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THE RAXL 1 KA I'S A.\'D THE STA TE. 361
safety and eaciency every department and every man must
work harmoniously wit.h every other.
Now, if we want to know how Governrnont omcers would
manage such a property, we should look, not to the Post
Office, which owns no property of any consoqaence, but to the
Admimlty, which holds tho dockyards nnd maintains a large
ffeet, or to the department of Public Works. Unless theso
departments are foully slandered, they nro not mmnrknbla
for economical managcment. '1'1~ masto and jobbery which
goes on in them is one of thc stock subjcct9 of indignant
oratory when Members of Parlirtment meet their constituents.
Mr. Mellor, M.P., a member of the cornmitteo which was lately
inquiring into the mode in which Government stores mer0
pnrchesed and sold, cieclinetl t.o disclose any fncts known to
him in that capacity, but cited some CRSCY prcviuusly mad0
public. Not long ago, for instance, ten or twclvo tons of
soldiers' buttons, which h:rd llever becn take11 from their
wrappers, vcre sold as old metal. In the sale of old ships tho
purchaser has in numerous cases received considerably mom
for stores on board of tho vcssol roturmd than the amount of
his purchase-money. Thus The AUetlzcny of 1,768 t,ons was
sold at Bermuda for $2,180, but tho Government repaid tho
lucky purchaser g.4211 for spare stores ; in short>, they gavo
away the rcmaindcr of the ship, with f2,041 in addition.
Many similar stories, showing tho utter want of economy in
so~ne Govcrnmcnt depnrtmcnts, hrc, from time lo titnc, I)een
current, and they probably represent a very small fraction of
what thoro might be to tell.
Let us nom t u n to consider the actual proposals made
concerning a reorganisat.ion of the railway system. There aro
two principal schemes put forward, as follows :
1. The State shall purchase the whola of tho railways, and
shd undertake all new works and extensions, hut shall commit
the working of the traffic to contracting companies, who
shall lease the lines in large blocks, and manago the traffic
under the superintendence of the Railway Minister.
2. The State shall not only purchase tho entire aggregate