244 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



bination with merit as required by the Act was only a figure of 

 speech. 



The reforms aimed at in the Railway Management Act were 

 of the first importance. That they came short of accomplishment 

 was not due to defects in the measure, but to the impossibility of 

 finding the man possessing the unique qualifications demanded for 

 its administration. Mr. J. B. Patterson, who had been Minister of 

 Railways in Berry's Cabinet, had been so hunted by his fellow- 

 members of Parliament to find places for their friends and supporters 

 that he formally handed over all appointments and promotions to 

 the Engineer-in-Chief and the Departmental Secretary, and firmly 

 declined to have any voice in the matter. But such a Ministerial 

 arrangement was of course not binding, and when the O'Loghlen 

 Government came, Mr. Bent, the new Minister of Railways, speedily 

 took the whole department back into his own hands. Therefore Mr. 

 Service argued that the only certainty lay in an Act of Parliament 

 which should take the control of the service, the expenditure on 

 construction and maintenance, and all the details of working out of 

 the hands of the Minister and vest it in a Board of three capable 

 experts. To ensure some feeling of independence they were to be 

 appointed for seven years, and would thus have a chance of showing 

 the benefits of continuity in policy, instead of the vagaries which 

 had latterly been the result of every change of Ministry. The man 

 who could be relied upon for firm and independent control, whose 

 advice would have impressive weight with Parliament, was worth 

 any salary, and it was decided to pay the Chairman of the Board 

 3,000 a year and his two colleagues 1,500 each. The radical 

 party made a great outcry against extravagance when these figures 

 were scheduled in the Bill, but it is beyond all question that if the 

 chairman could have worked the Act in its integrity, and have been 

 a real check on Parliamentary log-rolling and recklessness, he would 

 have been cheap at 10,000 a year. 



Mr. Richard Speight, who was eventually appointed to the 

 position, came from England with the highest credentials, and the 

 manner in which he grappled with the position in the early days of 

 his charge justified Mr. Service in the optimistic views about the 

 future of the railways which he expressed in 1886. On about 1,500 



