South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2393, 17 November 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1880.

Cruelty to animals is severely denounced ; and it is frequently punished. There is a cruelty", however, far more reprehensible, but which goes unpunished because it merely" involves great danger and no physical suffering. We mean cruelty to machinery. People may laugh, but there is such a tiling as cruelty" to wheels and cranks and pulleys and boilers. It is only" when the crash comes that the cruelty" is demonstrated. A flagrant instance of this kind of cruelty" occurred, on the railway" lino between Waitati and Dunedin on JMonday evening. The through train from Christchurch was delayed and impeded on its journey because the weight of the trucks was .too great for the (ruction power of the engine. In the vernacular of the Associated Press correspondent who records the adventures of bullock-waggons in the North island, the train got firmly Only after a great deal of fibbing and rail-sanding and coax‘'i’rtg! -it staggered up some of the steep ihelines. Finally, after passing Waitati it refused to proceed any further, and the driver finding that ho must either give in, or burst the apparatus, preferred the former, and hacked down to Blneskin where lie disengaged two cattle trucks. Here we have a striking instance of cruelty to machinery. Fortunately it was unattended with the sensational illustrations which oppressed railway locomotives are in the habit occasionally of furnishing. The boiler did not burst, the driverdiduot perform the feat of Hying without the aid of a parachute, and the stoker was not swept into eternity with Ins shovel in his hand. But this overtaxing of railway engines is a dangerous game, ft can he played once too often. The safety of human life and public property demands that dangerous trials of strength between locomotives and heavy trains and steep inclines should be as rare as possible. We have witnessed the effects of these trials before now, and they are not very pleasant. We have seen a heavy luggage train so severely" tested that a plate has been severed from the boiler, the locomotive upset, and waggons and carriages, by the sudden stoppage and consequent concussion, have telescoped into each other. Such a catastrophe happening to 'a passenger train would simply reduce the passengers to the condition of canned meat. Wo presume that the overloaded train which had to part with some of its freight at Blueskiu had no passengers. Even then there were the lives of the railway officers to be looked to, not to speak of the property jeopardised. The railway" line in the vieinitv of Blueskiu is formidable enough, without having its dangers aggravated by the risks attendant on locomotives taxed to the bursting point. For the safety and security" of railway travellers it is desirable that the overworking of locomotives should he discontinued. If the engines available arc inadequate to the traffic, then some of the non-paying lines, such as the branch line at Lawrence, should be closed, in order that the main trunk may have the benefit of: the rolling stock. The spectacle of locomotives staggering up inclines aml getting stuck on the road is not very reassuring to railway’travellers, and the mere mention of such accidents is not likely to improve the passenger traffic.