Wairarapa Daily Times, [ESTABLISHED 1878.] FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1894. THE RAILWAY RETURNS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4710, 4 May 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times, [ESTABLISHED 1878.] FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1894. THE RAILWAY RETURNS.

The railway returns show a falling off for the past year as compared Villi the previous one, and this is not to be wondered at, Of course Ministerial Lave no difficulty in explainiug the disaster, but none the less they must feel that it is a blow to ibe present administration, It is plain as a pikestaff that the " Commissioners three," working" under threats of dismissal Iwboured at a 'disadvantage, That they did their duty up to the time that two of them were summarily dismissed is well known, but it impossible to get the best there is in a man out of him while a drawn sword, suspended by a thread, hangs over him, or a loaded pistol is presented ut him. Of the failure iu the railway returns nothing more need be said than this, the Commissioners have not had fair play and the public have to suffer. As far as our own line is concerned it has done well in one respect and badly in another, Mr Dawson, the able traffic agent, works it economically, but in order to do this'he gives his customers somewhat rough passages. Battered and shaky old carriages, which on many lines would be ignominiously rejected, still do duty between Wellington and Eketahuna. Mr Dawson finds that the travelling publio will nut up with a good deal in this district, and as long as they will do this he lets them. By so doing ho can make a good annual return for his line, If he were not successful from this point of' view we shoald bo disposed to question his administrative capacity. The cheap and nasty ean, however, sometimes be made remunerative, and this evidently is the secret of his success in working our local line, It is the business of a traffio manager to make his line profitable, otherwise a burdea falls on the taxpayer, Prom a colonial standpoint, we cannot disparage Mr Dawson's management, although we should be prouder of our local railway if it were as well appointtd as are nmnyoihers throughout the colony; With the completion of the Eketahuna-Woodville gap we may hope for better things ( because till then tlio line is robbed of the through traffic which naturally belongs to it. Had any other Ministry been in power, this urgent link would have been fitted in before now, As it is, we do not expeot to see it finished till another Ministry aomes in, Should Sir Robert Stout succeed Mr Seddon it will be soon made, (or the latter has always recognised that the best interests of the colony would be Berved by its prompt completion.