RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 3231, 28 June 1873, Page 2

RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

To the Editor. Sir, —Do you tlriuk Mr George Dodson would have any objection to disclose the name of the kind gentlemen .who wrote the letter which appeared in last evening’s issue, and to which he affixed his name ?—I am, &c., A Graduate of the Otago Universtt. Dunedin, June 28.

To the Editor. Binj—Under this term in your to-day’s issue, a reckless person, signing himself “ George Dodson,” indignantly demands why a special train should not at any hour be despatched to suit his special convenience. As a man of a somewhat varied and extensive railway experience, I reply that this is a new line, and as yet “ untriedof heavy, dangerous cuttings, and loose soil; of tunnels, curves, Ac., requiring—and especially when wet weather exists—careful watching. Special trains, it is well known, are, in the best circumstances, and at all times, attended with danger; and the public, I doubt not, will readily agree with me that “ George Dodson ” has a more correct idea of attending to his particular business, than of the difficulty and danger in dealipg with human being’s lives 1 in midnight special trains. His concluding scurrilous personalities I treat with the contempt they merit,--I am, Ac., G. PnooDroox. Dunedin, June 27.

To the Editor , g IBf __In this morning’s Star I find Mr Proudloot has ventured to the front to do* fend the shortcomings of the Railway officials and the bad management of the line of which I complained in a letter published in yesterday’s Star. As to the improper Influence brought to bear on our railway management by parties no longer connected with the line, and to which I have drawn attention, no doubt can exist, for Mr Proud* foot, in his letter of this date, takes the onus of it upon himself; in fact the cap fits, let him wear it, and I venture to say that the public 'Will think I have done them good service by ex* posing the matter. I did not solicit the services of a special evening train for my private convenience, as Mr Proudfoot alleges, but I simply became the representative of a considerable number of persona who wished to visit the Port, agreeing to take the financial responsibility upon myself for the proproposed transaction. According to Mr Prondfoot (who no doubt is a reliable authority) the country has been filched of L 175,000 or more for a comparatively useless and imperfect railway, which, after over six months’ traffic, is unfit for the public to travel upon with safety after dark, “in consequence of the dangerous cuttings and ill-constructed curves and tunnels, Ac.” I plead guilty to being so far reckless in my conclusions as to have believed that the railway was fit to travel upon, and that Messrs Proudfoot and Co, had given the country something like fair value for the L175,U00 as purchase money for the Port line. , The railway-officials, I think, may devoutly say of their champion,' Mr Proudfoot: 1 ’God save me from my friend. I am, Ac., Gborg* Dodsor. Duhedin, June 28.