RAILWAY REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1946, 25 December 1884, Page 2

RAILWAY REFORM.

TO THE EDITOR I Sib.— ln answer to Mr Vaile, permit mo first to point out that I do not in any way build on my "opinion"or"e\perience"a : !that gentleman suggests. To refute his scheme we require only common sense and a knowledge of the facts. In a paper dated November 12th, 1883, Mr Vaile says "In devising a new scheme of railway management, I have, &c." Then be goes on to stote what should be the exact passenger fare from and to each station. What should be the rates for each class of goods to and from each station. The same for paicels, horses, and cattle. The special ways of treating tjinall consignments. The way that tickets should be printed and issued. The plan of insurance. The way advertisements should be put up at the stations, and how the charge for same should be made. Then he tells us what would be the total results of these charges in detail. Next the causes that make traffic on railways. Next he tells us i what would be the extra working expensos caused by these changes in detail. In the face of all this he now says "I have never attempted to deal with ttie details of railway management." Your readers will judge of the value of that statement. They will also judge whether a gentleman who has devoted his " leisure hours" to this question is competent to pass judgment not only on matters of the most u.inute detail, but also aa to the effect of certain alterations of charges on the traffic and expenses. Men who have spent their lives in the study of these questions — men who have had every opportunity to study them in all their bearings, with the aid of statistics that cost hundreds of pounds to prepare — hesitate to give their opinions, and yet this gentleman, with practically not an atom of information to guide him, is prepared to dogmatise on every point. Mr Vaile asks me to come to Auckland. Does he want to repeat his Theatre Royal experiment ? At a proper time and place I shall be prepared to prove all I xtate. Ha ateo asks why I did not answer him in Hamilton. To speak can. didly, up to that evening I had not thought his crude scheme worthy of serious examination. But, when he came here, Messrs Graham, Whyte, Steele, and others took up the matter of railway reform, and it then became a practical question. For the fii>t time I heard Mr Vaile'a ideas, studied hU plans, and saw clearly they would not *' hold water." Mr Vaile'a notion of how a railway should be managed does not interest me in the slightest, except when it endangers practical measures. Then it is time to " prick the bubble." The Railway Reform Committee, even our energetic mayor himself, appear to have quietly resumed their slumbers, Until thoy take it up in a practlqal manner, Mr Vaile's letters serve very well to keep the matter adver» Used. When the time for action arrives, Mr Vaile's scheme will have to give place to a practical measure. — I am, &c, A. Swarbrick.

A worthy old lady offers the following advice $o girls :—: — " Whenever a fellow popi the question don't bluph and stare at your foot. Just throw your arip roqnd hia neck, look him fall in, the faced and commence talking *bout the