THE DEFECTIVE RAILWAY WAGONS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2306, 7 August 1880, Page 2

THE DEFECTIVE RAILWAY WAGONS.

[l3v TKimonAi’ir.]

Wku.ixcton, August A

An important loiter from Mr XJlair, rehilive to the Civil Service Commission’s report re defective wagons, was laid on the table of the House b} r Mr .Dick. Mr 13 lair commences by saying : —“ To meet the most important phase of the whole question is the serious reflections that have been cast on my veracity. I shall, therefore,refer to this point first, and show in the most conclusive manner that those rcilections arc perfectly groundless.” After going straight through the whole evidence, he sums up as follows : —“ I. have shown that the statements made by me in my report of June ‘29 arc trim ami correct in every particular ; that no wagons built by contract in Dunedin were delivered in Christchurch in last year in faulty condition ; that no wagons built by contract anywhere in the Middle Island had to be almost rebuilt within six weeks ; that the only contracts for wagons at Oamarn was one with McNab and Aimers finished in November, l<S7h ; Unit the officers in the Public Works Department are in no way responsible for work done in the railway workshops ; that out of a total of <IOOO wagons 30 arc alleged in general terms to be de-

fective, and of these a specific description of defects is given in six cases ; that the defects are chiclly caused by shrinkages of the unseasoned timber used in the construction of the wagons ; that live of Ihe six wagons in which the defects are specially described, have been built in Ihe railway workshops by day labor; that Ihe sixth wagon is assorted to have been built in the same way, but tbo evidence on this point is not conclusive (it is, however, proved that (his wagon was not built by contract in Dunedin, and if built by cmtract in Oamarn, it is now four and a lialf years old) : that evidence was given to ihe Koval Commission by Mr Allison Smith, to the clfect that the defective wagons were bulk by contract in Dunedin workshops, mi Ihe authority of the Commissioner for the Middle Island and the Locomotive Engineer, Dunedin, and that Mr Smith shows that evidence to have been incorrect. —W.M. Li,aikA —“ Lyttelton Times.”