THE VICTORIAN RAILWAY SERVICE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3075, 31 March 1892, Page 3

THE VICTORIAN RAILWAY SERVICE.

At last, says a writer in Melbourne, it has come to a veritable tug-of-war be- , tween the Commissioner of Railways and the Government, and it is not in the least doubtful as to which side must win in the end. The Argus and its friends are likely to try and use the quarrel between the Government and the Commissioners as a means of ousting the Ministry, but they themselves, were they iu power, would have to take similar steps. The truth is that Mr Speight cannot be made to believe thatthe countrydesiresthe railways to pay, and he practically refuses to decrease the constantly growing expenditure. The most damming fact against him is that he has regularly tried to set the higher branches of the service against the Government of the day by his coustant augmentations of salaries. When he took office the average salaries amounted to £100 per man. Now they amount to £139 per man. This is exclusive of the working guards porters and so on. He has overdone his resistance now since the Government are afraid to trust him to carry out the reforms he opposes and his suspension which involves that of his two colleagues is only a matter of time. It is far from likely that the alterations in the train service will be popular. We have hitherto proceeded on a very foolish theory, which is that under any circumstances a passenger should be able to go to Melbourne from the most distant parts of the colony and come back the same day. This is, of course, simple nonsense, but it has landed us iu immense expense. It has been the means of immensely increasing the number of men and the hours worked, since to accomplish the feat trains have been started from far distant places at unconscionable hours in the morning, and have returned at equally intolerable times at night. The new service will be based upon the requirements of the district rather than on those of individuals. Districts which have hitherto furnished two or three passengers per train on the average will simply have to submit to such a reduction in numbers of trains as will bring the receipts something near the expenses. The suburban traffic, although it pays on the whole, is capable of considerable reduction in this way. Excepting on the St. Kilda line where numerous people go home to luncheon the traffic between eleven o'clock in the morning and four in the afternoon could be worked with onethird of the number of trains employed.