The Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1889. Railway Management.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6705, 19 November 1889, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1889. Railway Management.

No doubt there are a number of very worthy and respectable people in this colony who believe that the Irish delegates deserve every misfortune which can befall them— want of sleep, want of breakfast, and broken down, railway engines among the number. At the same time we may venture to point out that in the opinion of Beveral million inhabitants of the British Empire these delegates are important persons, whose doings and experiences the said millions follow with interest. On thi3 account we must regret that the adventures of Mr Dillon and hin travelling corapanions, on their way to Wellington the other day, were not of a character to be a good advertisement for our railway system. After experiencing the joya of a night in a country town at show-time the unhappy delegates turned out foodless on a wet raw morning to do their seventymile journey to the Empire City. The dining-car with which their hunger and weariness had been mocked proved a myth. They discovered that the artificial heat procurable in railway I carriages on cold days in other parts of the world was considered supeifluous in New Zealand. Finally their engine Btruck work, and they were reduced to tramp in | the wet to the next station, and to be devoutly thankful for a little lucky refreshment obtained at a hospitable wayside cottage. What an excellently managed and smoothly run set of lines they must think our railways are. We are quite aware that it is not considered good form to grumble at anything which Mr Maxwell and his assistant Commissioners may choose to do just now. We are exhorted to give the new method of management a fair trial. That we are only too ready to do. But we dissent from the view that because the Commissioners have been freed from political control they are therefore to be exempt from publio criticism. Surely, the absence of the one should make the other all the more necessary. Therefore, we take upon ourselves I to ask why the Commissioners do not hasten to make and publish arrangements to encourage travelling by rail to Dunedin during the coming Exhibition. At present the Commissioners seem to have no adequate notion of their duties in connection »vith this. They seem to think that their solo business is to make a little money by the Exhibition" and make it by keeping prices comparatively high and offering comparatively few special facilities. They forget that, even supposing this to be the best commercial policy (which wo doubt), still the Colony's railways should be used to encourage as many people as possible to visit the Colony's Exhibition. So far we have had the spectacle of the Union Steamship Company doing much and the Bail way Company doing little towards stimulating Exhibition traffic. This is a capital thing for the Union Company's business. But then the Bail way Commissioners were not appointed for the purpose of improving the Union Company's business.