The Timaru herald. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1899.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2981, 19 June 1899, Page 2

The Timaru herald. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1899.

Foe reasons with which we are unacquainted, Judge Ward is not to be one of the Commissioners to inquire into the causes of the Rakaia railway disaster. Probably the Judge thought that he already had quite enough on his hands m the performance of his ordinary judicial duties and therefore asked that the extra burden might not be imposed on him. His place is to be taken by Dr. Giles, who has had considerable experience as a Resident Magistrate and Goldfields Warden, and has at various times and places served the State m other capacities. He is a thoroughly honourable straightforward man of some ability, but slow and too much given to refining. We should say that he would make a fairly good Commissioner on an occasion like the present. He certainly will report truly according to his lights, and he will spare himself no trouble m getting at the facts. Mr McKerrow, the other Commissioner who was originally fixed upon to act with Judge Ward, has also been replaced. Mr Pendleton, Commissioner of Railways m South Australia, has been selected. We know nothing about him except the fact of his high official connection with the South Australian lines, but that m itself should be a guarantee of his ability to form a valuable opinion on the class of questions with which he will have to deal m connection with the Rakaia disaster. He is also entirely independent of the New Zealand Government and outside their influence. We have noticed several suggestions as to what should be the scope of the enquiry which is about to be held, but we cannot see any room for doubt on that point. The Bress of Saturday says: — "To render their arrangements completely satisfactory to the public, what the Government now ought to dg is to make the scopß of the Commission sufficiently wide so that we may get some really useful suggestions for the future management of our railways as a whole. There is no use m importing a railway expert from South Australia merely to decide whether a local engine-driver, or guard, or station-master, is to hlame for the Rakaia railway accident, and, if so, m what degree. That is a minor question which could very well have been settled by the heads of the Railway Department themselves. Mr Pendleton ought to be asked to examine our railway system as a whole, to tell us whether the safety of the travelling public is properly looked after, and, if not, wliat improvements ought to be made. If the Government give him directions to proceed on these lines, and give him a perfectly free band m making his recommendations, the colony will have every reason to be satisfied with their action m the matter." We do not agree with our contemporary. It is the cause of the Rakaia disaster that has to be ascertained, and the scope of the Commission should be no wider than is necessary for that purpose. The Commissioners may find that the whole blame attaches to an official, or perhaps to more than one official ; or they may think that the brakes were defective, or the methods of signalling not what they should have been. But the aim and end of their labours should be to demonstrate the causes of the Rakaia disaster, and the Commissioners should not have power to go beyond that limit. It may be that the railway system m New Zealand is very defective, and that it is so administered as to render the defects more mischievous. We are satisfied that the lines were more advantageously managed by the Railway Commissioners, and that they would have done even better if they had had a freer hand, and if their estimates of necessary expenditure had not been ruthlessly cut down by a Government jmore anxious to' show a good I [balance sheet than concerned for j

the safety and convenience of the public. The Railway Commissioners were swept away, and the presenj^-itovernment claim to have made vast improvements, and, m fact, to have brought the administration to something approaching perfection. The time will come when this bragging— for it is nothing else — will have to be tested by an exhaustive examination ; but there is no reason why the task should be imposed upon Dr Giles and Mr Pendleton. When the larger enquiry takes place it should be entrusted to a greater number of Commissioners, and the independent expert element should be stronger.