RAILWAYS MANAGEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 February 1910, Page 4

RAILWAYS MANAGEMENT.

Wira all the best will in the world it is difficult to believe that much | good will result from: Mr. Millar's latest attempt to set the railways in order. A conference of district man? agers, is really rather an intelligent thing to think of, and it is hardly to be doubted that tho Minister will bo supplied with :a_ large, quantity of information which ■ may •be put to good use.; The general dissatisfaction which has. beep caused by the. new time-tables is evidence 'enough that the Department can profit by making .'a few inquiries into what the public interest:requires in the various railway' districts. In rearranging the" time-tables, ifc is now apparent, the' Department, with its accustomed independence of the principles i that govern private • business concerns, neglected the; common-place but quite useful formality of thinking clearly what it . was doing. , To the Department, qt. anyrate, there was; probably some, pleasure and interest. in thinking out a new timetable under which trains would, not collide.'. ."Think of a time!" we can; imagineiOne Departmental heacl saying'to another, and then: "Think of another !'' ' The times being ''duly thought of, apparently, the next'step was to'make': the Napier mail, train begin at one and end at the other. At anyrate, no attempt was made: to: remember, the .fact that: railways are meant to carry tho goods , and- the persons of a public that cannot order, its way of: life • in" accordance': with the whims of a public Department;. The present, conference should have been held • before the' remodelling of the services was decided upon. That Me. Millar should not have thought of the conference until, now is a sufficient commentary upon the methods that obtain in 1 the administration of the railways. If the Manawatu Railway Company ha,d been so unintelligent as to leave the public convenience: out of its calculations, ■ we should: not have lacked ample assurances that private enterprise is a failure. :.■> . ■ ■■ .

The district managers may not be! able to set forth the railway ; needs I of their districts with the correctness and the fullness of detail that would be required of 'its officials by a' pri-j vate railroad company; They have not received much .encouragement to railroading'as a science. ;B.ut they cannot .fail 'to tell-'the.' Minister something' useful, :.at anyrate;'. Unfortunately, the drafting of a sound time-table would not necessarily be a result' of even perfect information.' The Minister . cannot, even if he wishes,' escape from the fetters imposed upon him 'by the Government's unwillingness to ao what, though .it may bo the right thing,' may ; have the cardinal defect of being likely to: alienate the : affections of; ■ that enjoy privileges beyond :their deserts. ' N othitig, for example, ' is more ■•' obviously necessary than" that the train services inparts, of the South . Island should be revised and reduced very sharply, the money thus Baved being available to V; encourage ! the' Minister': in'.developing'ihew l'services in payable districts. But we' cannot feel, while the Midland Railway is still cherished by the Government, that such a change in the. policy of the Department is at all likely to come about. ' The present conference will, hot fail to suggest to the public the desirableness of. submitting; to a discussion by experts the still ' more important question ■' of railways - construction. When the policy of construction is the wrong one;! and. a /thoroughly unsound one, no vast good can be achieved, by.'.'im-.. proving the time-tables. Such a dis.cussion can : only be obtained by _the appointment of a Royal Commission, fortified ,by the inclusion of rail-, roading experts, to inquire into the whole history .of railways construction during the past twelve or fifteen years. The-Minister expects to be able to show a better' result this year than .was the-ease for. the. year 1908-9, but we are by no means convinced that his reduction- of the ratio of. expenditure to revenue has a' good basis. There is just as much need as ever there was for the investigation that will establish the neoessity; for rescuing the railways, from political control.