The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 835, 17 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1878.

The sad accident of Saturday last, by which an old and respected settler —Sirs. Maloney—lost her life has very naturally led to the usual inquiries, official and otherwise, as to the manner in which she met with her death, with a view to ascertaining whether or not the circumstance was the result of carelessness. The investigation of yesterday pointed pretty plainly to the fact that Mrs. Maloney would in all human probability be now alive had it not been for the occurrence of the jerk of the train on starting from, the station, which is said to have been unusually severe. But what should be sifted is, Who is responsible for the jerk? We have heard that the jury before whom the matter was investigated were inclined to add ;i rider to their verdict to the effect that greater care should have been exercised by the engine driver in starting. More mature consideration resulted in the abandonment of such an addendum, and. we think, wisely so. For although Mr. Gr.Kx's manly and straightforward evidence, and that of others, pointed strongly to the fact that there was an extraordinary jerk, no one was apparently in a position to state whether or not such a jerk was necessary. To do that would necessitate a practical knowledge of railway work. For instance, the momentum necessary in the case of a light train would be inconsiderable compared with that which would have to be brought to bear in the case of a heavy one. Saturday evening's train appears to have been a heavy one, consisting of sixteen vehicles and the guard's van. Tlie engine was probably not equal to the task of moving such a load by fair means, for there are engines of such a description in use on our linos. Nevertheless, the train had to be moved, if not by ordinary, by extraoviii;:.-!-;,- v!:' :vr.~. -Supposing tins to be the case —and we have every reason to believe that it was —it would have been grossly unjust to even hint at carelessness on the part of the driver. The hardship upon drivers of having to work with such ineffective maclunery is quite enough, without blaming them for the unavoidable fruits of doing so. Who has not at some time or other been jerked on our railways with a force that has seemed quite unnecessary to the uninitiated, and has caused them to feel anything but friendly to the driver? With proper engine power and patent buffers there should, wo are led to believe, be no necessity for treating passengers so roughly ; but with engines of only half the necessary power, notwithstanding that everything else is perfect, it is unavoidable. As a proof of the weakness of the majority of our engines -which, by-thc-byc, seem to have been made expressly for exportation —if a train happens to be a little heavier than usual, two engines are brought into requisition, the effect of which cannot, by any means, be described as as smooth as oil. In our opinion, the engine-driver is quite innocent of the shocking accident. It is because we think so, and wish to see the matter thoroughly sifted with a view to the prevention of similar accidents in future, that we have written on the subject. ___