Rangitikei Advocate THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9127, 23 April 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE terrible accident which happened on Sunday evening at Braybrook Junction, near Melbourne, has been so fully described in the cabled reports that no good purpose would be served by attempting to paint the horrors of the scene afresh. We have been so accustomed to regard the block system and the interlocking of signals and points as providing such absolute safety that it comes as somewhat a surprise to learn that in all probability the accident took place in spite of all the appliances connected with these checks being in perfe ct working order. Whether we accept the theory that the driver deliberately disregarded the signals or we consider as valid his excuse that the Westiughouse brake failed to act the fact remains that human ingenuity can provide nothing which will effectively prevent a driver from risking the lives of the passengers entrusted to his care. As a rule the signals are scrupulously obeyed but atj times engine drivers seem to throw prudence to the winds and

practically run amok. These attacks may affect even the most careful men and in the case in point the driver of the Bendigo train is said to have been’one of the most capable in the service with thirty years experience. ”1 With human beings it is impossible to-prevent the possibility of errors occurring and there can be no doubt that the strain on the mind of the driver of an express train is so great that it may at any instant prove overwhelming, the attention may for a monent flag and the immediate duty be Under ordinary circumstances this may be of little importance, but as on Sunday night it may lead to the most terrible disaster. The accident which took place at Shrewsbury in October last was caused by a similar momentary negligence on the part of a driver. A perfectly competent and experienced man drove an express train at 50 miles an hour on to a curve leading into Shrewsbury station, where only a slow rate was premitted. He passed two signals unnoticed and in consequence the train ran over a viaduct causing the loss of 16 lives. In this case •the final decision was that the man must have been asleep at his post.

A probable effect of an award affecting farm labourers based on the demands of the Farm Labourers’ Union was referred to at some length by Mr James Hay, solicitor and farmer of Temuka, in the course of his evidence before the Conciliation Board. Mr Hay took the case of a small farmer employing his three sons on his farm, who prior to the coming into effect of the award pooled their interests. This would not be possible under the award. Although the father did not pay his sons’ wages such wages would ha a recoverable debt for six years. Assuming that the wages due were 20s a v week in addition to their keep, the farmer would he going into debt to his sons to the amount of £l5O per annum. In nine cases out of ten the farmer of the class ha was referring to was financed by one of the mercantile companies. If he wanted a line of sheep he got it without any money being put down, provided he put them through the company’s hands later. While this farmer had the unpaid labour of his three sons,- he was perfectly safe in doing this, but if the companies knew that the farmer’s sons, despite any contract made, had put up in six years a wage account of £9OO, then no mercantile firm could possibly finance a man in that position. If the farmer became bankrupt, it was possible that almost the whole of his estate would go to his family. They would at least have a prior claim on four month’s wages, and would be entitled to dividends on the remainder, and the trouble was that the sons could not contract themselves out of the wages due. We used to call this fraudulent bankruptcy, but under an award it would be law and it would bo sound. There would have to be legislation to* get over the matter. Another curious result if the farmer became bankrupt would be that he would he unable to get bis discharge until the youngest child came of age and all his children released him. It was not a fanciful case he had put, hat one of frequent, almost daily, occurence. The operation of an award in he had indicated would cripple a very considerable number of small farmers in his district.