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Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 784, 16 October 1878, Page 2

Mc-cit as we may be averse to making any complaint against the Railway Department with reference to the manner in which matters have been arranged of late, in consequence of the damage done to various parts of the line through the floods, one incident has been brought under our notice by a passenger which we think requires explanation. It seems that on Monday, owing to the unsafe condition of the Rangitata Bridge, the Department in Christchurch refused to issue tickets for any- station south of Ashburton. A number of passengers, undaunted by the assurance that there was considerable doubt as to the probability of crossing the Rangitata, purchased tickets for Ashburton, and, on arrival at that place, obtained fresh tickets for Rangitata, hoping by some means to get over that relic of' Mr. Cakruthers' engineering skill, the Rangitata Bridge. Accordingly, after alighting from the train on the north side of the river they essayed to walk over in order to join the down train from the south side ; but they had, so our informant states, scarcely started when they were stopped by a policeman, and told that they r could not go over unless they had tickets. One of the number volunteered to go back (about a mile) and purchase the necessary passports, and started off at a rattling pace to do so. On his return another attempt waa made to cross the bridge, but again the gentleman in blue interposed, and declined to allow them to cross under any circumstances. As may be easily imagined, the party was considerably irate at being treated in this manner, especially after one of their number had gone to so much trouble in order to obtain the necessary tickets. They, however, started on their way back at once, in order to catch the returning train for Ashburton, muttering, in language which it is unnecessary to repeat here, something not very complimentary to the New Zealand railways. Their feelings of annoyance were not allayed either by the reflection that they had to purchase fresh tickets in order to return to Ashburton, and then remain there for the. night. But now comes the remarkable part of the business, and the portion which most certainly requires explanation. No sooner had the disconsolate and disappointed travellers got a respectable distance on their road back than they observed a rev. gentleman, who shall be nameless, and who had been noticed remaining in close proximity to the bridge during the whole time, quietly wending his way along the bridge to cross which they had been refused permission, and that, too, with apparently the full

consent of all parties—aye, even that of the policeman who had displayed so much solicitude for the safety of the party, and who would not budge one inch from the strict performance of his duty r . Now, what our informant wants to know, and what we, in the interests of the public, want to know, is: If the Rangitata Bridge was deemed sufficiently safe to allow of one passenger—and he, too, by no means the lightest or most agile of the number—to cross it, why could not the whole of them be permitted to do. so ? or, if the structure was in such a tottering and dangerous condition that it was unsafe for- passengers to travel over it on foot, why was one of the number permitted to imperil his precious life and the rest strictly forbidden to do so ? Was it because the policeman and railway officials considered the existence of one minister of religion more or less in the world of little value ? or, was the concession in his favor made in consequences of an obsequious deference to his cloth and position ? Whichever may be the real reason, and we shrewdly suspect that our second supposition is the correct one, the whole thing once more exemplifies the correctness of the assertion that this world is full of fools and humbugs, and that the most prominent of these two types of human nature are to be met with in the Government service,