The Department and the Public.

Southland Times, Issue 11670, 26 February 1891, Page 3

The Department and the Public.

— ■ TO THE EDITOR. SiX, — With your high permission I would like to supplement with a few remarks your leader in Saturday's issue on railway management. I suppose it is too much to expect railways to be so managed as to hush the voice of complaint altogether. That were to anticipate the state of matters which we hope to enjoy when " this corruptible shall have put on the incorruptible; wheu we shall take the wings of the morning and fly whithersoever we list," and perchance look down on railways and railway managers with pity if not with contempt. So we in the meantime must be content to make as near an approach to a perfect system as our own corruptible, and those other corruptibles in the railway department with whom we have to deal, will admit of. And if Mistress Department had only a little of the same force acting upon her that presses and goads ordinary men, a very considerable advance towards the goal of perfect management could be made. But the equanimity with which Department listens to complainings argues thatshe has a settled conviction that she can never overtake all that is required of her. So she goes deliberately about her duties, in a way which reminds me of the efforts put forth for the maintenance of the public peace by the old constabulary, who had charge of that department before policemen were invented. One of these old " Charleys," as they were called, was told of a fight that was going on between two men in Queeu street, and asked to go and stop it. " How long has the fight been on," asked the constable. "A quarter of an hour," replied the informant. " Oh, well," answered Charley, " there is another fight on in Ring street, which commenced half an hour ago so I will go to that first." In like manner, when you go to Department to unfold your tale of trouble and disappointment, r» the non-supply of trucks, or the failure to lift the same when loaded, you expect that if your lightest words do not cause a lifting of the hair, your more weighty ones will at least awaken some interest in your case. But no, after listening to you with the greatest composure, Department informs you that others have been in greater straits than you have from the same cause, and that she had to attend to the fight in King street, before she could come to your relief ; and that she had been in great tribulation about it. But you look in vain in Department's countenance for those lines -which trouble invariably draws, and you cannot help surmising that Department has already arrived at that " haven of rest, where not a wave of trouble rolls across her peaceful breast." Department seems to have retrogressed a little latterly. There was a time, and not long since either, when Department exerted herself more to meet the demands made upon her than she now does, and even attended to two fights at once. When traffic was reported as left in sidings by a passing train, provision was made for UPting it by the next train, or failing that, a special engine sent to fetch it in, rather than leave it for an undue length of time. But traffic, building materials say, ia sometimes allowed to stand in Bid ings for two days, or even longer, whilst the job requiring the materials with six or eight men may be standing idle, and, in the case of country jobs, the men boarding at hotels. In other cases trucks are consigned to country settlers, who attend with their teams on the appointed day for the trucks to be at tbe siding, but find they have not come. The consignor has not been supplied with a truck, or could not get it taken out when loaded, and of course the settler has his journey for nothing, and that may be repeated several times, unless he defers going to the station again for a day or so, which, of course, means the detention of trucks. This is one cause why trucks are said to be scarce. A little pressure on trucks begins, and it is at once intensified in this way. Of course the whole question resolves itself into one of cost for working. There is ample means, both of men and rolling stock, to do all the work if done promptly as it is offered, if we make a little allowance for the autumn grain season. This is plain from the fact that there are two days a week on whi^h there are no morning trains to either Lumsden or Riverton, and, of courae. no evening trains in ; and it is on these days that traffic generally gets congested. A special goods train ia run on the blank days on the Riverton line, if there are the orthodox twenty loaded trucks, which is the orthodox load for the orthodox F engines which run oo this line. Se it is a question of cost to Department, and of loss to Departments customers, and as Department has the deciding of the question it makes it a pennywise business for itself and a pound-foolish business for traffic purveyors. And this is how rates which may be reasonable, are made practically high by the additional cost through loss of time to the public I said above that more was done a while since to meet public convenience than is now the case. This difference may in some measure be due to the difference which there is in different traffic managers, but I believe more is due to tbe new working regulations, which have been in force since the railway men asserted themselves and divided power with the Commissioners. Before that event took place a little extra time made by tbe intermittent workers did not all count, but under the new regime the men keep their fingers on the pulse of time and claim payment for every moment they are on duty. Of course that has imposed an embargo on tbe running of extra trains, and the rightful interests of the public are sacrificed to a too rigid economy in working the railways. Where a few shillings can be saved by using small F engines it is done, and traffic left which a J engine could clear before it. The fact is the Department puts its own interest first. It works for a large percentage over working expenses and good pay for its employes, and serves tbe pubic as well as it may "afterwards. — I am, &c, T. BTtxton". 25th Feb., 1891.