The Globe. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 546, 18 March 1876, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1876.

Sib Julius Yogel, in his address to his constituents at Wanganui, says, “The present system in which Pro- “ vinces are responsible for debts and “ interest in railway management, “ presents insuperable difficulties, and “ we propose to ask Parliament to take “ over the control and responsibilities “ of all the railways in the colony,” • We einceiely trust that Parliament will take over the control and management, of the Canterbury lines at least, for surely no greater muddle that at present exists is needed. The Canterbury people must be a much enduring and a long suffering race, or what is probably more near the truth a very careless one, when they they take so little means of making heard the grievances that are inflicted on them through the Provincial Railway system of Canterbury. One of the most conspicuous impositions on the public is that of the time of starting the trains from Lyttelton to Christchurch in the morning. Any person having a necessity to proceed to Rangiora or any other station on the Christchurch and Rangitata lines by the first train in the morning, is put to the trouble, expense, and loss of time of having to come up from Lyttelton over night, and Lyttelton is only nine miles from Christchurch. Then the constant worry attendant on the present system of changing carriages is totally uncalled for. Why not run the trains through ? There is not the

slightest question but the railway authorities have any number of reasons as they always do have for the injurious increase of the tariff. The Provincial Government says it wishes to make the railways pay. Yes; we have no doubt it does. It wishes to make the railways pay for a lot of useless work, for a conglomerate arrangement of broad guage and narrow guage, and for every other conceivable inconvenience it can put the public to. We would like to know, now that the line is open to Timaru, what necessity there is to keep the public on the road from seven o’clock in the morning until half-past one, or six and a-half hours to accomplish a journey of less than one hundred miles ? Surely it is no use boasting of our advance and progress when a man on a bicycle can accomplish the distancein the same time. Another glaring instance of the Railways Department, glaring from its absurdity, is that of treating passengers’ luggage like cargo. We know that passengers arriving by steamers have in many cases to wait over in Christchurch two days before they get the whole of their luggage tip, so that they can proceed on their journey. Commercial travellers are treated equally as bad, the sample cases being sent forward anyhow. We must say that we think it is high time that somebody had to look after these things, and we learn with pleasure that there is at last some hope of improvement, which is to be expected from the General Government alone.