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Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2580, 24 January 1889, Page 2

Tjie New Zealand Times in a leader on the appointments to the Railway Board says : —Mr McKerrow will not be called upon to exercise expert knowledge. He is provided with two very able experts as colleagues. They are fully competent to deal with all questions that demand experts' knowledge or experience. But it seems to be overlooked that the functions which Mr McKerrow will have to exercise are rather those of Director, or Chairman of Directors, than of manager in the ordinary sense of the term. It is by no means the invariable rule that only experts are chosen as Directors, or Managing Directors. The case of Sir Daniel Gooch, Chairman of the Great Western—formerly locomotive engineer of that line—is indeed a somewhat exceptional one. Generally, the directors and chairman are simply men of recognised capacity, no matter what may be their private profession or trade. An eminent merchant, or engineer, or lawyer, or doctor may become a railway director or chairman if he have the rig-lit stuff in liini and can convince the shareholders of the fact. Mr McKerrow might easily be a shareholder in the Mauawatu line, and as a shareholder might be a director, and as a director might be chosen chairman, and in such a position he would, as a matter of course, dominate the general manager and the engineer on questions of general poliey, although common sense would lead him to accept their advice on matters of technical detail effecting the working of the line. We therefore see no necessary incongruity in Mr McKerrow's appointment, or any reason to doubt that his administration of the Railway Department will be as efficient and successful as his administration of the Survey Department admittedly has been.