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Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 983, 12 January 1883, Page 3

“ Angles” in the Australasian says As to how a railway official might get into a responsible position. Some time ago a middleaged man came to me in Collins-strect and asked me to exercise some supposed influence with the member for the district in which wc both lived. He desired to be appointed gatekeeper and signal-man atone of the numerous road crossings on the Lilydalc line, then not completed. “ What has been your occupation hitherto 2” I enquired. He—ln -the police force. I have got a good discharge. Here it is, I (reading)—-Very good as to character. But what is the physical disability mentioned ? He—My sight was failing. I—Your sight ; That would never do at a railway crossing. He—Oh, I can see well enough ! I—Then please read to me that sign on the opposite side of the street (pointing to Green’s, the fruiterer’s). That applicant couldn’t do it and yet he would have undertaken with a light heart a post in which his defective vision might have led to a disaster as serious as that of this day fortnight.