The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 173, 28 December 1874, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1874.

We have waited with anxiety for the appearance of some official report on the result of the enquiry into the collision on the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, hut as yet the Government has not condescended to make public any information on the subject. We have, till now, in justice to all parties concerned, refrained from commenting upon the circumstances, hoping to obtain all necessary particulars before doing so. But there appears to be but little chauce of the information being volunteered. The authorities are apparently under the impression that the public have forgotten all about the accident, and that the whole affair will be quietly hushed up. If such is their opinion, we can assure them they are greatly mistaken. The public expect, and have a right to obtain, the fullest information on the subject. The rail ways in this colony are not, as is the case in many other places, in

private hards, but are public property, and are managed by the Government in the interest of the taxpayers in general. The travelling public have therefore a right to know by what mismanagement or accident, the lives of so many people were, on the occasion in question, placed in such great jeopardy. The mystery with which the Public Works Department has surrounded the enquiry is far from reassuring, and tends very greatly to create a distrust in the management of our railway passenger traffic. It has even been whispered that this is not the only time that a most serious railway accident has all but happened. It is reported that some time ago a late train from Christchurch had a very narrow escape from being run into by a goods train, and that the accident was only avoided by the mere circumstance that the goods train did not start when so instructed. We warn the Government that such reports are most detrimental to the interests of the railway, and that unless the fullest publicity is courted by the department, people will come to believe that the authorities are afraid to make them acquainted with the manner in which our railways are managed.

As regards the question immediately under consideration, we hear that two men have been suspended, one the attendant of the shunting engine, and the other the watchman at the mouth of the tunnel. But what the public are most anxious to know is why the 3.15 train from Christchurch was allowed to enter the tunnel when it was blocked with the debris of the accident, thereby seriously risking the lives of more than one hundred persons. We are informed that the block system is in operation on the Lyttelton and Christchurch line, and we are therefore at a loss to know why the train was permitted to enter the tunnel at all. Either the system which is employed is untrustworthy, and ought therefore to be replaced by a plan which will secure perlect safety, or some one has been guilty of a most culpable piece of negligence. In either case it is the imperative duty of the Public Works Department to make known all the circumstances connected with it. If they fail to do so, we will not. in the interests of the travelling public, permit the matter to drop.