South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, JAN. 24, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2134, 24 January 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, JAN. 24, 1880.

A good many years ago when the Great Eastern was regarded as an addition to the seven wonders of: the world, public attention in Great. Britain was concentrated on the completion and floating of the mammoth steamship. When everything was ready a difficulty arose that was scarcely anticipated by the eminent engineers engaged on the project. The Great Eastern was found to be too weighty and cumbrous to he readily launched, and she resolutely refused to budge. Coaxing was tried—the skids were greased and wheels were oiled, but the obdurate vessel could not be persuaded to take her maiden dive. Unlike some some of the married ladies of Saiulictown who visited Saltwater Creek -with a Mormon elder a few evenings ago, the Great Eastern refused to take to the water. As the ordinary mechanical arguments of grease and oil, and steam completely failed, the engineer’s turned their attention to water power, and hydraulic rams were employed. The impression produced was slow, but sure —the vessel that refused to be coaxed or led, consented to be driven. Day after day, the fact that the Great Eastern had moved an inch and perhaps an eighth in the space of twenty-four hours, was telegraphed all over the Uuited Kingdom, and as each additional inch was gained, the popular delight became as much intensified as if some great victory had been achieved over a traditional enemy. And undoubtedly the victory was a grand one, for the launching of the Great Eastern was one of the greatest triumphs of engineering skill ever achieved since the remote days when the foundations of the Great Egyptian pyramid were laid. A tusk requiring skill, energy, and patience—resembling in several respects the launching' of the Great Eastern — lias been commenced by the people of New Zealand. It is the moving in a popular direction of some of the departments under Government control—notoriously the railway department. This department is as heavy and cumbrmis as cast-iron ; it is covered with official barnacles —it sticks to exploded fallacies in the shape of uniform and prohibitive tariffs like bird-lime. If it is not thoroughly corrupt, it is at least fossilised. There is no energy about it beyond that mulish force—the faculty of resistance. It turns a blind eye to progress, a deaf ear to reform, and it refuses to go forward. Suggestions have been thrown out, but they have only been wasted ; coaxing has been tried, but the departmental sluggishness is .impervious to ordinary persuasion. The Press, backed up by public opinion, has been endeavoring of late to lecture the department into submission, but it refuses to be moved. Fortunately, public pressure is a powerful lever, ami we believe it will ultimately move the mountain. The blunders—the lamentable lack of enterprise of this department are so flagrant that the attention rivetted upon them will refuse to be diverted or withdrawn until some improvement is effected. Like the Great Eastern the railway department of New Zealand refuses to be led, and it must be driven. The press has declared it, public opinion has affirmed it, and an alteration must be made. The department lias been docked, the barnacles have been exhibited, and however reluctant or merciful Mr Oliver may be, the country will not rest content until a general overhauling has taken place, and the barnacles that impede the progress towards prosperity of the State railways have been rubbed off.

How is this to be done ? We have already answered the question. We must have the railways managed as they would be managed by a private company. The machinery must be strengthened by the recognition and reward of merit and efficiency. The tree must not be overladen with official blossoms, draining away the departmental profits, wffiile, on the other hand, its leaves—the necessary operatives who give a fair return in labour for their paltry wages—-arc sent about their business. This is the fashionable method of retrenchment in Government departments where political favoritism sheds its corrupting, debasing, and degrading influence, but it is a system which the public will not tolerate. A sweeping reduction of the expenditure is demanded, but the broom must be applied to the cob-webs —the salaries of indolent officers, who enjoy from £3OO to £1,200 a year out of a concern that

is unable to contribute 3 per cent on the capital invested. Then, in connection with the traffic—l he passenger traffic particularly —we must modify our net to the size of the fish. Prohibitive mileage rates must be discontinued—the mesh must be reduced so that the small fry as well as the big trout will be caught. If rolling stock is wasted on certain long and dreary sections, in the unproductive work of conveying empty' passenger carriages, there must be something radically wrong. Wo have maintained, and we reiterate, that the fault lies in a tariff which precludes.at deast 1)0 per cent, of those who would travel occasionally', from using the railways as a medium. The people of Dunedin and Christchurch are almost strangers to each other, although trains ply' daily' between these centres. The cause of this is as obvious to the ministerial head of the department as it is to the Commissioner, Mr Conyers, The tariff insisted upon is as exclusive as were the old postal rates to correspondents before the days of Sir Rowland Hill. People won’t travel because they' cannot afford it. The country' ami the towns ■ materially suffer in many directions. Business is hindered, the markets of the towns are deprived of many luxuries, and consumers suffer in pocket and otherwise because it will not pay the wives or servants of producers to travel by rail and sell their eggs and butter, Ac., independent of the wholesale dealer or middleman. We are satisfied that with proper management —by a judicious economising of working expenditure on the one band, and a discriminating passenger tariff on the other —the railways of the Middle Island, instead of being a tax on the consolidated revenue might be rendered far more serviceable to the public than they' bavey’et been, as well as made highly reproductive.