POLITICAL RAILWAYS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2048, 16 September 1880, Page 3

POLITICAL RAILWAYS.

The “Timaru Herald,” recently, in commenting on the late railway accident, gives Dunedin a home-thrust: — “ Unfortunately (it says), the Wellington and Masterfon lino is only one of a class. There are others almost equally dangerous and equally unjustifiable. The line from Blueskin to Dunedin is one of them. That, is another feat of tight-ropo engineering. We have heard experienced men say that if passengers knew their danger they would not make that journey. Certainly the risk of running over that section is enormous, and sooner or later there must be a dreadful accident there. That, too, was a political job. There was no necessity whatever for the line to go that way. On the contrary, there was a much easier, cheaper, and more expeditious route by Mount Cargill. But the prevailing political influence happened to be connected with Port Chalmers, so at all costa of public money or human life, the line had to be taken by Port Chalmers. Tne fact that it passes over Port Chalmers at a high level, and in no way benefits the place, is nothing. It was not a question of ultimately benefiting the place by advantages of railway communication. Events such as that which we have to deplore to-day will open the eyes of the people to the evils _of political railways; and the next Public Works policy will be directed towards undoing the blunders and crimes of the first one.”