RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 37, 13 July 1874, Page 2

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

To the Editor of the Globe. Dear Kir, —Will you allow me space in your valuable columns to express ray opinion of the unfairness in which the public journals of this Province have represented the meeting of the two trains on the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway. They state, ‘‘We learn the station-master has been suspended,” thereby implying that the blame of the affair is all on his side. Now I consider this a very one-sided affair, because that officer, not having had an oppoitunity of explaining how the mishap occurred, I think it would only have been fair to him if you had stated Hie facts of the case. It appears the immigrants landed from the Stonchouse, and missing the regular train, he (the station-master) telegraphed to Christchurch to send down a special train for them —on it being ready to return to town, the station-master, as is usual in such cases, started the train—telegraphing for fifteen minutes, or thereabouts, without getting any reply, to announce its departure. Now I should like to know what the authorities were doing at Christchurch, and I hear the telegraphist was booking passengers for the Port train, and could not attend to his instrument until he had finished, which sounds reasonable enough ; but supposing that instead of the stationmaster telegraphing the departure of another train he had been using the wires to inform them at Christchurch that a portion of the tunnel bad fallen in, or a rail or two had been ripped up by some malicious person on the line between Hillsborough and Heathcote Valley, what would have been the result —a very serious accident. I should very much like to know who the Government would then have suspended ? Not a poor telegraphist-boy, who could not be in two places at once ; who then ? the Lyttelton stationmastcr ? It strikes me that the whole affair lies in a nutshell, and that the fault lies with the Government themselves in not employing sufficient hands to always have one clerk to attend to the telegraph instrument, and not letting the clerk have to book passengers at the same time ; and it is also apparent that there is some gross neglect at the Christchurch station in starting the train without first ascertaining what the telegram contained. Apologising for taking up so much of your valuable space, 1 am, Ac , Faidplav. Lyttelton, July 10, 1871.