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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1227, 23 March 1880, Page 2

Mr. HiGGUfBGTHAJf, Q,E., of Victoria, lias been reinstated as Enginepr-in-Chief of Railways in that Colony. The .Commission now in session to concert measuyfiH for effecting reform in the management of $e railways already constructed, and the meiiis (jy .demerits of proposed new lines in this Colony, will therefore, we suppose, be compelled to Jook elsewhere for useM and unprejudiced engineering advice to assist them in their d° not know whether to express regret or satisfaction at the probability of the failure of the Commission to secure Mr. Higginbotham's services. So far as we are aware, the principal reason why Mr. HiggiiibptfoiP was chosen to advise the Commission was that lj.o hftd once been Chief Engineer for Bail ways for Victoria. ' One scarcely knows what estt mate to form of that gentleman's abilily from this bare fact. Occupation pf high office is not an unerring indication. of the possession of ability to fill it. Thai wg can vouch for; and so could the Victorians do W, had they, on the strength of position only, engaged some of our railway engineers to perform the service in that Colony that the Railway Commission asked Mr. Higgmbotbam to perform in New Zealand. We can readily sympathise "with the Railway Commission ill? their anxiety to secure high professional advice. As we pointed out when the Commissioners' names were made public, the value of their deliberations will depend upou tjipir acquiring a technical knowledge of tlu; matters with which they have to deal. Moreove? that knowledge, to be of any real value, must be derived from a man inaccessible to political partisans and untrammelled l.y any necessity for maintaining an otlicial position. Such a man is not to be found in this Colony; and, even if Mr. Higinbotliaiii js not more expert in railway matters than our colonial engineers, he has these two very necessary characteristics to j-ejCoijnngn4 Jijni. It is not, after all, unexceptionable ability that is necessary in a consulting engineer to .qualify him for the functions that would be required of him by the Commission. He would not be asked to unravel abstruse engineering problems. He would probably nj&« be asked to do as much as could be doijje by qijr colonial engineers. Any engineer' capable pf filling the position of a- chief railway engineer tolerably well is all that the Conjmis.sion requires; but experience dictates that lie must be chosen from beyond this Colony. That the Commission must have at their right hand a competent engineering authority there can be no doubt whatever, and, failing getting Sir. Higginbotham, iy.o think that they should tiy elsewhere. It would be interesting, if not profitable, to hear the opinions of a competent outside engineering authority ■on our railways. W,e should like to see his features and his exclamations on his first beholding say the section from Waikouaifci fa Port Chalmers Junction. Without being ftij. actor, his whole demeanor and utterances—not "official," of course, an 4 perhaps not parliamentary- —wpu]d be of a purely and highly tragic type, The past, of course, cannot be undone, but a disinterested and competent engineer might save us from the perpetration of old blunders by lifting us out of old grooves.