The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1887. PRECIPI FATE LEGISLATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1720, 20 December 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1887. PRECIPI FATE LEGISLATION.

The closing days of the session are apidly drawing to an end, and, as is the case when Major Atkinon is at the helm, the most important leasures are being rushed through rith a haste and precipitancy which do lot augur favourably for the future relfare of the colony. The debates >n these most important measures have, n many instances, been limited to a ingle sitting, and Bills have been read , second time when there has been ittle more than a quorum of worn-out nembers m the House. It is not fair o members, and it is decidedly opposed 0 the best interests of the State, to :eep them at work for twelve or fifteen lours at a stretch for days together. During the past week the Land Bill las passed its final stage m the House, ortunately shorn of its worst features. Fhe Railway Bill has also passed with 1 brief debate, totally inadequate to he vast interests involved. By this neasure our railways — an estate which, nas cost the colony upwards of four:een million pounds sterlings, has been banded over to a Board of Commissioners, consisting of three — a Chief Commissioner, who is to be an expert m railway management, and two other Commissioners. The Bill has been j drawn up professedly on the lines of the Victorian measure, but with its best features left out. In the Victorian Bill provision was made for securing the services of a firstclass expert by fixing the salary attaching to the office at a year —a sum sufficient to induce managers and assistant managers of some ot the large lines of Imperial railways to make application for the position — whereas, m a spirit of lhat false economy known as " penny wise and pound foolish," the New Zealand Government has fixed the Chief Commissioner's' salary at p^JS 00 - i s foolish to expect that lor such a sum they will obtain the services, of a really first-class man. In our opinion it would have been far better to have postponed the carrying through of so large a measure until next session and have obtained more information respecting the working of the Board of Management System, and Until tlje Government have had leisqre to consider the question m all its bearings,