The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1900. PREVENTABLE DANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 104, 20 June 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1900. PREVENTABLE DANGER.

The preventable danger and altogether inexcusable delay and trouble that passengers are subjected to through the neglect of the Railway Department to fence their line against cattle calls for the strongest possible protest from the travelling public, and also from the settlers in those localities through which the line runs unfenced. Tan railway officials, too, are also entitled to consideration in this matter, as they, constantly journeying over these unguarded lengths of the line, go day by day in peril of their lives. Even allowing, as is most marvellously the case, that accidents seldom result in loss of life, or very serious injury, there is no reason why past escapes should warrant the neglect of proper safeguards. Besides this, the delay of three or four hours on a night train is a downright hardship and injustice to passengers who are nearing the end of an all too tedious journey, and to guards, drivers, and stokers who have been running from early morning—not only those who may happen to be on a " stuck up " train, but also those who have to turn out from home and engine shed after a hard day's work and go out with assistance for the train in trouble. It is all very well to argue that the line {would be safe if farmers and other I settlers kept their cattle from wandering on the roads ; to any but the supercilious and ignorant persons responsible for this criminal and altogether questionable economy it is well-known to be an absolute impossibility to ensure the safety of the railway line in this respect, unless it is fenced. Surely the cost of a few miles of fencing is not so great that the Railway revenue dare not be charged with the necessary amount for such work! Yet if facts count for anything it seems as though the Railway Department, rather than go to this comparatively small outlay, are content to place thousands of passengers in peril of life and limb; to subject them to all sorts of needless and vexttious delays, to make tbe lot of their own officials far more dangerous and irksome than tbere is the slightest need for, and also to cruelly maim, mangle, and slaughter the live stock of any unfortunate settler who may happen to have a section in the neighbourhood of the line. Surely the public have some rights as against the culpable and criminally careless conduct of those responsible for this neglect. It is high time our Legislature brought the Department to book over this matter, and it is to be hoped that during the ensuing session this will receive the attention it deserves. Evidently, neither the Premier nor the Minister ' of Railways has experienced the unpleasantness consequent upon a train on which they were passengers being puc off the line through coming in contact with cattle. It is to ba hoped that the next train colliding with an unfortunate cow or horse may have one of these (our only influential Cabinet Ministers) amongst its passengers. And if the sudden pull-up of the train shook off a little of the Ministerial lethargy, and aroused sufficient Ministerial indignation to prompt a visit to the scene of slaughter so much the better. The picture that would meet the astonished Ministerial eye is not a pleasant one. There, in the mingled light and shade (engine head-lamp looking ahead unconcernedly, while nearer the ground the glaring disc of the guard's lamp shines excitedly here and there and everywhere), might be seen the heaving, struggling body and quivering limbs of a mangled cow or horse. With eyes starting from their sockets, and nostrils distended in agony, lies the innocent victim of the struggle, while a swarthy fireman batters out the remains of life by heavy blows upon the skull with a coal hammer. The scene is as repulsive as cruel, but has been enacted on inuny a dark night in the sight of a group of shivering passengers who have got out to see what has " stuck up " the train. Jt is sufficiently gruesome to haunt the imagination and to move the heart of either of the gentlemen we have mentioned, and if we mistake not, would result in a peremptory order being sent to the district railway dignitary in whose province it lay to attend to such matters ;>s safeguarding the railway lines. One thing is plain : that unless the latter gentlemen are made to feel the weight of Ministerial influence there is little hope of any steps being taken to authorise this much-needed work ; it .should nut be necessary to post.|'i'iie it until some fatal ae. ident, 'i- ser oils injury, suggests to the railway a •. i.horities the expediency of doing what should have boon done years and years ago.