RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 350, 5 February 1918, Page 2

RAILWAY MISMANAGEMENT.

The Government's decision to reinstitute the running ot suburban trains comes as a tardy recognition by the Cabinet of public loss of confidence in Railway Department methods. The position is that the Department's contention has been that so many men have been released for war purposes that drastic curtailments ot the railway service became infperative and yet now, when one would naturally have thought that complications were , greater than ever, it is found pos- | sible to provide additional trains. The natural and reasonable assumption is that someone in the past has blundered and that not only has public convenience been ne'edlessly thwarted but that there was no actual reason why at any time the traia\service should have been curtailed. In brief, the Railway Department must be regarded as a branch of the public service that has suffered from mis-man-agement and we might even say from the ludicrous bungling that is proverbially typical of Government methods.

The importation from England of an exorbitantly paid General Manager was officially proclaimed by the Reform Government, then in office, as necessary for an overhauling of the Department but the people of New Zealand were not convinced, and are even less so now, that such a high salary as was offered to Mr Hiley was warrantee or that the appointment should not have been given to someone who was well versed in conditions as they existed in. the Dominion. To run a railway in England owned by a private company whose aims are limited to the Ingathering of the almighty dollar and to administer in a democratic country a system of railways owned by the people are two very different things and Mr Hiley seems to have failed to recognise the distinction. Mr Hiley has set himself up on a very high pedestal and taking their cue from him the various officers in authority have become autocratic, and the Minister of Railways is little more than a puppet or mouthpiece in their hands. The railway service is seething with discontent for it is natural that the official of many years standing to his credit and who has always run "straight" takes offence at the pin-pricks to which he is subjected at the hands of favoured underlings, whose spying propensities are fostered and encouraged by various district chiefs. How can Mr Hiley understand local conditions if he pursues the same indifference to matters as he exhibited some time ago on the occasion of a visit he paid to Pukekohe ? Mr Hiley 'came to Pukekohe as the result of various requests made to the Prime Minister Massey) in his capacity as the representative of the Franklin Electorate. He arrived by special train, gave two or three minutes hearing to a deputation and tersely " turned down " what was asked of hini, and then without even a consultation with the local railway officials hurriedly took his departure.

We wonder if the public of the Dominion will continue to tolerate railway administration as it is now carried out. More than a resumption of suburban trains should be demanded and the people should be given the adequate travelling facilities to which they are entitled. Shortage of men, as already explained, has been a mere bogey. One sees trains carrying three or four guards apiece so that their time may be occupied whereas they could and should have been employed on additional trains. It is also a fact that instead of being found in position running trains engine-drivers and firemen fill in their time in the locomotive sheds. We have been told that the state of the service prevented the running of additional trains. Yet in the Christmas holidays it was found possible to provide the extra expresses. Then again one remembers that a special train did run not so very long ago from Auckland to Pukekohe and back on the occasion of a certain ministerial reception and that on the recent opening of the new Waiuku line a similar happening took place. We would ask how does the Department reconcile these occurrences ?

The matter of the Waiukti line is also ludicrous. That has been officially opened as far as I'atumahoe hut passenger traffic is not accepted and only one goods train,runs once a week.

School children's tickets afford another sample of redtapeism that annoys the public. On occasions where the pupils travelling have left their season tickets at home their names are taken and the parents are called upon and compelled to pay full fares.

The question of race-trains is a further illustration of departmental mismanagement quite apart from the matter of policy of the holding ot races. The Government continues to legalise racing and derives a huge income from its share of totalisator investments and yet the Railway Department, on the absurd and untenable plea that men are not available for the running of trains, neglects to take the public to the race-courses and the taxi-cab driver and Tramway Company etc., reap the harvest which ought to go to swell tne railway revenue. How many thousands of pounds sterling in the case of the Ellerslie and Avondale race meetings alone the Railway Department have lost thereby will never be known.