He had a long journey by rail that day, and it was a Very slow one, too. lie did not wish to disparage the Minister of Railways when he imen tioned that matter. That gentleman ho doubt did his best -^-(applause) — but the system was bad. He asked them whether it would be right to put a main in charge of a mine who knew nothing about tmining? Certainly not; and the same remark applied tc railways. They had nearly £16,000, ---000 invested in- railways, and yet the general manager of railways knew lit tle or nothing of railway manage ment. The average political life of a Minister of Railways was three years. During that time he studied the business, and at the end of the term he knew as much about it as one of the underclerks in the Depart ment. The political control of the rail ways was a bad feature. He contend ed that the railway employees and all civil servants should be able to vote for whom they chose. They should not be compelled to vote for a man if they thought he was a bad one. (Ap plause.) But the Government had es tablished a system of terrorism under which the employees dared not exer cise their freedom. He had met civil servants in the Btreets of Wellington, who, after stopping to talk to him for a little while had said, "I had better not be seen talking to, you, Captain Russell, or perhaps it may go badly with ime in my office." That sort of thing should not be possible in an enlightened country. He had known places where the settlers had not rail way concessions granted to them, an consequently suffered. The railway? should be managed on! commercial principles, and there should be a greater concession made on goods car ried for long distances. At the pres ent, time they were managed accord ing to political exigencies. For many years prior to the present administra tion taking office the improvements effected to the railways had been paid out of working expenses, but that was not the case now. In one year the Government had borrowed £100,000 for this very purpose, and in the fol lowing year a similar ajmount had been borrowed, and this was one of the details of how the bogus surpluses were created. 