again and again upon me the alleged shortcomings of former administration? and the blame they attach in matters with which I have not the remotest connection. I look to the Government as my natural protector to see that I have justice, and I doubt not that all impartial persons will desire that truth in these matters should be fairly established. You, sir, as head of both Railway and Public Works Departments, can dispense with my services if other than satisfactory to you. I take for granted, if such were so, you would have informed me before now. And you are in a position to do this without destroying my reputation in a sphere which is the specialty of my life, in which I am well known to heads of large railway departments in many parts of the world. You can at the same time testify to the manner in which I have furthered your endeavors to make every possible retrenchment, and that by so altering the structure of the system as to adapt it to the greatly altered financial and commercial circumstances of the Colony ; and that I am still effecting savings of anextent more than commensurate with the sweeping and impracticable suggestions of the Commissioners, and further that these retrenchments aro of a character that will not plunge tho system, into confusion and demoralisation, but will be carried out in combination with your arrangements concerning the departments of public Works. I rely upon you io protect me from the damaging effeois of such a report as this, which will find circulation throughout the whole of the railway world, by giving equal publicity to the other side of the question. I am attacked ia my personal character and o facial reputation by persons who one day go out armed with all the authority of the State, and the next give up ; their official existence. lam particularly 'struck that throughout their report the ! Commissioners pay no heed to any other consideration than the saving of money. I am duly alive to the absolute necessity that every possible saving and retrenchment should be made, and they are actually made. A railway man has, however, always before hira a still more important consideration than the saving of money, and that is the safety of the lives entrusted to his care. When passenger trains are running over a widely extended system of single-line railways of cheap construction, through irregular country, and with an incomplete system of telegraph, besides many other disadvantages unknown in England, no one knows better than myself the innumerable liabilities to disastrous accidents. A stone falling from a cutting, a broken a misplaced switch, a mistaken order, a defective signal, and a thousand other causes may at any mojja&nt of the day or night result in the ioss of life. To secure safety over every part of such a system is the first consideration to which my most particular attention is directed, and by a connected chain of responsibility- and control, extending from myself to the remotest in the Island, I enforce continually the habit of vigilance and constant attention to the precautions established by experience. These matters the Commissioners have treated with dis--1 regard. They do not take into consideration the expense inseparably oonnected with a systematic provision for safety. This is marked in their recommendation that the sole management and control of > 767 m4les of railway should be placed in charge of { a man of business,' not even a railway expert. They would, moreover, divide his attention with the North Island as well. They urge that every stationmaster be authorised to order the running of trains anc l , to ohange crossing-places at discretion } and this on a single line of railway. The permanent way is to bp entrusted to inspectors as working engineers of the line. What ohain of communication should be established between these numerous and scattered working engineers, and the managing business men, j,a not explained. If a bridge should b?eab down, or a retaining wail giye way, the nearest stationmaster would send for any Government i engineer who might be in the neighborhood to direot tho rebuilding. If no such officer waa at hand, the traffic would remain indefinitely suspended until application oould be made to some distant authority to send an officer to attend to the case. How the accounts of the cost of carrying out such works would be kept by an inspector, th,e reader is left to imagine. Ido no.t think any private proprietor would so dispose of an establishment worth a million of money. When I was first transferred to Christchurch, a standing difficulty, and one annually recurring,,was the block of the grain traffic. Many Christchurch merchants warned me that I had under-estimated the difficulties of the grain season, and should break down.. These can vouch that no such breakdown occurred. System and regularity were introduced. Each successive grain season has been worked more easily than the preceding one, and this year, with a heavier grain crop than ever before known in the Island, the produce is being carried without jar or difficulty, and with greatly increased despatch and economy. I do not claim personally the credit due to the success of each detail, but I can fairly claim to. have organised the system under which the results were produced. and regularity have been established, old-standing abuses are things the past, and strict regulations defining the duties of the various employes have been brought into operation. Through financial depression, the traffic receipts have fallen off, exoepting grain. At the same time great reductions in the wording expenses have been effected, tho oost of running engines reduced less than half what it was in 1876, although lines are older and more worn, and the cost of renewal consequently greater. The cost of maintenance is less than formerly, owing to the stricter regard now paid to economy of labor and material. I do not profess that the system is perfect. Much remains to be done to increase efficiency and diminish cost. It requires care, while retrenching expenditure, to effect the end in view without unduly sacrificing what has already been gained, and throwing back the railway system of the Colony into the irregular and disjointed state of its earliest days. While writing this reply, it has come to my knowledge that the Civil Service Commission have actually examined as one of their witnesses a person dismissed from the service for drunkenness. If they would place reliance upon such evidence as that, they might as well base their report upon of other persons discharged for misconduct, which can be frequently seen in the daily papers.