THE COMMONWEALTH 349 



brief notice. The building of the main lines by the State was 

 deliberately approved by the first Parliament on the ground that 

 the Government was best qualified to decide in what direction such 

 facilities should be given to promote settlement. Further, it was 

 believed that the whole system being worked in one interest would 

 obviate the reckless waste and financial disasters which had re- 

 sulted from the construction of competing lines in England and 

 America. The pioneer legislators, however, while desirous of con- 

 trolling construction, looked unfavourably upon the Government 

 assuming the business of public carriers. It was recommended that 

 when completed the lines should be leased for a term, on such 

 conditions as would amply protect the public using them from 

 monopolistic rates, and yet ensure a fair rate of interest to Gov- 

 ernment on their cost. It is worth noting too that the sanction of 

 Parliament for the earlier railway loans was hedged round with 

 conditions for their redemption by the sale of lands benefited by 

 the proposed lines. Later again specific directions required sink- 

 ing funds to be provided annually for such redemption. All these 

 proposed conditions and safeguards have been defiantly ignored ; 

 competing lines run parallel over hundreds of miles, some of them 

 rusting in disuse. All the land benefited by railway proximity 

 has long since been sold and the money spent, but not in redeeming 

 bonds. The tentative efforts which some conscientious Treasurers 

 have made to comply with the mandate for a sinking fund have too 

 often been promptly reversed by their successors in office, when 

 threatened with a deficit. Notwithstanding the vigorous efforts 

 initiated by Mr. Service to remove the railway management from 

 the grip of the politician, the position of affairs in the last decade 

 of the century was deplorable in the extreme. Not one of the 

 many Ministries in power during that period had the courage to 

 grasp the nettle. The experienced professional manager brought 

 in to succeed Mr. Speight soon realised how impossible it was to 

 control even the workmen in his employ. Half a dozen obsequious 

 Members of Parliament, nervously mindful of the railway vote, 

 were ever ready to champion in the House the cause of any dis- 

 satisfied servant. The Commissioner did some good work in trying 

 to bring an over-capitalised investment of 40,000,000 under intel- 



