The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1889. NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1837, 5 January 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1889. NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS.

Oir the 29th December, 1881 —that is oyer seven years ago—we published an article in the Temtjka. Leader dealing with the railway management, which Q wound up as follows:—“ Mr Turnbull at the hustings in Timaru advocated the appointment of a Minister of 3 Railways, who would be responsible t to the House and to his constituents. We think the suggestion a good one, t but for our own part we would rather see the railways placed under the direct control of non-polidcal boards.” The article goes on to give reasons for coming to this conclusion, but it is not , necessary to reproduce them now. Our idea then was that the railways ought to be divided into sections, and that each section ought to be managed by a locally-elected board. 8 For instance, we should make from . the Rangitata to the Waitaki one seci tion, because the local traffic converges to the Port of Timaru. In the same way that portion of the lines the 5 traffic of which belongs to the Oamaru - Harbor should be made another sece tion, and so on throughout the colony > The object we had in view in making * this suggestion was to make political railways pay for themselves. Throught out the colony there were then, and 8 there are still, railways which were built for the benefit of a few large landowners, and which do not, and will not for years to come, pay anything like working expenses. In order to maintain these railways peopie living in settled districts like South Canterbury have to pay a tax 8 in the shape of high railway freights, 0 and we hold that that is not right. E It is bad enough for us to pay interest 1 on the cost of their construction ST without having to pay a tax for keopt ing them running, so that large landowners may be able to get their goods more cheaply to market. If, as we e suggested in 1881, the Hew Zealand t railways were divided into sections, and each section made to pay working expenses and interest on the cost of construction, the result would be that the South Canterbury section would be able to carry ds much cheaper - than, it does at present, while the political railways would have to double their present rates, and thus the * rascals who robbed the colony of the 8 money which constructed them would e not be allowed to continue to bleed ; the people out of the cost of maintaiu- ; ing them. This was the scheme which we promulgated in 1881, but we are not ready to endorse it now. We have U still faith in the principle ’ of it, but we do not think it would be possible to get locally-elected hoards capable of managing a L railway. Our local elections, and - indeed all our elections, turn out very farcically frequently, and without 1 doubt the wrong men would often be elected to the Railway Boards, as they i are often elected on other local bodies. There is certainly another way of - carrying out this scheme, but it would 7 be useless to discuss it. Nothing j which would in any way trench upon the interests of the money-rings can be carried out until the people change their habits of thought, and realise that it is not right that all laws should be made to suit the large capitalists- | and landowners. However, this, so , far as we know, was the first occasion , on which the ! suggestion to place the > railways under a non-political management appeared in print. In a couple of years afterwards it was very generally taken up, and when the Stout-Vogel Government took office , in 1884 it became one of their articles , of faith. If we remember rightly they drafted and introduced a hill to place the whole of the railways under the management of. a Board of Commissioners composed of experts in railway management, but after due consideration they allowed the matter to lapse. They changed their minds on the subject, and eventually decided 1 that to remove the railways from the j control of Parliament amounted to ( removing them from the control of the - people, to whom they really belonged. 1 The cry for non-political management { became louder and louder throughout ] the colony, and when the present Government took office they yielded to the * popular clamor, and passed a measure s giving the Governor power to appoint r three commissioners to manage the e ' -’o.vg, The present Government a raiivv^

passed this Act in a great hurry during the first few weeks of their existence, but to the present time the commissioners hare not been appointed, and the railways still continue to be managed in the oldfashioned way. Eor our own part we cannot see what is to be gained by the new arrangement. In 1884 the Atkinson Government increased the cost of carrying grain on the railways, and they were turned out.of office for it. Three months ago the present Government, in conformity with their party’s traditions, attempted to do something of the same kind again, but in obedience to the protests of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce and other bodies let the matter drop. Thus the railways are now under the control of the people, but if placed in the hands of Commissioners the public will henceforth have not the slightest power to interfere in any way with whatever arrangement that is arrived at. What is wrong with the railways is that they are too extensive for the population, and that many of them are political lines which do not pay anything like working expenses. The cure for this is to make the political lines pay, and no change that ignores that will do much good. However, the people want the change, and it is only right that they should have it, and it betrays extraordinary administrative weakness on the part of the Government to'say that no appointment has yet been made. It would appear that this Government cannot make up their minds to do anything. They cannot make their minds up to fill the vacant judgeship nor appoint railway commissioners. They appear to be as feeble where the public wants them to act, as they are mischievous when they act. They are the worst Ministry we have ever had, and we ought all unite in prayer to be rid of them as soon as possible.