NEW RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 211, 18 November 1897, Page 2

NEW RAILWAY REGULATIONS.

Oi'K Cambridge correspondent writes : I have just had my attention drawn to a fresh regulation that has been issued by the Railway Department, whereby those who pay freight on articles they may receive by rail do not receive any acknowledgement at all for the money. Everyone ia aware that the railway regulations are " fearfully and wonderfully made," but the latest addition to them is the moAt absurd of the whole lot. If you have goods consigned to you by rail the modm operandi of obtaining them is as follows: —You go, or send your deputy, to the station, and ask if your goods have anivei. If they have, you are told that there is so much freight to pay, and when you have delivered up the sum demanded you receive what is designated a "goods delivery note," upon which is:—" To Storeman, —Deliver to bearer, on account of Sir Blank, the undermentioned goods." This is signed by the stationmaster or clerk in charge, and then follows the description of goods, marks, number and weight. At the bottom of the note appears the old legend : "Received the goods described in good order and condition." You are then at liberty to go to the goods shed and get your goods ; after which you sign the note, which the storeman initials, and the transaction is completed to the satisfaction of the railway authorities, but much to your disgust, for you have not only no receipt for your money, but you do cot know at what rate you have been charged. The precious " goods delivery note " is afterwards gummed back into the book from which it was originally taken, and in which the butt is hardly large enough to receive it. 4 more unsatisfactory arrangement could hardly be conceived, and surely the railway authorities must be aware that they are opening the door to fraud. What is there to prevent the stationmaster or 1113 deputy—for he cannot always be at his post —charging say double the proper amount, and only entering the half of what he received in the books ? Nothing whatever. You have not any receipt and he has nothing but the books to produce, and they, of course, support his statement. This is only one phass of the question, but it alone should be sufficient to cause an alteration to be made. There arc many others that are nearly as bad, and if this method is to be continued there will be continual friction between the railway authorities and their customers, and numerous petitions to the Minister for Railways.