The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1912. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 139, 30 October 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1912. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

The decision of the Government to advertise for a manager of the railways of New Zealand at a salary, we understand, of £3OOO, is a wise one; nor do we think that the restriction of applications to the United Kingdom is deserving of any condemnation. It might, perhaps, have heen extended as far as the United States of America, although It is hardly likely that the salary offered would tempt any of the top-notchers of the giant continent to abandon their systems for the purpose of taking charge of our few tiny miles of standard gauge lines. A whole lot of nonsense has been talked about the wickedness of importing a manager from abroad, but it must be obvious to the meanest intelligence that the Dominion has a much greater chance of securing the proper' man to control and reorganise our railways from abroad than it has of finding him in the ranks* of the service in New Zealand. The proof of this lies in the fact that for the forty years of their existence our railways have been a standing disgrace, so far as their administration is concerned, to a country which prides itself on being thoroughly progressive and up-to-date. Our trains loaf through the country with an easy indolence which is the despair of visitors, and would be our own despair, too, if we were not so used to accepting just what the Government chooses to give us. It is rumored that the trains have been known, on occasion, to run to time, but the report sadly lacks corroboration, whilst the speed at which they travel forms an admirable peg upon which the flagrant humorist loves to hang a gentle railway ribaldry. In a new country like this we do not, of course, expect to find perfection in the railway system, but we do expect to find something better than studied inconvenience and indolent laxity. We have, naturally, no objection to the appointment of a New Zealander as general manager if the right man can be found, but experience in the past suggests that the right man is not to be found in our local service. There is no occasion for wonder at this because the comparative smallness of the system hai not given opportunities for the cultivation of administrative ability or the gaining of the necessary experience to reorganise the whole system. If we turn to the wider systems of the Old World, where every last thing is done for the comfort and convenience of the public on rival lines which dare not let their standard of excellence down by the variest fraction, we have a very much better opportunity of securing the right man for the position. Indeed, we think the Government would have been very much wiser had it materially increased the salary offered, even to making it £6OOO or £BOOO if the absolutely right man can be secured. With a vigorous, close, practical administration by a recognised authority on railway matters, the money would be saved twice over in a year. We have had to import our experts in various other branches of industry and

science, and only naturally so, and if the

Government is determined on its present experiment, as we sincerely hope it is, a question of money ought not to be allowed to stand in the way of securing the very best talent available. We doubt if that talent is in New Zealand. If it can be shown that it is, there is nothing more to be said, but in the meantime the Cabinet is showing undoubted wisdom in turning its attention further afield. It is not easy to gather grapes from thorns, and it is far wiser to seek them in the vineyards. In any event, we want no half measures, and if we are to have the best it must be the unqualified best, whatever the price. There must be no penny-wise and pound-foolish policy about this experiment, and it is comparatively certain fliat the pound wisdom will be best secured by searching for an expert in the field where the exports grow.