MR VAILE AND RAILWAY REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2289, 12 March 1887, Page 3

MR VAILE AND RAILWAY REFORM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l have sent the enclosed letter to the. Herald, but I venture to trespass on your good nature so far as to ask you to give it space in your columns also. As the subject just now is attracting a great deal of public attention I do not doubt that you will see your way to comply with my somewhat unusual request.--I am, Sir, faithfully yours, An Old Waikato Settler. Auckland, March 7th. MR VAILE AND RAILWAY REFORM. TO THE EDITOR. Sik,—Really much as I admire Mr Vaile in many respects, he does amuse me. His confidence in his own infallibility is simply sublime. He has lately written two letters to you referring to Mr Price-Williams' views upon the above important question. The first was written under the impression that Mr Williams endorsed his views, and the second after Mr Williams had been compelled to state with great clearness that he did not. Now mark the difference between these two letters. In the first Mr Vaile says "that what Mr Williams had said must be eminently satisfactory to the friends of railway reform." It was then "curious and interesting to us both to note how both in some instances, working at opposite ends of the world, had arrived at the same methods of working, the same figures, and the same conclusions." _ Mr. Vaile " never saw anything in statistics more beautifully and artistically got up." "They were perfect in detail, and carried proof to my mind that my calculations," &c, &c. Now, alas! Mr Vaile "is astounded." Now he says that " Notwithstanding Mr Williams' known position as a civil engineer and statician, it i 3 very evident that he has not studied the railway problem." Then finally referring to his (Mr Vaile's) scheme, that Mr Williams " does not really understand it," and in the same line almost goes on to say that " a ten-year-old boy could read and understand it." Alas ! Mr Vaile, where is that courtesy which is so prominent a characteristic of everything Mr Williams says and writes ? The fact is simply this: P»lr Williams is a very able man, but he is also a courteous gentleman. He had met Mr Vaile, and expressed himself as much struck with the enthusiasm shown by biin on this subject, and the great amount of thought which he had devoted to it, from an original point of view. His feelings towards Mr Vaile were entirely friendly. He therefore contented himself with stating only those points upon which he agreed with him, and in general terms limiting the extent to which he could go with him. He very sensibly did not see the utility of, nor did he think it either the time or place for entering into a fruitless, endless, and probably acrimonious discussion upon the question of whether it was fair, or likely to be profitable, to carry passengers, say from Pukekohe to Rotorua, about 130 miles, for one shilling, or to carry people any distance under 50 miles south of the same place for 4d, while you charged them six or seven times as much to carry them the same distance north, and so on ad infinitum. As for averages, he of course knew that was a subject which Mr Vaile " did not understand." Hence his treatment of the subject at the Chamber of Commerce.. Unfortunately, however, this was misreported by the omission of the word " not," and Mr Williams, as soon as he saw it, wrote to the Herald correcting it and giving his real sentiments very distinctively. These were unfavourable; therefore Mr Vaile at once changes his opinion of his intelligence. No ;so long as one entirely agrees with him, Mr Vaile accepts him gladly as an authority. Let anyone, however, differ from him ever so slightly, he at once becomes, notwithstanding any puch fact that he has been accepted in Europe as an authority entirely outside of railway officialdom, a person " who has not studied the problem of railway reform." This is most unfortunate for the cause we all have at heart.—l am, etc., An old Waikato Settler. Auckland, March 7, 1887.