EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDING IN THE SYDNEY RAILWAY DEPARTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 536, 8 March 1862, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDING IN THE SYDNEY RAILWAY DEPARTMENT.

Mr. James H. Thomas, locomotive superintend' -nt nnd engineer of the Great Southern Railway, hasliac-n suspended by the Minister for Woiks, and has ln.cn called upon to show cause why he should not be dismissed from his office. The circumstances un tor which this has taken place, as we have been infornu vl, are the following : — A few weeks airo Mr. VV. Scott, locomotive foreman of the Southern and Western Railways, upon going into tlie stores under hiseha-c>e found a gang of men removing the materials of a weighbridge house, which had been brouarlit down from Liverpool, and stored at the Redferii station. Upon inquiring by whose orders thcy-weie acting, they replied by those of Mr. Thomas. Mr. Scott desired them to desist, until he had seen My. Thomas ; upon going to whose office, and asking by what authority the men were removing material.-', from '.Ho store, Mr. Thomas replied, "By mine." Mr. Scoit said, that unless their removal were directed by J.lr. Whitton, engineer-in-chief, lie could not allow' them to be removed, as he (Mr. Scott) and not My. Thomas, was the officer in charge of the stora. He left the office, and gave notice to the men not to remove anything without his orders ; whereupon Mr. Thomas, who had followed him from his office, insisted on the men proceeding. Mr. Scott, however, co-j-tinuing to resist the removal of the materials, My. Thomas left the stores, the men went down to thaiordinary work, and Mr. Scott returned his own office. Shortly afterwards he was informed that Mr. Thomas, who had left tho station on his quitting the store*, h.id returned, nnd had gona up stair.* again. Mr. Scott, suspecting that he might have obtained a second gang of men to remove the material-, went back to the stores, when he was given into the custody of a policeman by Mr. Thomas, who ordered him to ha taken to the watch-hou^e for obstructing him in his duty. Mr. Scott, of course, resisted, and informed the policeman that he was an officer of t!?o Railway department, whom Mr. Thomas could not have the slightest power of ordering into custody up ju a charge. The policeman said that they niuot obav Mr. Thomas ; and that if Mr. Scott refuse I to £*o quietly to the watch-house, he should pufc him m handcuffs. Mr. Scott, thereupon, walked in custody of the policeman to the watch-house, in sight of iill the artizans and laborers present, and followed by Mr. Thomas, on arriving at the watch-house, aivl the charge being preferred, the keeper refused to entertain it until he received the directions of Inspector Singleton, who, upon being sent for, said that tho case was clearly one of quarrel between two officers qf the railway btation as to which the control of tho stores belonged. He, therefore, warned Mr. Thouvia that if he persisted in his charge, and that Mr. Scotu was kept in custody, the responsibility must rest upon himselt. Mr. Thomas ultimately withdrew tho charge, and Mr. Scott was set at liberty. Having reported these facts to his immediate superior, Mr. Whitton, that gentleman laid them before the Minister for Works, who ordered Mr. Thomas to ba suspended from duty. The case having been laid before before the Executive Council, Mr. Thomas, as we have already stated, has been called upon to show cause why he should not be dismissid. It is only fair te Air. Thomas to say, that the above may le looked upon somewhat in the light of an exparfa statement on behalf of Mr. Scott ; and we have been informed that Mr. Thomas's account of the affair places it in a very different light. We have given the partoulars asf, they have been communicated to us, without at this stage of the business offering any opinion upon the matter.— Empire, Feb. 6.